Person1050 – 1106

Henry IV

Also called: Heinrich IV

Holy Roman Emperor who, excommunicated in the investiture dispute with Pope Gregory VII, begged forgiveness at Canossa in 1077

He became king at six on the death of his father Henry III, ruling at first under the regency of his mother and the princes. He sought to restore royal power by crushing a rising of the Saxon nobles, and in the process clashed with the pope over the appointment of bishops. After Canossa he defeated the anti-king raised by the princes and in 1084 was crowned emperor in Rome by an antipope of his own making. In old age he was deposed by the revolt of his son Henry V and died at Liège, where he had fled.

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1 related event

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1077Walk to Canossamonarch
Excommunicated in a dispute with Pope Gregory VII over the right to appoint clergy (investiture), Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV begged forgiveness at the castle of Canossa in January 1077.

People who appear alongside

Pope Gregory VII1085
Pope (1073–1085) who banned simony and clerical marriage and fought lay investiture of clergy in the Investiture Controversy

Themes this person appears in

Medieval Europe and ByzantiumAD 476 – 1077
From the fall of Rome in the West to Canossa — the feudal West built by the Franks and the papacy, Byzantium as heir of Rome, and a church divided east and west
Late Medieval Europe and the Renaissance1077 – 1517
From Canossa to the eve of the Reformation — papal power at its height and in decline, towns and parliaments, royal power growing through the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, and the Renaissance and printing