Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Timeline

1. 1056–1065Goslar · Lower SaxonyAfter his father Henry III died in 1056, Henry IV succeeded at only six years of age. His mother Agnes served as regent, relying on helpers such as Archbishop Anno II of Cologne; the empire remained basically stable during the regency, but tensions between royal power and the church nobility gradually accumulated.
2. 1065–1070Saxony · SaxonyAfter declaring personal rule in 1065, Henry pursued policies to strengthen royal authority, building castles in the Harz Mountains, which aroused strong resentment among the Saxon nobles. A Saxon revolt brewed in the late 1060s and broke out as a large-scale uprising in 1073, becoming a major crisis of his early reign.
3. 1071–1106Holy Roman Empire · Holy Roman EmpireCrowned emperor in 1084, he engaged in a fierce investiture struggle with Pope Gregory VII; his penance in the snow at Canossa in 1077 became a medieval political symbol. In his later years he was rebelled against by his son Henry V and died at Liège in 1106, as the Salian empire declined from its height.