Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine

Who was Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine?

Henry was count palatine of the Rhine from 6 August 1195 to 1213.

Henry was the eldest son of Duke Henry the Lion, from his marriage to Matilda, eldest daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He grew up in England and became count palatine of the Rhine through his 1193 marriage to Agnes, heir to the Count of Staufen. When his younger brother Otto became one of two rival kings of the Holy Roman Empire in 1198, Henry at first supported him, but switched sides to Philip of Staufen in 1203. After the death of his cousin Arthur I, Duke of Brittany in April 1203, Henry effectively became the heir of his uncle John Lackland to the English throne, this ended though when John's son was born in October 1207. After he inherited significant properties in northern Germany from his brother William in 1213, he ceded the Palatinate to his son Henry, and moved north. He left his northern German properties to William's son, Otto. Henry died in 1227 and is entombed in Brunswick Cathedral.