Welf V.
(1073-1120)
Duke of Bavaria (as Welf II., 1101-1120)
Welf V. (later Welf II. of Bavaria) was the eldest son of Welf IV. (d. ca. 1101), who had become Welf I. of Bavaria in 1070. Welf IV. had orchestrated a planned politics of marriage. His first marriage was to Ethlinde of Nordheim, who was the daughter of duke Otto II. (d. 1083). After his father-in-law Otto of Bavaria was involved in an act of high treason, Welf IV. married Judith of Flanders. By doing so Welf IV. demonstrated his loyalty to the throne, which eventually brought him, as duke Welf I., the ducal dignity in Bavaria in 1070. He abandoned his alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV. (1050-1106) to become an important supporter of the papal party in Italy.
Welf IV. was born to Welf I. of Bavaria from his marriage to Judith of Flanders. In 1089, when he was scarcely 17 years old, Welf V. married the 43-year-old countess Matilda of Tuscany. The marriage ended in separation, and Welf I. of Bavaria appealed to Heinrich IV. for help against Matilda. Whereupon Heinrich attacked Matilda's castle in Nogara, south of Verona, but abandoned the siege when Matilda's army counterattacked. The Este family tried to claim, in the name of Welf V., Matilda's land after her death but were unsuccessful. When Duke Welf I. of Bavaria died in 1101, Welf V. inherited the duchy of Bavaria to become Welf II. of Bavaria.
--Adapted from the website, Die Welfen
Sources
- Schneidmüller, Bernd. In the catalog for the exhibition: "Heinrich der Löwe," Brunswick 1995.
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