Henry of Kalden

Henry of Kalden or Henry Testa of Bappenheim was a ministerialis in the service of the German kings Henry VI, Philip, Otto IV, and Frederick II.

He served Henry as marshal while the latter was yet just King of the Romans in his campaign of 1189–1190 to capture the Sicilian kingdom as his right by marriage to Constance. Henry of Kalden invaded the Abruzzi, sacking Amiterno and Chieti before joining up with Roger, Count of Andria, and Richard, Count of Carinola, and entered Apulia. After several plundering expeditions, they took Corneto, but their rival, Tancred of Lecce, holed up in fortified Ariano. Intense summer heat and supply shortages caused the Germans under Henry of Kalden to leave the siege early, returning to Germany.

As marshal of the empire, Henry of Kalden was one of the leaders of the Third Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa.

In 1194, when Henry VI finally subdued the peninsula and could invade Sicily, his marshal was with him. Henry of Kalden was sent to Catania, where he defeated a large resistance army, and sacked the city and took captive its bishop.

On 8 June 1208, Henry VI's brother and successor in Germany, Duke Philip of Swabia, was murdered out of rage by Otto, Count of Wittelsbach. Henry of Kalden received permission from Pope Innocent III to track down and kill Otto to avenge his master's death. Granted, Henry killed Otto at Oberndorf, on the Danube, near Regensburg, and cut off his head. He then joined the side of the newly crowned Emperor Otto IV, whose closest advisor he became, moulding an aggressive Sicilian policy. After the December 1212 coronation of Henry VI's son Frederick, however, the marshal returned to the Hohenstaufen fold.