Henry IV, Emperor

HENRY IV, Emperor. - Son of the preceding and of Agnes, b. 11 Nov. 1050, d. near Visé (Belgium) on 7 Aug. 1106. Crowned king already at the age of four, he was able to obtain the paternal succession in 1056 through the good offices of Pope Victor II, but as he was still a child a regency was set up under the direction of Agnes. Following a conspiracy, in 1062 he was taken from his mother and brought to Cologne to be educated, but he grew up unscrupulous and of corrupt morals. Declared of age at fifteen in 1065, the following year he married Bertha of Savoy, whom he soon abandoned to give himself over to the crudest pleasures, and from whom he would gladly have divorced had St. Peter Damian not threatened him with ecclesiastical penalties. Having taken the reins of government in 1069, he at once set to work energetically to strengthen his authority over the lands of the Empire, for which he had to sustain struggles that made his life and his government difficult. But the bitterest struggle he engaged in was against the Church, over the controversy concerning investitures.

During the regency of Agnes and in the early years of E.'s own reign, simony was openly practiced in Germany: bishoprics and abbeys were sold at auction and bought by persons not always worthy. Gregory VII, elected on 22 Apr. 1073, decided to put an end to such disorder by striking at the evil at its root; his relations with E., however, were at first marked by cordiality and a spirit of conciliation, so much so that the Emperor promised satisfaction and showed himself favorable to an agreement. Meanwhile, in the Lenten Synod of 1075 Gregory promulgated the decree against lay investitures. E., who needed faithful ecclesiastical feudatories to counterbalance the authority of the lay ones, judged the pontifical prohibition as harmful to his rights and, emboldened by the victory won over the Saxons, continued undeterred to confer investitures. Gregory, still ever disposed to peace, protested energetically, but his legates obtained no satisfaction and summoned E. to the Roman Synod of 1076. In response, E. convened a diet at Worms and on 24 Jan. 1076, under the most absurd accusations, deposed Gregory. The decision was then also approved by the bishops of northern Italy gathered at Piacenza and notified to Rome during the Lenten synod. To such impudence Gregory responded with excommunication, forbidding E. the government of Germany and Italy and releasing his subjects from the oath of fidelity. A void formed around E.: princes and bishops abandoned him, and in Oct. 1076 the Diet of Tribur decided to convoke a synod for the following February to be held in Germany under the presidency of the Pontiff to decide the question. E. then, by a skillful move, forestalled his enemies; he descended into Italy, and at Canossa on 28 Jan. 1077 obtained from Gregory absolution from the excommunication. The German princes meanwhile elected another emperor at Forchheim in the person of Rudolf of Swabia: civil war broke out and dragged on with varying fortunes until 15 Oct. 1080, when with Rudolf's death E. remained sole master. Gregory VII, however, in March 1080 excommunicated E. again as a perjurer and oath-breaker. On 31 May, in the Diet of Mainz, E. deposed Gregory, and on 25 June had an antipope elected at Bressanone by some bishops of his persuasion in the person of Guibert of Ravenna (Clement III). He returned to Italy in March 1081, was crowned with the iron crown at Pavia, and after seizing the possessions of Countess Matilda, in May he besieged Rome hoping to take it with the help of the people. Disappointed, he returned to Lombardy while in Germany the prince-electors took Hermann of Luxembourg as king. In Feb. 1082 the siege of Rome was resumed, but he had to suspend it because of the summer heat; he returned the following year and in June 1083 succeeded in seizing the Leonine City.

Gregory then consented to convoke a council to settle the question, but this came to nothing because of E.'s bad faith, and he resumed hostilities and on 21 March 1084 occupied the whole city while the Pope took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo. He at once convoked a synod in St. Peter's in which Gregory was deposed and excommunicated and the antipope Clement was solemnly enthroned on 24 March; on Easter day (31 March) E., together with his wife Bertha, received the imperial crown. But at the approach of the troops of Robert Guiscard, who was coming to the Pope's aid, E. abandoned Rome and returned to Germany, where the situation had become difficult because of the presence of his antagonist Hermann of Luxembourg. There he strove with writings, with diplomacy and with arms to secure recognition of the antipope. Gregory VII meanwhile, sickened by the predatory conduct of the Norman soldiers in Rome, went into voluntary exile at Salerno, where he renewed the excommunication against E. and Clement and shortly afterward died (25 May 1085). After the brief pontificate of Victor III (May 1086-Sept. 1087), during which a series of polemical writings for and against E. was published, Urban II was elected pope (March 1088), faithful to the Gregorian ideas. Urban succeeded in uniting against E. the enemies of Germany and Italy, favoring the marriage between Countess Matilda and Welf V of Bavaria. E. then took the initiative to break the alliance and in Apr. 1090 descended into Italy, conducting a series of victorious campaigns against Countess Matilda. In the autumn of 1092 he also laid siege to the castle of Canossa, but was defeated and had to beat a retreat, losing all the fruit of his previous victories.

Along with the military setback E. had to endure the revolt of his son Conrad, who with the help of Countess Matilda was crowned king of Italy at Milan, the formation of a league among the Lombard cities and the defection of several German bishops. He remained, however, in northern Italy and, while renouncing any offensive ambition, did not neglect to act diplomatically to isolate Urban, until, discouraged, in 1097 he returned to Germany, abandoning the antipope Clement to his fate. When Urban died in July 1099, E. then made approaches to his successor Paschal II to come to a reconciliation with the Church. He acknowledged that he had been wrong in disturbing the peace, but his uncommitting proposals were rejected and the Pontiff renewed the excommunication (March 1102). New negotiations were undertaken the following year and E. seemed this time determined to be reconciled with the Church; he even promised to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but was prevented from doing so by a grave event. In Dec. 1104 his other son Henry, associated in power after the defection of the firstborn Conrad, abandoned his father, drawing with him all those discontented with E.'s policy. Civil war broke out ferociously between mother and son and ended with the defeat and deposition of E., sanctioned in the Diet of Mainz at the beginning of 1106. In Aug. of the same year E. died reconciled with the Church. - See pl. XXX.

Agostino Amore