Henry the Lion confirmed Duke of Saxony

1152

The young Welf prince, whose father had been stripped of Saxony by Conrad III, had his ducal title restored by his cousin Frederick Barbarossa. He would spend the next thirty years making himself almost a sovereign in northern Germany, founding cities and challenging imperial authority. His establishment of Lubeck, Munich, and Braunschweig as major urban centers reshaped the economic geography of northern Germany.