Henry I (876-936), or Henry the Fowler, was king of Germany from 919 to 936. The first monarch of the Saxon dynasty, he allowed autonomy to the various German duchies and concentrated his resources on defense against the Danes and the Magyars.

The son of Otto of Erlauchten, Duke of Saxony, Henry I was a great grandson of Louis the Pious. What education he had was from tutors, and he was trained to succeed his father as Duke of Saxony. In 909 Henry married Mathilda, daughter of Count Dietrich, whose possessions in Westphalia helped to increase the power of the Saxon duke in that area.

In 912, upon the death of his father, Henry became Duke of Saxony. His relations with King Conrad I were not always peaceful, but the struggle for control of Thuringia, a territory that lay adjacent to Saxony and Franconia (Conrad's duchy), was settled by the Treaty of...