Louis the Springer (German: Ludwig der Springer), sometimes called Louis the Jumper or Louis the Leaper, was a German nobleman and count in Thuringia from the death of his father until his own death on 8 May 1123. Little is known about him, although he is mentioned in many legends. He was a prominent opponent of the Salian emperors Henry IV and Henry V during the Investiture Controversy.
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Life
Louis was a son of Louis the Bearded and a member of the Franconian noble Ludowingians dynasty. He was baptized in the parish church in Altenbergen (today part of Leinatal). Around 1080, Louis and his brother Beringe founded the Schönrain Priory. In a document dated 1100, the two brothers are called "of Schauenburg", after a castle which their father had built near Friedrichroda.
Louis continued the policy of his father of expanding his influence into the Thuringian Basin by founding castles and monasteries. His marriage to Adelheid of Stade, widow of the Saxon count palatine Frederick III, brought him into the highest levels of the German aristocracy. Louis built the castles of Wartburg, which became the nucleus of the Landgraviate of Thuringia, around 1080 and Neuenburg around 1100. Louis himself did not use the title of landgrave; his son Louis I was the first member of the dynasty to use that title.
During the Great Saxon Revolt, Louis first sided with Emperor Henry IV, who probably made him a count in 1080. Later, he supported the future archbishop Ruthard of Mainz against the king. In 1085, he founded the monastery of Reinhardsbrunn with monks from Hirsau Abbey. In 1092, Pope Urban II confirmed him as advocatus of the monastery and exempted the monastery of episcopal jurisdiction, making it subject only to the Holy See. In 1094, Urban granted it the right to freely elect its abbot.