Henry IV (born November 11, 1050, Goslar?, Saxony—died August 7, 1106,Liège, Lorraine) was the duke ofBavaria (as Henry VIII; 1055–61), Germanking (from 1054), andHoly Roman emperor (1084–1105/06), who engaged in a long struggle withHildebrand (Pope Gregory VII) on the question of lay investiture (seeInvestiture Controversy), eventually drawingexcommunication on himself and doing penance at Canossa (1077). His last years were spent countering the rebellion of his sons Conrad and Henry (the future Henry V).

Early years

Henry’s father,Henry III, had retained a firm hold on the church and had resolved aschism inRome (1046), opening new activities for the reformers. At Easter 1051, the boy was baptized after the German princes had taken anoath offidelity and obedience atChristmas 1050. On July 17, 1053, he was elected king at Tribur (modern Trebur, inGermany) on condition that he would be a just king. In 1054 he was crowned king in Aix-la-Chapelle (modernAachen, in Germany), and the following year he became engaged to Bertha, daughter of the Margrave of Turin. When theemperor died in October 1056, at the age of 39, succession to the throne and survival of thedynasty were assured. The princes of the realm raised no objection whennominal government was handed over to the six-year-old boy, for whom his pious and unworldly mother became regent. Yet the early death of Henry III was the beginning of a fateful change that marked all of his son’s reign. In his will, the late emperor had appointed PopeVictor II ascounsellor to the empress, and thepope solved some of the conflicts between the princes and the imperial court that had endangered peace in the empire.

After Victor’s early death (1057), however, the politically inept empress committed a number of decisive mistakes. On her own, and without the benefit of the advice of a permanent group ofcounsellors, she readily yielded to various influences. She turned over the duchy of Bavaria, which Henry III had given to his son in 1055, to the Saxon countOtto of Nordheim, thus depriving the king of an important foundation of his power. She gave the duchy of Swabia to CountRudolf of Rheinfelden—who married her daughter—and the duchy of Carinthia to Count Berthold of Zähringen; both of them eventually became opponents of Henry IV. The death of the emperor also marked the disruption of German influence in Italy and of the close relationship between the king and the reformpopes. Their independence soon became apparent in the elections ofStephen IX andNicholas II, which were not influenced (as under Henry III) by the German court; in the new procedure for the election of the popes (1059); and in the defensive alliance with theNormans in southern Italy. That alliance was necessary for the popes as an effective protection against the Romans and was not directed against the German king.Yet the Normans were considered usurpers and enemies of theHoly Roman Empire. The pact thus resulted in strained relations between the pope and the German court, and those strains were aggravated by papal claims and disciplinary action taken by Nicholas II against German bishops. While the German king had so far been known as a supporter of the reformers, the empress now imprudently entered into an alliance with Italian opponents of church reform and brought about the election of Cadalus, bishop ofParma, asantipope (Honorius II) against the reigning pope,Alexander II, who had been elected by the reformers. But since she did not give effective support to Honorius, Alexander was able toprevail. Her unwise church policy was matched by an obscurely motivated submissive policy at home, which, by unwarranted cession of holdings of the crown, weakened the material foundations of the king’s power and, in addition, encouraged the rapacity of the nobles. Increasing discontent reached a climax in aconspiracy of the princes led byAnno, archbishop ofCologne, in April 1062. During a court assembly in Kaiserswerth he kidnapped the young king and had him brought to Cologne by ship. Henry’s attempt to escape by jumping into the Rhine failed.Agnes resigned as regent, and thegovernment was taken over by Anno, who settled the conflict with the church by recognizing Alexander II (1064). Anno was, however, too dominating and inflexible a man to win Henry’s confidence, so thatAdalbert,archbishop of Bremen, granting more freedom to thelascivious young king, gained increasing and finally sole influence. But he used it for such unscrupulous personal enrichment that Henry, who was declared of age in 1065, had to ban him from court early in 1066. That incident marks the beginning of the king’s own rule, for which he was badly prepared. Repeated changes in the government of the empire had an unsettling effect on the boy king and had, moreover, prevented him from being given a regular education. The selfishness of his tutors, the dissolute character of his companions, and the traumatic experience of his kidnapping had produced a lack ofmoral stability during his years of puberty. In addition, his love of power, typical of all the rulers of his dynasty, contributed to conduct often characterized by recklessness and indiscretion.

In 1069, after three years of marriage, he suddenly announced his intention of divorcing his wife, Bertha. Following protests by high church dignitaries, he dropped his plan, but hismercurial behaviour incurred the displeasure of the reformers. At the same time, he was faced with domestic difficulties that were to harass him throughout his reign. After his mother had freely dispensed of lands during her regency, he began to increase the royal possessions in theHarz Mountains and to protect them by castles, which he handed over to Swabian ministerials (higher civil servants directly responsible to the crown). Peasants and nobles inSaxony were stirred up by theruthless repossession of former royal rights that had long ago been appropriated by nobility or had become obsolete and by the high-handed and severe measures of the foreignministerials. Henry tried to stop the unrest by imprisoning Magnus, the duke ofSaxony, and by depriving the widely respected Otto of Bavaria of his duchy, after having unjustly accused him of plotting the murder of the king (1070). Then a rebellion broke out among theSaxons, which in 1073 spread so rapidly that Henry had to escape toWorms. After negotiations withWelf IV, the new duke (asWelf I) of Bavaria, and with Rudolf, the duke of Swabia, Henry was forced to grantimmunity to the rebels in 1073 and had to agree to the razing of the royal Harz Castle in the final peace treaty in February 1074. When the peasants, destroying the castle, also desecrated the church and the tomb of one of the king’s sons, Henry declared the peace broken. That incident assured him of support from all over the empire, and in June 1075 he won an overwhelming victory that resulted in the surrender of the Saxons. It also forced the princes at Christmas to confirm on oath the succession of his one-year-old son, Conrad.