HENRY RASPE (1202 German king and landgrave of Thuringia, was the second surviving son of Hermann I., land grave of Thuringia, and Sophia, daughter of Otto I., duke of Bavaria. When his brother the landgrave Louis IV. died in Italy in 1227, Henry seized the government of Thuringia and expelled his brother's widow, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and her son Her mann. With some trouble Henry made good his position, although his nephew Hermann II. was nominally the landgrave until his death in 1242. In I236 Henry accompanied the emperor Frederick II. on a campaign against Frederick II., duke of Austria, and took part in the election of his son Conrad as German king at Vienna in 1237. But he did not appear at the diet of Verona in 1238; possibly he disliked the betrothal of his nephew Hermann to the emperor's daughter Margaret. At all events, when the projected marriage had been broken off the landgrave supported the em peror in 1239 in opposition to a plan formed by various princes to elect an anti-king. In 1241 Henry's loyalty again wavered, and he was himself mentioned as a possible anti-king. Frederick's visit to Germany in 1242 prevented this step for a time. In April 1246 Pope Innocent IV. wrote to the German princes advising them to choose Henry as their king in place of Frederick who had just been declared deposed. Henry was elected at Veitshochheim on May 22, 1246, and became known as the Pf a$enkonig, or parsons' king. Collecting an army, he defeated King Conrad near Frankfort on Aug. 5, z 246, and then, after holding a diet at Nuremberg, undertook the siege of Ulm. He died at the Wart burg on Feb. 17, 1247. Henry married Gertrude, sister of Fred erick II., duke of Austria, but left no children, and on his death the male line of his family became extinct.