Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine

Henry the Elder (c. 1173–1227), eldest son of Henry the Lion and Matilda of England, was raised in English exile. Returning in 1189, he defended Brunswick against King Henry VI's forces, and in 1193 married Agnes of Hohenstaufen.

Enfeoffed with the Rhine Palatinate in 1195, he founded the Welf Palatine line. He served Emperor Henry VI in the Sicilian campaign and on Crusade, then backed his brother Otto IV, though he briefly joined Philip of Swabia before returning to Otto.

He ceded the Palatinate to his son Henry in 1213; after his son's early death, he left his Welf hereditary lands to his nephew Otto the Child. He died in April 1227.