Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry V (11 August 1086[1] 23 May 1125) was King

of Germany (from 1099 to 1125) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 1111 to 1125), the fourth and last ruler of
the Salian dynasty. Henrys reign coincided with the nal phase of the great Investiture Controversy, which had
pitted pope against emperor. By the settlement of the
Concordat of Worms, he surrendered to the demands of
the second generation of Gregorian reformers.

newed by Paschal II at the synod of Guastalla in 1106.

The king, however, continued to invest the bishops, but
wished the pope to hold a council in Germany to settle the question. After some hesitation, Paschal preferred France to Germany, and, after holding a council
at Troyes,[7] renewed his prohibition of lay investiture.
The matter slumbered until 1110, when, negotiations between king and pope having failed, Paschal renewed his
decrees and Henry invaded Italy with a large army.
The strength of his forces helped him to secure general
recognition in Lombardy, where archbishop Grossolano
intended to crown him with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.[8][9] At Sutri he concluded an arrangement with
Paschal by which he renounced the rite of investiture in
return for a promise of coronation and the restoration to
the Empire of all Christendom, which had been in the
hands of the German state and church since the time of
Charlemagne.[9] It was a treaty impossible to execute, and
Henry, whose consent to it is said to have been conditional
on its acceptance by the princes and bishops of Germany,
probably foresaw that it would occasion a breach between
the German clergy and the pope.

Assumption of power

Henrys parents were Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor,

and Bertha of Savoy. On 6 January 1099, his father had
him crowned King of Germany at Aachen in place of his
older brother, the rebel Conrad.[2] Henry took an oath to
take no part in the business of the Empire during his fathers lifetime, but he was induced by his fathers enemies
to revolt in 1104, securing a dispensation from the oath
by Pope Paschal II,[2] and some of the princes did homage
to him at Mainz in January 1105. Despite the initial setbacks of the rebels, Henry IV was forced to abdicate and
died soon after.[3] Order was soon restored in Germany,
the citizens of Cologne were punished with a ne, and an
expedition against Robert II, Count of Flanders, brought
this rebel to his knees.[4]

Having entered Rome and sworn the usual oaths, the king
presented himself at St. Peters Basilica on 12 February
1111 for his coronation and the ratication of the treaty.
The words commanding the clergy to restore the efs of
the crown to Henry were read amid a tumult of indignation, whereupon the pope refused to crown the king, who
in return declined to hand over his renunciation of the
right of investiture.[3] Paschal and sixteen cardinals were
seized by Henrys soldiers.[10] In the general disorder that
followed, an attempt to liberate the ponti was thwarted
in a struggle during which the king was wounded. A
Norman army sent by Prince Robert I of Capua to rescue the papists was turned back by the imperialist count
of Tusculum, Ptolemy I of Tusculum.

In 1107, Henry undertook a campaign to restore Borivoi

II in Bohemia, which was only partially successful. Henry
summoned Svatopluk the Lion, who had captured Duke
Borivoi.[5] Borivoi was released at the emperors command and made godfather to Svatopluks new son. Nevertheless, on Svatopluks return to Bohemia, he assumed
the throne. In 1108, Henry went to war with Coloman
of Hungary on behalf of Prince lmos. An attack by
Boleslaus III of Poland and Borivoi on Svatopluk forced
Henry to give up his campaign. Instead, he invaded
Poland to compel them to renew their accustomed tribute but was defeated at the Battles of Gogw and the
Hundsfeld.[6] In 1110, he succeeded in securing the dukedom of Bohemia for Ladislaus I.

3 Return to Germany
Henry left Rome carrying the pope with him. Paschals
failure to obtain assistance drew from him a conrmation of the kings right of investiture and a promise to
crown him emperor.[3] The coronation ceremony accordingly took place on 13 April, after which the emperor
returned to Germany, where he sought to strengthen his
power by granting privileges to the inhabitants of the region of the upper Rhine.[11]

First Italian expedition

Henrys primary concern during his reign was settling the

Investiture Controversy, which had caused a serious dispute during the previous reign. The papal party who had
supported Henry in his resistance to his father hoped he
would assent to the papal decrees, which had been re1

In 1112, Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of Saxony, rose

in arms against Henry, but was easily quelled. In 1113,
however, a quarrel over the succession to the counties of
Weimar and Orlamnde gave occasion for a fresh outbreak on the part of Lothair, whose troops were defeated
at the Battle of Warnstadt,[12] though the duke was later
pardoned.
On 7 January 1114 at Mainz, Henry married Matilda, the
daughter of Henry I of England.

