Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia

Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia
Picture of Herman I in the Elisabethpsalter
Spouse(s)	Sophia of Sommerschenburg Sophia of Wittelsbach
Noble family	Ludowingians
Father	Louis II, Landgrave of Thuringia
Mother	Judith of Hohenstaufen
Born	c. 1155
Died	25 April 1217(1217-04-25) Gotha
Buried	Reinhardsbrunn

Hermann I (died 25 April 1217), Landgrave of Thuringia and (as Hermann III) Count Palatine of Saxony, was the second son of Louis II, Landgrave of Thuringia (the Iron), and Judith of Hohenstaufen, the sister of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa..

Little is known of his early years, but in 1180 Hermann joined a coalition against Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, and with his brother, Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia, suffered a short imprisonment after his defeat by Henry at Weissensee. The brothers were released the following year. Louis had been made Count Palatine of Saxony as a reward for his services to the emperor, but transferred the dignity to Hermann. He strengthened his authority over the County Palatine by marrying Sophia, daughter of Lutgard of Stade and Frederick II of Sommerschenburg, a former Count Palatine.

Louis III died in 1190. Emperor Henry VI attempted to seize Thuringia as a vacant fief of the Holy Roman Empire, but Hermann frustrated the plan and established himself as the landgrave. Having joined a league against the emperor, he was accused, probably wrongly, of an attempt to murder him. Henry VI was not only successful in detaching Hermann from the hostile combination, but gained his support for the scheme to unite Sicily with the Empire.

Hermann joined the German Crusade of 1197 but returned on news of Henry VI's death. In the wars between the rival kings, Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick (1198-1208), Hermann's support was purchased by the late emperor's brother, Duke Philip of Swabia, but as soon as Philip's cause appeared to be weakening he transferred his allegiance to Otto of Brunswick, the later Emperor Otto IV. Philip accordingly invaded Thuringia in 1204 and compelled Hermann to come to terms by which he surrendered the lands he had obtained in 1198. After the death of Philip and the recognition of Otto, Hermann was among the princes who assembled at Nuremberg in 1211 and invited Frederick of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily, (afterwards Emperor Frederick II), to come to Germany and assume the crown. In consequence of this step the Saxons attacked Thuringia, but the landgrave was saved by Frederick's arrival in Germany in 1212.