HENRY IV., emperor of Germany, the son and successor of the former, was b. in 1050, elected king of the Germans in 1054, during the lifetime of his father, crowned emperor 1084, and died 1100. As he was only 5 years old at the death of his father, the regency was, in accordance with the wishes of the latter, confided to the child's mother, Agnes of Poictiers. Henry's perpetual quarrels with the Saxon princes and peers occupied his best years, and were the principal cause of the subsequent troubles and mortifications which have given a memorable interest to his history. Unhappily for him, he was induced in 1074, after having suffered defeat and various insults at the hands of his Saxon vassals, to appeal to the pope for his intervention: and Gregory' VII., who was only too happy to have an opportunity of interfering in the !natter, despatched plenipotentiaries to settle the differences in haxony, and availing himself of the occasion to prosecute his own plans, commanded the king to abstain from the sale and granting of benefices while this quarrel was pending. Before these directions reached Germany, Henry had, however, settled his own affairs, by defeating the Saxon insurgents in a great battle at Hohenburg, taken their princes captive, and retufit all the strongholds which they had dismantled; while his councilors had prosecuted a vigorous business in the interdicted sale of benefices. Henry not only approved their conduct, but responded to the pope's remonstrances on the subject, and his sum mons for his appearance at Rome, by declaring, through an assembly of German bishops and abbots, which met at Worms in 1076, that the pontiff was deposed. Gregory VII. retaliated by excommunicating and deposing Henry, and absolving his, sub jects from all future obedience towards him. The king at first made light of the sen tence, but when he found his vassals and princes gradually falling away from their allegiance, while the electors held a diet in which they declared that unless the ban were removed within a twelvemonth, they would deprive him of the crown, he sub mitted; and accompanied only by his faithful consort and their eldest son, he hastened, under grievous difficulties, in midwinter, to Italy, where lie sought the pope. For
three days in Jan., 1077, Henry IV., barefooted, and clothed only in the haircloth shirt of. a penitent, was compelled to stand without the castle gates of Canossa, exposed to the inclemency of the weather, before the pontiff consented to remove the ban of excommunication.
After this event Henry's courage and resentment speedily revived; and having found adherents among the Lombards, he began a conflict against the papal power, chiefly in regard to the right of investitdre, in which lie was generally successful. Gregory again excommunicated Henry, who, as• usual, retaliated by electing a new pope, Clement III. Hastening over the Alps, he laid siege to Rome. Gregory took refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, and Henry caused himself to be crowned em peror by theanti-pope; but finding that Hermann of Luxemburg, had, during his absence, been elected king of Germany, he hastily left Rome to regain his lost power. For the third time Henry crbssed the Alps in 1090, and he had already succeeded in raising the fortunes of his friend, Clement III., taken Mantua, and gained many vic tories over the Guelphic princes and their favorite pope, Urban H., when he suddenly learned that his son Conrad had joined his enemies, and been crowned king at 3lonza. Henry's despair on hearing of these acts of rebellion nearly unsettled his reason, and having retired to one of his Lombard castles, he remained for several years in seclusion; but at length rousing himself from his lethargy, he returned in 1096 to Ger many, where the princes and people now vied with one another to show him their sym pathy and good-will. By his own reouest. his second son Henry, was elected the king of the Germans, and his successor in the empire. This prince, however, having been induced to rise against his father by Pope Pascal IL, took him prisoner, and forcibly compelled him to abdicate. The emperor escaped from his prison, and found friend's and safety at Liege, where he died, Aug. 7, 1106, while preparing another army to con tinue the struggle. See, for the lives of Henry III. and IV., Adamus Bremensis, His toria Eedesiasticd; Sisinondi. dfiWan RepuldieS; and IINrope during the Middle Ages; Solt], //. IV.; 31inekwitz, Die Biisse Heinricks des IVIen (1875),