3.1

War with Cologne

The emperor was confronted with a further uprising in

1114, initiated by the citizens of Cologne, who were
soon joined by the Saxons and others.[13] Initially, Henry
took the fortied town of Deutz, which lay across the
Rhine from Cologne. His control of Deutz allowed him
to cut Cologne o from all river trade and transportation.
At this point, the citizens of Cologne assembled a large
force, including bowmen, and crossed the river, formed
their ranks, and prepared to meet Henrys army.[14] The
Cologne bowmen were able to break the armor of Henrys
soldiers; it was summer, the weather was sultry, and the
soldiers had removed their armor to nd relief from the
heat. Henry subsequently withdrew, turned south, and
sacked Bonn and Jlich. On his return to Deutz, he was
met by Archbishop Frederick, Duke Gottfried of Lorraine, Henry of Zutphen, and Count Theodoric of Aar,
Count Gerhard of Julich (William I), Lambert of Mulenarke, and Eberhard of Gandernol, who put up a stout
resistance in which the latter was killed. Theodoric, Gerhard, and Lambert were taken prisoner.[15]

CONCORDAT OF WORMS

been extorted from Paschal, to be invalid. Guido, Archbishop of Vienne, excommunicated the emperor,[18] calling upon the pope to ratify this sentence. Paschal, however, refused to take so extreme a step. The quarrel entered a new stage in 1115 when Matilda of Tuscany died,
leaving her vast estates to the papacy.[12] Crossing the
Alps in 1116, Henry won the support of town and noble by granting privileges to the one and giving presents to
the other. But Jordan, Archbishop of Milan, excommunicated him at San Tecla. He took possession of Matildas
lands, and was gladly received in Rome. By this time
Paschal had withdrawn his consent to lay investiture,[2]
and the excommunication had been published in Rome;
but the pope was compelled to ee from the city. Some
of the cardinals withstood the emperor, but by means of
bribes he broke down the opposition and was crowned
a second time[12] by Maurice Bourdin, Archbishop of
Braga, who was to become Antipope Gregory VIII.
Meanwhile the defeat at Welfesholz had given heart to
Henrys enemies. Many of his supporters, especially
among the bishops, fell away, the excommunication was
published at Cologne, and the pope, with the assistance
of the Normans, began to make war.[19] In January 1118,
Paschal died and was succeeded by Gelasius II. The emperor immediately returned from northern Italy to Rome.
But as the new pope escaped from the city, Henry, despairing of making a treaty, secured the election of the
Antipope Gregory VIII,[12] who was left in possession of
Rome when the emperor returned across the Alps that
same year.

5 Concordat of Worms

When Frederick, Count of Westphalia, arrived with his

brother, also named Henry, and their substantial force,
the emperor withdrew, barely escaping capture.[16] Finally, in October 1114, the two armies met on the plain
at Andernach. After an initial skirmish in which Duke
Henry of Lorraine was forced to withdraw, the citizen
army and the emperors force of Swabians, Bavarians, and
Franconians clashed. The young men of Cologne, including many journeymen and apprentices, created a fearful
din of noise, slashing at all who came near them. Theodric threw his force into the ght, and the emperors army
was forced back.[16]
Henry failed to take Cologne, and Lothair of Supplinburg
defeated his forces at the Battle of Welfesholz (11 February 1115).[17] Eventually, complications in Italy compelled him to leave Germany to the care of Frederick II of Grave of Henry V in the cathedral of Speyer.
Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia, and his brother Conrad,
afterwards the German king Conrad III.
After the second Italian expedition, the opposition in
Germany was gradually crushed, and a general peace was
declared at Tribur,[20] while the desire for a settlement
4 Second Italian expedition
of the investiture dispute was growing. Negotiations, begun at Wrzburg, were continued at Worms, where the
After Henry departed from Rome in 1111 a council new pope, Callistus II,[12] was represented by Cardinal
had declared the privilege of lay investiture, which had Lambert, Bishop of Ostia.

