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Henry II (German: Heinrich), called Jasomirgott, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1140 to 1141, Duke of Bavaria and Margrave of Austria from 1141 to 1156, and the first Duke of Austria from 1156 until his death.
Henry was the second son of Margrave Leopold III of Austria, the first from his second marriage with Agnes of Waiblingen, a sister of the last Salian emperor Henry V. Leopold himself was expected to stand as a candidate in the 1125 election as King of the Romans; nevertheless, he renounced in favour of the Hohenstaufen duke Frederick II of Swabia, his half-brother, who eventually lost against Lothair of Supplinburg. Among Henry's younger brother were Bishop Otto of Freising and Conrad II of Salzburg. His sister Judith became the wife of Marquess William V of Montferrat.
When Margrave Leopold III died in 1136, he was succeeded by his third-born son Leopold IV; probably because Henry already administrated the Rhenish possessions of the extinct Salian dynasty. In April 1140, the Hohenstaufen king Conrad III of Germany enfeoffed him with the County Palatine of the Rhine, which he ruled only for a short time until being appointed Bavarian duke and Margrave of Austria when his younger brother Leopold IV unexpectedly died in October 1141. Leopold had received the Duchy of Bavaria in 1139, after King Conrad had deposed Duke Henry the Proud in the course of the dispute between the Welf and Hohenstaufen dynasties.
Henry took his residence in the Bavarian capital Regensburg (Ratisbon). In May 1142 he married Gertrude of Supplinburg, the daughter of Emperor Lothair and widow of Henry the Proud. She died after less thanone year, giving birth to her first child with Henry.
Unlike his father, who resided in Klosterneuburg most of the time, Henry moved his residence to Vienna in 1145. Only by this act could the modern Austrian capital surpass cities such as Krems, Melk or Klosterneuburg. Since then, it has remained the capital of the country. |
