• BIOGRAPHY
  Heinrich, the eldest son of Poppo I, Graf im Saalgau, one of the first Babenbergs, was the most important East Frankish general during the reign of Emperor Charles III 'the Fat'. He was variously titled count or margrave of Saxony and duke of Franconia.
  
  Heinrich was the lord of the castle Babenberg on the River Main, around which the later city of Bamberg was built. He enjoyed the favour of Charles 'the Fat' and was his right-hand man in Germany during his reign. He led a surprise strike on a force of Vikings prior to the Siege of Asselt, but it was unsuccessful. When in 885 Charles summoned Hugues, duke of Alsace, the son of Lothar II, king of Lorraine, and his mistress Waldrada, and Hugues' brother-in-law Gottfried, count in Friesland, to a court at Lobith, it was Heinrich who arrested them and had Gottfried murdered and Hugues imprisoned on Charles' orders.
  
  In 884, when Charles succeeded to the throne of West Francia, he sent Heinrich there to hold the march of Neustria against the Vikings. In 886 he was sent to aid the besieged of Paris. He did not stay long but returned later that year with Charles. However he died in a skirmish with the Vikings on 28 August 886, while en route to Paris.
  
  The identity of Heinrich's wife is not known with certainty. Some sources identify her as Ingeltrud of Friaul, daughter of Eberhard I, margrave of Friaul and Gisla de France, daughter of Emperor Louis I 'the Pious'. A daughter of Berengar I of Neustria has been suggested as an alternative possible wife. Marriage with the latter would have been made possible and perhaps advisable by Heinrich's new position in Neustria and his dealings with the Vikings. Heinrich's one known daughter Haduwig or Hedwig would have progeny, marrying Otto 'der Erlauchte', Herzog von Sachsen.