Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry V,
Holy Roman Emperor, (
August 11,
1081 –
May 23,
1125) was the fourth and last ruler of the
Salian dynasty. In 1099, his father
Henry IV had him elected
King of Germany in place of his older, rebel son
Conrad. In
1105 it was Henry who rebelled and forced the abdication of the emperor. In
1111 he was crowned Emperor by the Pope.
In
1107, Henry summoned
Svatopluk, who was fighting for the
Bohemian throne of
Duke Borivoj II and had captured the duke. Henry forced him to release Borivoj and was made godfather to Svatopluk's new son. Svatopluk returned to Bohemia and annexed the throne anyway. In
1108, Henry went to war with
Coloman of Hungary on behalf of
Prince Álmos. An attack by
Boleslaus III of Poland, with Borivoj, on Svatopluk forced Henry to give up his campaign. Instead, he invaded Poland, where he was defeated at the
Battle of Głogów and the
Battle of Hundsfeld.
Despite initial
Papal support for his accession, Henry continued the
Investiture Controversy started by his father against the Pope's insistence on control all ecclesiastical appointments in Germany. Invading
Italy twice (
1110 and
1116) and imprisoning
Pope Paschal II and sixteen
cardinals for two months in
1111. A
Norman army sent by Prince
Robert I of Capua to rescue them was turned back by the
count of Tusculum,
Ptolemy I, and Henry extracted the guarantee of investiture he wanted. On a later expedition he set up a rival
antipope in opposition to Paschal in Rome. Henry eventually secured a compromise (the
Concordat of Worms,
1122) under which the Pope would invest church appointees with their spiritual offices, the Emperor with their lay rights.
|
Grave of Henry V in the cathedral of Speyer |
On
7 January 1114, Henry married the young
Matilda, daughter of
Henry I of England, at
Mainz. They had no surviving children, though Hermann of Tournai mentions a child who died soon after birth. Henry's illegitimate daughter Bertha married
Ptolemy II of Tusculum, son of the first Ptolemy, in
1117.
