The main interest of Henry’s reign centres in the controversy over lay investiture, 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 decrees of the pope, which had been renewed 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. Paschal after some hesitation preferred France to Germany, and, after holding a council at Troyes, 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 went to Italy with a large army. The strength of his forces helped him to secure general recognition in Lombardy, and at Sutri he concluded an arrangement with Paschal by which he renounced the right of investiture in return for a promise of coronation, and the restoration to the Empire of all lands given by kings, or emperors, to the German church since the time of Charlemagne. 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. Having entered Rome and sworn the usual oaths, the king presented himself at St Peter’s on the 12th of February 1111 for his coronation and the ratification of the treaty. The words commanding the clergy to restore the fiefs 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. Paschal was seized by Henry’s soldiers and, in the general disorder into which the city was thrown, an attempt to liberate the pontiff was thwarted in a struggle during which the king himself was wounded. Henry then left the city carrying the pope with him; and Paschal’s failure to obtain assistance drew from him a confirmation of the king’s right of investiture and a promise to crown him emperor. The coronation ceremony accordingly took place on the 13th of April 1111, 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.
In 1112 Lothair, 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 Orlamünde gave occasion for a fresh outbreak on the part of Lothair, whose troops were defeated at Warnstädt, after which the duke was pardoned. Having been married at Mainz on the 7th of January 1114 to Matilda, or Maud, daughter of Henry I., king of England, the emperor was confronted with a further rising, initiated by the citizens of Cologne, who were soon joined by the Saxons and others. Henry failed to take Cologne, his forces were defeated at Welfesholz on the 11th of February 1115, and complications in Italy compelled him to leave Germany to the care of Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen, duke of Swabia, and his brother Conrad, afterwards the German king Conrad III. After the departure of Henry from Rome in 1111 a council had declared the privilege of lay investiture, which had been extorted from Paschal, to be invalid, and Guido, archbishop of Vienne, excommunicated the emperor and called upon the pope to ratify this sentence. Paschal, however, refused to take so extreme a step; and the quarrel entered upon a new stage in 1115 when Matilda, daughter and heiress of Boniface, margrave of Tuscany, died leaving her vast estates to the papacy. Crossing the Alps in 1116 Henry won the support of town and noble by privileges to the one and presents to the other, took possession of Matilda’s lands, and was gladly received in Rome. By this time Paschal had withdrawn his consent to lay investiture and the excommunication had been published in Rome; but the pope was compelled to fly 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 by Burdinas, archbishop of Braga. Meanwhile the defeat at Welfesholz had given heart to Henry’s 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. 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 an antipope who took the name of Gregory VIII., and who was left in possession of Rome when the emperor returned across the Alps in 1118. The opposition in Germany was gradually crushed and a general peace declared at Tribur, while the desire for a settlement of the investiture dispute was growing. Negotiations, begun at Würzburg, were continued at Worms, where the new pope, Calixtus II., was represented by Cardinal Lambert, bishop of Ostia. In the concordat of Worms, signed in September 1122, Henry renounced the right of investiture with ring and crozier, recognized the freedom of election of the clergy and promised to restore all church property. The pope agreed to allow elections to take place in presence of the imperial envoys, and the investiture with the sceptre to be granted by the emperor as a symbol that the estates of the church were held under the crown. Henry, who had been solemnly excommunicated at Reims by Calixtus in October 1119, was received again into the communion of the church, after he had abandoned his nominee, Gregory, to defeat and banishment. The emperor’s 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 King Louis VI. of France, turned his arms against the citizens of Worms, and on the 23rd of May 1125 died at Utrecht and was buried at Spires. Having no children, he left his possessions to his nephew, Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen, duke of Swabia, and on his death the line of Franconian, or Salian, emperors became extinct.
The character of Henry is unattractive. His love of power was inordinate; he was wanting in generosity, and he did not shrink from treachery in pursuing his ends.
The chief authority for the life and reign of Henry V. is Ekkehard of Aura, Chronicon, edited by G. Waitz in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Band vi. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826-1892), See also W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Band iii. (Leipzig, 1881-1890); L. von Ranke, Weltgeschichte, pt. vii. (Leipzig, 1886); M. Manitius, Deutsche Geschichte (Stuttgart, 1889); G. Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Heinrich IV. und Heinrich V. (Leipzig, 1890); E. Gervais, Politische Geschichte Deutschlands unter der Regierung der Kaiser Heinrich V. und Lothar III. (Leipzig, 1841-1842); G. Peiser, Der deutsche Investiturstreit unter Kaiser Heinrich V. (Berlin, 1883); C. Stutzer, “Zur Kritik der Investiturverhandlungen im Jahre 1119,” in the Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, Band xviii. (Göttingen, 1862-1886); T. von Sickel and H. Bresslau, “Die kaiserliche Ausfertigung des Wormser Konkordats,” in the Mittheilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung (Innsbruck, 1880); B. Gebhardt, Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte, Band i. (Berlin, 1901), and E. Bernheim, Zur Geschichte des Wormser Konkordats (Göttingen, 1878).
