Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry V

Henry IV (left) and son Henry V (right).
Holy Roman Emperor
Reign
1111–1125
Predecessor
Henry IV
Successor
Lothair III
King of Germany
(Formally King of the Romans)
Reign
1099–1125
Predecessor
Henry IV
Successor
Lothair III
King of Italy
Reign
1098–1125
Predecessor
Conrad II
Successor
Conrad III

Father
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother
Bertha of Savoy
Born
11 August 1086
Goslar, Saxony
Died
23 May 1125 (aged 38)
Utrecht, Friesland
Burial
Speyer Cathedral
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Henry V (11 August 1086[1] – 23 May 1125) was King of Germany (from 1099 to 1125) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 1111 to 1125), the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. Henry's reign coincided with the final phase of the great Investiture Controversy, which had pitted pope against emperor. By the settlement of the Concordat of Worms, he surrendered to the demands of the second generation of Gregorian reformers.
Assumption of power
He was a son of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bertha of Savoy. His maternal grandparents were Otto of Savoy and Adelaide of Susa.
On 6 January 1099, his father Henry IV had him crowned King of Germany at Aachen in place of his older brother, the rebel Conrad.[2] He took an oath to take no part in the business of the Empire during his father's lifetime, but was induced by his father's enemies to revolt in 1104, securing a dispensation from the oath by Pope Paschal II,[3] and some of the princes did homage to him at Mainz in January 1105. Despite the initial setbacks of the rebels, Henry IV was forced to abdicate and died soon after.[4] Order was soon restored in Germany, the citizens of Cologne were punished with a fine, and an expedition against Robert II, Count of Flanders, brought this rebel to his knees.[5]
In 1107, Henry undertook a campaign to restore Borivoi II in Bohemia, which was only partially successful. Henry summoned Svatopluk the Lion, who had captured Duke Borivoi.[6] Borivoi was released at the emperor's command and made godfather to Svatopluk's new son. Nevertheless, on Svatopluk's return to Bohemia, he assumed the throne. In 1108, Henry went to war with Coloman of Hungary on behalf of Prince Álmos. An attack by Boleslaus III of Poland and Borivoi on Svatopluk forced Henry to give up his campaign. Instead, he invaded Poland to compel them to renew their accustomed tribute, but was defeated at the Battles of Głogów and the Hundsfeld.[7] In 1110, he succeeded in securing the dukedom of Bohemia for Ladislaus I.
First Italian expedition
The main interest of Henry's reign was the settling of the controversy over lay investiture, which had caused a serious dispute during the previous reign. The papal party who had supported Henry in his resistance to his father hoped he would assent to the papal decrees, which had been renewed by Paschal II at the synod of Guastalla in 1106. The king, however, continued to invest the bishops, but wished the pope to hold a council in Germany to settle the question. After some hesitation, Paschal preferred France to Germany, and, after holding a council at Troyes,[8] renewed his prohibition of lay investiture. The matter slumbered until 1110, when, negotiations between king and pope having failed, Paschal renewed his decrees and Henry invaded Italy with a large army.
The strength of his forces helped him to secure general recognition in Lombardy where archbishop Grossolano crown him with Iron Crown of Lombardy,[9][10] and at Sutri he concluded an arrangement with Paschal by which he renounced the rite of investiture in return for a promise of coronation, and the restoration to the Empire of all Christendom, which had been in the hands of the German state and church since the time of Charlemagne.[11] It was a treaty impossible to execute, and Henry, whose consent to it is said to have been conditional on its acceptance by the princes and bishops of Germany, probably foresaw that it would occasion a breach between the German clergy and the pope.
Having entered Rome and sworn the usual oaths, the king presented himself at St Peter's Basilica on 12 February 1111 for his coronation and the ratification of the treaty. The words commanding the clergy to restore the fiefs of the crown to Henry were read amid a tumult of indignation, whereupon the pope refused to crown the king, who in return declined to hand over his renunciation of the right of investiture.[12] Paschal, along with sixteen cardinals, were seized by Henry's soldiers[13] and, in the general disorder which followed, an attempt to liberate the pontiff was thwarted in a struggle during which the king himself was wounded. A Norman army sent by Prince Robert I of Capua to rescue the papists was turned back by the imperialist count of Tusculum, Ptolemy I of Tusculum.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M A T I L D A
(1141 AD)
Matilda is the Latin form of Maud, and the name of the only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I. She was born in 1101, generally it is said at Winchester, but recent research indicates that she was actually born at the Royal Palace in Sutton Courtenay (Berkshire).
In something of a political coup for her father, Matilda was betrothed to the German Emperor, Henry V, when she was only eight. They were married on 7th January 1114. She was twelve and he was thirty-two. Unfortunately there were no children and on the Emperor's death in 1125, Matilda was recalled to her father's court.
Matilda's only legitimate brother had been killed in the disastrous Wreck of the White Ship in late 1120 and she was now her father's only hope for the continuation of his dynasty. The barons swore allegiance to the young Princess and promised to make her queen after her father's death. She herself needed heirs though and in April 1127, Matilda found herself obliged to marry Prince Geoffrey of Anjou and Maine (the future Geoffrey V, Count of those Regions). He was thirteen, she twenty-three. It is thought that the two never got on. However, despite this unhappy situation they had had three sons in four years.
Being absent in Anjou at the time of her father's death on 1st December 1135, possibly due to pregnancy, Matilda was not in much of a position to take up the throne which had been promised her and she quickly lost out to her fast-moving cousin, Stephen. With her husband, she attempted to take Normandy. With encouragement from supporters in England though, it was not long before Matilda invaded her rightful English domain and so began a long-standing Civil War from the powerbase of her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester, in the West Country.
After three years of armed struggle, she at last gained the upper hand at the Battle of Lincoln, in February 1141, where King Stephen was captured. However, despite being declared Queen or "Lady of the English" at Winchester and winning over Stephen's brother, Henry of Blois, the powerful Bishop of Winchester, Matilda alienated the citizens of London with her arrogant manner. She failed to secure her coronation and the Londoners joined a renewed push from Stephen's Queen and laid siege to the Empress in Winchester. She managed to escape to the West, but while commanding her rearguard, her brother was captured by the enemy.
Matilda was obliged to swap Stephen for Robert on 1st November 1141. Thus the King soon reimposed his Royal authority. In 1148, after the death of her half-brother, Matilda finally returned to Normandy, leaving her son, who, in 1154, would become Henry II, to fight on in England. She died at Rouen on 10th September 1169 and was buried in Fontevrault Abbey, though some of her entrails may possibly have been later interred in her father's foundation at Reading Abbey.13
** Winchester, England - thought born here until recent research.
She was designated Henry's heir, and on his death (1135), Stephen siezed the throne and Matilda invaded England (1139) inuagurating a period of inconclusive civil war. She and he second husband (Geoffrey) captured normandy and in 1152 the Treaty of Wallingford recognised Henry as Stephen's heir. Burke says she was betrothed in her eight year (1119) to Henry.