Welf III.
(d. 1055)

Welf III. Was the son of Welf II. (d. 1030) and Imiza of Luxembourg. Imiza brought to her marriage with Welf II. not only great possessions from Lombardy, but also important kin connections.  She was the sister of dukes Heinrich of Bavaria and Friedrich of Lower Lorraine, as well as of the bishop Adalbero II. of Metz.  So it happened that in 1047 Welf III., as the first of the House of Welf, was promoted by emperor Heinrich III. (1017-1056) to the ducal dignity in Kärnten (Carinthia) in the new order of the south German duchies. In Kärnten Welf III. was not very well off and scarcely had the power to exercise control, but his ducal status strengthened the ambitious Welf family's consciousness of social and political position. Duke Welf III. died in November 1055 at Bodensee without male heirs.  With the death of Welf III. in 1055, the Welfs were left without a male line.  Consequently, according to tradition, Welf III. bequeathed his entire freehold to the Welf monastery of Altorf (Weingarten).  It was his mother Imiza, however, who did not accept the end of the Welf House.  After the death of Welf III., Imiza sought a further heir in Italy, and she found the heir in the son of her daughter Kunigunde (Cuniza) (d. ca. 1055) from her marriage with Azzo II of the House of Este.

--Adapted from the website, Die Welfen

Sources

• Schneidmüller, Bernd.  In the catalog for the exhibition: "Heinrich der Löwe," Brunswick 1995.