Under Custody
Henry was the only son of Frederick II and his first wife, Constance of Aragon. His maternal grandparents were Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile.
He was born in 1211 in Sicily. When Frederick sought the crown of Germany, he had his son crowned King of Sicily in February 1212 by Pope Innocent III, 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 Kingdom went to his mother and not to his father.
However, after the death of the Pope in 1216, Frederick called his son to Germany 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.
In Germany, Frederick II entrusted him with the Duchy of Swabia. After the end of the Zähringen line in 1219 Henry also received the title of Rector of Burgundy, though that title disappeared again when Henry was elected king.
On 20/26 April 1220, the German princes assembled at Frankfurt-am-Main elected him King, for which the Emperor issued Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis, favoring the lords spiritual. 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 him 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 as German King on May 8, 1222, in Aachen. Despite the fact that Henry was formally betrothed to Agnes of Bohemia, Engelbert planned his marriage with one of the daughters of the King John of England; however, this union never took place. After Engelbert's death in 1225, Louis I, Duke of Bavaria, took over the guardianship. The young King was mostly in the care of imperial Ministerialis. They also acted as administrators over his Duchy of Swabia. 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 a woman seven years older than he was, Margaret, the daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria. Sixteen months later, on 23 March 1227, she was crowned German Queen in Aachen. This union produced two sons: Henry (who died young ca. 1242/1245) and Frederick.
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.
Read more about this topic: Henry (VII) Of Germany