His property included not only large parts of Thuringia, but also the Countship of Hesse had come into Ludowingian possession through the female line.
In 1122, before his acquisition of the title of Landgrave, Count Louis I of Thuringia had married Hedwig of Gudensberg, the female heir of the Hessian comital family of the Gisonen.
The Gisonen, whose lands were initially mainly in the upper Lahn area, had previously come into the significant inheritance of Count Werner in Lower Hesse.
Another competitor was the Archbishop of Mainz, who could claim Hesse was a fiefdom of the Archbishopric and now, after the extinction of the Ludowingians, demanded its return.
Sophie did not succeed in winning the overall Ludowinger inheritance for her son Henry, but the war secured his Hessian possessions.