Welf VI, Margrave of Tuscany

Welf VI (111515 December 1191) was the margrave of Tuscany (1152–1162) and duke of Spoleto (1152–1162), the third son of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, and a member of the illustrious family of the Welf. Biography Welf inherited the familial possessions in Swabia, including the counties of Altdorf and Ravensburg, while his eldest brother Henry the Proud received the duchies of Bavaria and Saxony and his elder brother Conrad entered the church. Henry married Welf to Uta, the daughter of Godfrey of Calw, count palatine of the Rhine. On Godfrey's death in 1131, a dispute opened up between Godfrey's nephew Adalbert and Welf over the inheritance of Calw. Welf was an uncle to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (Barbarossa's mother, Judith, was Welf's sister). Welf himself was only a decade or less older than his nephew, during whose reign most of Welf's activity occurred. When Conrad III of Germany, Frederick's uncle, confiscated the duchy of Bavaria in 1142, Welf joined his brother in rebelling. Even though, Conrad III and Welf VI had gone on the Second Crusade together, Welf and his son, Welf VII, were defeated by Henry Berengar, son of Conrad III, at the Battle of Flochberg.