Henry V, the Elder of Brunswick, a member of the House of Welf, was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1195 until 1213.
Background
Henry was the eldest son of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria and Matilda, the eldest daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. After his father"s deposition by the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa, he grew up in England.
Career
He had to join the German forces on the 1191 campaign to the Italian Kingdom of Sicily and participated in the siege of Naples. Henry finally deserted, fled to Marseille, and returned to Germany where he falsely proclaimed Henry VI"s death and tried to underline his own abilities as a possible successor. He and the emperor reconciled shortly afterwards, and upon Conrad"s death in 1195, Henry was enfeoffed with his County Palatine.
A close ally of the emperor, he accompanied him on the conquest of Sicily in 1194/95 and on the Crusade of 1197.
At first he supported him, but switched sides to Philip of Swabia in 1203. When the German throne quarrel ended with Philip"s assassination in 1208, Henry again sided with Otto IV. In Imperial service, he tried to ward off the territorial claims by the Rhenish Prince-archbishops of Cologne, Trier and Mainz, though to no avail.
Henry died in 1227 and is entombed in Brunswick Cathedral. In 1193, Henry married Agnes of Hohenstaufen (1177–1204), daughter of Count Palatine Conrad.
Views
When the family returned to Germany in 1189, young Henry distinguished himself by defending the Welf residence of Braunschweig against the forces of the emperor"s son King Henry VI.