HENRY VI. (1165-1197), Roman emperor, son of the emperor Frederick I. and Beatrix, daughter of Renaud III., count of upper Burgundy, was born at Nijmwegen, and educated under the care of Conrad of Querfurt, afterwards bishop of Hildesheim and Würzburg. Chosen German king, or king of the Romans, at Bamberg in June 1169, he was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 15th of August 1169, invested with lands in Germany in 1179, and at Whitsuntide 1184 his knighthood was celebrated in the most magnificent manner at Mainz. Frederick was anxious to associate his son with himself in the government of the empire, and when he left Germany in 1184 Henry remained behind as regent, while his father sought to procure his coronation from Pope Lucius III. The pope was hesitating when he heard that the emperor had arranged a marriage between Henry and Constance, daughter of the late king of Sicily, Roger I., and aunt and heiress of the reigning king, William II.; and this step, which threatened to unite Sicily with Germany, decided him to refuse the proposal. This marriage took place at Milan on the 27th of January 1186, and soon afterwards Henry was crowned king of Italy. The claim of Henry and his wife on Sicily was recognized by the barons of that kingdom; and having been recognized by the pope as Roman emperor elect, Henry returned to Germany, and was again appointed regent when Frederick set out on crusade in May 1189. His attempts to bring peace to Germany were interrupted by the return of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, in October 1189, and a campaign against him was followed by a peace made at Fulda in July 1190.
Henry’s desire to make this peace was due to the death of William of Sicily, which was soon followed by that of the emperor Frederick. Germany and Italy alike seemed to need the king’s presence, but for him, like all the Hohenstaufen, Italy had the greater charm, and having obtained a promise of his coronation from Pope Clement III. he crossed the Alps in the winter of 1190. He purchased the support of the cities of northern Italy, but on reaching Rome he found Clement was dead and his successor, Celestine III., disinclined to carry out the engagement of his predecessor. The strength of the German army and a treaty made between the king and the Romans induced him, however, to crown Henry as emperor on the 14th of April 1191. The aid of the Romans had been purchased by the king’s promise to place in their possession the city of Tusculum, which they had attacked in vain for three years. After the ceremony the emperor fulfilled this contract, when the city was destroyed and many of the inhabitants massacred. Meanwhile a party in Sicily had chosen Tancred, an illegitimate son of Roger, son of King Roger II., as their king, and he had already won considerable authority and was favoured by the pope. Leaving Rome Henry met with no resistance until he reached Naples, which he was unable to take, as the ravages of fever and threatening news from Germany, where his death was reported, compelled him to raise the siege. In December 1191 he returned to Germany. Disorder was general and a variety of reasons induced both the Welfs and their earlier opponents to join in a general league against the emperor. Vacancies in various bishoprics added to the confusion, and Henry’s enemies gained in numbers and strength when it was suspected that he was implicated in the murder of Albert, bishop of Liége. Henry acted energetically in fighting this formidable combination, but his salvation came from the captivity of Richard I., king of England, and the skill with which he used this event to make peace with his foes; and, when Henry the Lion came to terms in March 1194, order was restored to Germany.
In the following May, Henry made his second expedition to Italy, where Pope Celestine had definitely espoused the cause of Tancred. The ransom received from Richard enabled him to equip a large army, and aided by a fleet fitted out by Genoa and Pisa he soon secured a complete mastery over the Italian mainland. When he reached Sicily he found Tancred dead, and, meeting with very little resistance, he entered Palermo, where he was crowned king on Christmas day 1194. A stay of a few months’ duration enabled Henry to settle the affairs of the kingdom; and leaving his wife, Constance, as regent, and appointing many Germans to positions of influence, he returned to Germany in June 1195.
Having established his position in Germany and Italy, Henry began to cherish ideas of universal empire. Richard of England had already owned his supremacy, and declaring he would compel the king of France to do the same Henry sought to stir up strife between France and England. Nor did the Spanish kingdoms escape his notice. Tunis and Tripoli were claimed, and when the eastern emperor, Isaac Angelus, asked his help, he demanded in return the cession of the Balkan peninsula. The kings of Cyprus and Armenia asked for investiture at his hands; and in general Henry, in the words of a Byzantine chronicler, put forward his demands as “the lord of all lords, the king of all kings.” To complete this scheme two steps were necessary, a reconciliation with the pope and the recognition of his young son, Frederick, as his successor in the Empire. The first was easily accomplished; the second was more difficult. After attempting to suppress the renewed disorder in Germany, Henry met the princes at Worms in December 1195 and put his proposal before them. In spite of promises they disliked the suggestion as tending to draw them into Sicilian troubles, and avoided the emperor’s displeasure by postponing their answer. By threats or negotiations, however, Henry won the consent of about fifty princes; but though the diet which met at Würzburg in April 1196 agreed to the scheme, the vigorous opposition of Adolph, archbishop of Cologne, and others rendered it inoperative. In June 1196 Henry went again to Italy, sought vainly to restore order in the north, and tried to persuade the pope to crown his son who had been chosen king of the Romans at Frankfort. Celestine, who had many causes of complaint against the emperor and his vassals, refused. The emperor then went to the south, where the oppression of his German officials had caused an insurrection, which was put down with terrible cruelty. At Messina on the 28th of September 1197 Henry died from a cold caught whilst hunting, and was buried at Palermo. He was a man of small frame and delicate constitution, but possessed considerable mental gifts and was skilled in knightly exercises. His ambition was immense, and to attain his ends he often resorted deliberately to cruelty and treachery. His chief recreation was hunting, and he also found pleasure in the society of the Minnesingers and in writing poems, which appear in F. H. von der Hagen’s Minnesinger (Leipzig, 1838). He left an only son Frederick, afterwards the emperor Frederick II.
The chief authorities for the life and reign of Henry VI. are Otto of Freising, Chronicon, continued by Otto of St Blasius; Godfrey of Viterbo, Gesta Friderici I. and Gesta Heinrici VI.; Giselbert of Mons, Chronicon Hanoniense, all of which appear in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Bände xx., xxi., xxii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826-1892), and the various annals of the time.