Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Timeline

1. 1050–1065Goslar · Lower SaxonyHenry IV was born in Goslar on 11 November 1050. When his father Henry III died in 1056, the six-year-old Henry IV succeeded as King of Germany, with his mother Agnes of Poitou as regent. In 1062 Archbishop Anno II of Cologne staged the 'Coup of Kaiserswerth', seizing the young king from a ship on the Rhine, forcibly taking guardianship and co-regenting with Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen; court politics remained turbulent.
2. 1065–1084Germany · GermanyAfter assuming personal rule in 1065, Henry IV worked to restore royal authority and crushed a Saxon noble rebellion (1073–1075). In 1075 he clashed with Pope Gregory VII over the appointment of the Archbishop of Milan, declaring Gregory deposed; Gregory responded by excommunicating him. In January 1077 Henry IV was forced to travel to the castle of Canossa in Tuscany, where he knelt barefoot in the snow for three days seeking the pope's forgiveness — the so-called 'Humiliation at Canossa', the greatest imperial concession to papal power. In 1080 Gregory excommunicated him again, and Henry promptly installed the antipope Clement III, continuing the struggle.
3. 1084–1106Holy Roman Empire · Holy Roman EmpireIn 1084 Henry IV captured Rome and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the antipope Clement III. His later years were bleak: his eldest son Conrad rebelled in 1093 and was raised as rival king by some princes; his second son Henry (the future Henry V) rebelled again in 1105, forcing him to sign his abdication. Henry IV fled in disgrace and died at Liège on 7 August 1106; his body was withheld for years before burial, making him a symbol of the medieval tragedy of conflict between imperial and papal power and between father and son.