3
In the Concordat of Worms, signed in September 1122, [5] Vickers, Robert, History of Bohemia, 1894, pg. 137
Henry renounced the right of investiture with ring and
[6] Halecki, A History of Poland (Routledge, 1978), pg. 23
crozier, recognized the freedom of election of the clergy,
[21]
and promised to restore all church property. The pope [7] Comyn, pg. 176
agreed to allow elections to take place in presence of the
imperial envoys, and the investiture with the sceptre to be [8] I.Montanelli;Storia d'Italia Vol 4761250 pag 440, Rizzoli
granted by the emperor as a symbol that the estates of the
church were held under the crown. Henry, who had been [9] Comyn, pg. 177
solemnly excommunicated at Reims by Callistus in October 1119,[22] was received again into the communion [10] Bryce, pg. 306
of the church, after he had abandoned his nominee, Gre- [11] Comyn, pg. 180
gory, to defeat and banishment.
[12] Comyn, pg. 181

Death

The emperors concluding years were occupied with a

campaign in Holland and with a quarrel over the succession to the margraviate of Meissen, two disputes in which
his enemies were aided by Lothair of Saxony. In 1124,
he led an expedition against Louis VI of France[23] and
turned his arms against the citizens of Worms. On 23
May 1125, Henry died of cancer in Utrecht[23] and was
buried at Speyer; his heart and bowels are buried at the
Cathedral of Saint Martin, Utrecht. Having no legitimate
children, he left his possessions to his sororal nephew,
Frederick II of Swabia,[24] and on his death the line of
Franconian, or Salian, emperors became extinct. The
chronicler Hriman of Tournai mentions a child of Henry
and Matilda who died soon after birth. Henrys illegitimate daughter Bertha married Ptolemy II of Tusculum,
son of the rst Ptolemy, in 1117.

[13] Henderson, Ernest, A History of Germany in the Middle

Ages, (Haskell House, 1894), pg. 222
[14] James Harvey Robinson, Readings in European History,
(Boston, 1904). Found here.
[15] Robinson, J.H. (1904). Readings in European History:
From the breaking up of the Roman empire to the Protestant
revolt. Ginn & company. p. 297. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
[16] James Harvey Robinson, Readings in European History,
[17] Bisson, Thomas M., The Crisis of the Twelfth Century
(Princeton University Press, 2009), pg. 215
[18] Comyn, pg. 179
[19] Milman, pg. 307
[20] Milman, pg. 318
[21] Bryce, pg. 164
[22] Comyn, pg. 182
[23] Comyn, pg. 183

Ancestry

[24] Comyn, pg. 184

See below:

10 Sources
8

See also
Kings of Germany family tree he was related to
every other king of Germany
Concordat of Worms
First Council of the Lateran

References

[1] Kleinhenz, pg.492

Kleinhenz, Christopher. Medieval Italy: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. Routledge, 2004.

Canduci, Alexander (2010), Triumph & Tragedy:
The Rise and Fall of Romes Immortal Emperors,
Pier 9, ISBN 978-1-74196-598-8
Bryce, James. The Holy Roman Empire. MacMillan, 1913
Comyn, Robert. History of the Western Empire,
from its Restoration by Charlemagne to the Accession
of Charles V, Vol. I. 1851

[3] Canduci, pg. 260

Gwatkin, H.M., Whitney, J.P. (ed) et al. The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume III. Cambridge
University Press, 1926.

[4] Holland, A. W., Germany (Adam & Charles Black, 1914),

pg. 70

Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South

10161130. Longmans: London, 1967.

[2] Kleinhenz, pg. 492

10 SOURCES
Milman, Henry. History of Latin Christianity, including that of the Popes, to the Ponticate of
Nicholas V, Vol. III. 1854
This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.
(1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton
Company.
This article incorporates text from a publication now
in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).
Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.

11
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