Henry (VII) (1211 – 12? February 1242), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Sicily from 1212 until 1217 and King of Germany (formally Rex Romanorum) from 1220 until 1235, as son and co-ruler of Emperor Frederick II. He was the seventh Henry to rule Germany, but in order to avoid confusion with the Luxembourg emperor Henry VII, he is usually numbered Henry (VII).
Under custody
Henry was born in Sicily, the only son of King Frederick II and his first wife, Constance of Aragon. He was the elder brother of Conrad IV, who eventually succeeded him as king.
While Frederick sought to be elected German king against his Welf rival Otto IV, he had his new-born son crowned King of Sicily (as Henry II) by Pope Innocent III in March 1212, since an agreement between Frederick and the Pope stated that the kingdoms of Germany and Sicily should not be united under one ruler. For this, the regency of the Sicilian kingdom went to his mother Constance and not to his father.
However, after the death of the Pope in 1216, Frederick called his son to Germany, entrusted him with the Duchy of Swabia, and again assumed the title of King of Sicily in 1217. Henry's mother remained as regent in Sicily, now on behalf of her husband, until 1220. After the extinction of the Swabian Zähringen line in 1219 Henry also received their title of a Rector of Burgundy, though that title disappeared when Henry was elected king.
On 20/26 April 1220, the German princes assembled at Frankfurt elected Henry King of the Romans, for which the Emperor issued Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis, favoring the prince-bishops. "The chief Princes present at Frankfort were the Archbishops of Mayence, Cologne, Treves, and Magdeburg, several Bishops, the Dukes of Bavaria and Brabant, the Landgrave of Thuringia, the Margraves of Namur and Baden, the Counts of Holland and Cleves, and the officials of Frederick's court." The election had been a condition to Frederick II redeeming his Crusade promises of 1215, because the succession question, in case of the emperor's death on the crusade, was clarified by them. However, Pope Honorius III did not recognize the election and also deprived Henry of his rights over the Sicilian kingdom, because he (just as his predecessor) wanted to prevent the union of both countries. Also, numerous German princes had rejected the election in the first moment.
After Frederick II returned to Italy in 1220, Henry was placed under the tutelage of Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne, who crowned him German king on 8 May 1222, in Aachen. Despite the fact that Henry was formally betrothed to the Přemyslid princess Agnes of Bohemia, daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia, Engelbert planned his marriage with Isabella of England, one of the daughters of King John Lackland; however, this union never took place. After Engelbert's death in 1225, Duke Louis I of Bavaria took over the guardianship. The young King was mostly in the care of imperial ministeriales, like Conrad of Winterstetten. They also acted as administrators over his Swabian duchy. In the meanwhile, the betrothal between Henry and the Bohemian princess was cancelled.
In Nürnberg on 29 November 1225, by order of his father, Henry married Margaret of Babenberg, daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria, a woman seven years older than he was. Sixteen months later, on 23 March 1227, she was crowned German queen in Aachen. The marriage produced two sons, Henry and Frederick, who both died at a young age.
Henry seems to have been a lively, cultured ruler and kept many Minnesänger at his court. It is possible he wrote some Minnelieder (courtly love poetry) himself. He was physically robust, although lame, and about 1.66 m (5' 4½") tall.