General Notes

Source: Frederick Lewis Weis & Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., Ancestral Rootsof certain American colonists..., (Edition 7, Genealogical PublishingCompany, Baltimore, 1992), 141-18.

Henry I (of Germany), called Henry The Fowler (876?-936), king of Germany(919-36), the first of the Saxon line of German kings.

In 912 Henry succeeded his father as duke of Saxony. Following the deathof Conrad I, king of Germany, in 918, Henry was chosen king by theFranconian and Saxon nobles. Bavaria, Swabia, and Lotharingia refused toacknowledge him at first, and it was not until 925 that he managed to winrecognition from all the German states. In 926 Henry secured a nine-yeartruce from warfare with the Magyars.

During that period he transformed many of the small towns of Germany intofortified cities with trained troops of mounted warriors. His militarypreparations were successfully tested in a war against the Wends in 929.When the Magyars invaded Thuringia in 933, Henry repulsed themdecisively.

He defeated the Danes in the following year and seized territory fromthem. Henry was the first to create a united Germany, and, although henever received the imperial crown, he is generally recognized as one ofthe Holy Roman emperors. He was succeeded by his son, Otto.

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Henry I, also called HENRY THE FOWLER, German HEINRICH DER VOGLER (b. c.876--d. July 2, 936, Memleben, Saxony [now in Germany]), German king andfounder of the Saxon dynasty (918-1024) who strengthened the EastFrankish, or German, army, encouraged the growth of towns, broughtLotharingia (Lorraine) back under German control (925), and securedGerman borders against pagan incursions. The son of Otto the Illustrious,the Liudolfing duke of Saxony, Henry became duke at his father's death(912). His first marriage, to Hatheburg, daughter of Erwin, count ofMerseburg, was declared invalid because she had become a nun after herfirst husband's death. He married Matilda, daughter of Dietrich, count ofWestphalia, in 909; their eldest son would rule as the Holy Roman emperorOtto I the Great (936-973). Although at war (912-915) with Conrad I ofFranconia (German king, 903-918) over title to lands in Thuringia, Henryreceived Conrad's deathbed designation as heir to the throne. He waselected king of Germany (May 919) by nobles of Saxony and Franconia, twoof the four most influential duchies; the other two important duchies,Swabia and Bavaria, did not recognize him as king. Henry consideredGermany a confederation of duchies rather than a nation. Having completeauthority in Saxony and nominal sovereignty in Franconia, he sought tobring the duchies of Swabia and Bavaria into the confederation. Afterforcing the submission of Burchard, duke of Swabia (919), he allowed theduke to retain control over the civil administration of the duchy. On thebasis of an electionby Bavarian and East Frankish nobles (919), Arnulf,duke of Bavaria, also claimed the German throne.  In 921, after twomilitary campaigns, the king forced Arnulf to submit and relinquish hisclaim to the throne, though the duke retained complete internal controlof Bavaria. Henry defeated Giselbert, king of Lotharingia, in 925, andthat region, which had become independent of Germany in 910, was broughtback under German control. Giselbert, who was recognized as duke ofLotharingia, married the king's daughter Gerberga in 928. When theMagyars, barbarian warriors from Hungary, invaded Germany in 924, Henryagreed to pay tribute to them and return a captured Magyar chief inexchange for a nine-year (924-933) cession of raids on German territory.During these years the king built fortified towns and trained the cavalryforce he used to defeat various Slavic tribes; he conquered the Havelliat Brandenburg and the Daleminzi at Meissen in 928 and suppressed arebellion in Bohemia in 929. The king refused to pay more tribute whenthe nine-year truce ended in 933. He used his seasoned cavalry to destroythe Magyars, who had resumed their raids, at Riade on March 15, 933, andended their threat to the German countryside. The king's last campaign,an invasion of Denmark (934), added the territory of Schleswig to theGerman state. The story that Henry received the surname Fowler because hewas laying bird snares when informed of his election as king is probablya myth. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1997, HENRY I]