Kaiserpfalz Kayna

In 1179, Emperor Barbarossa invited Kayna to a court day in the imperial palace. Only Heinrich the Lion (at that time the most powerful prince of the house of the Guelphs and greatest adversary), the Dukes of Saxony (Sachsen Lauenburg), Bavaria, Westphalia and Engern oppose the invitation. Barbarossa thereupon imposes the imperial ban on Henry the Lion and goes to war against the allies a year later. As a result, Heinrich lost a large part of his imperial fiefdom in 1181 and fled into exile in England. The landlords are redistributed. The Saxons must cede their share to the Ascanians (Saxony - Wittenberg). Due to the lack of male succession, they later fall to the Wettins, who will shape Saxony and Thuringia.