Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry III (28 October 1017 – 5 October 1056), called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. He was the eldest son of Conrad II of Germany and Gisela of Swabia and his father made him duke of Bavaria (as Henry VI) in 1026, after the death of Duke Henry V.
On Easter Day 1028, his father having been crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was elected and crowned King of Germany in the cathedral of Aachen by Pilgrim, Archbishop of Cologne.
After the death of Herman IV, Duke of Swabia in 1038, his father gave him that duchy (as Henry I) as well as the kingdom of Burgundy, which Conrad had inherited in 1033. Upon the death of his father on 4 June 1039, he became sole ruler of the kingdom and was crowned emperor by Pope Clement II in Rome (1046).
Early life and reign
Henry's first tutor was Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg. On Bruno's death in 1029, Egilbert, Bishop of Freising, was appointed to take his place. In 1033, at the age of sixteen, Henry came of age and Egilbert was compensated for his services. In 1035, Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia, was deposed by Conrad, but Egilbert convinced Henry to refuse this injustice and the princes of Germany, having legally elected Henry, would not recognise the deposition unless their king did also. Henry, in accordance with his promise to Egilbert, did not consent to his father's act and Conrad, stupefied, fell unconscious after many attempts to turn Henry. Upon recovering, Conrad knelt before his son and exacted the desired consent. Egilbert was penalised dearly by the emperor.
In 1036, Henry was married to Gunhilda of Denmark. She was a daughter of Canute the Great, King of Denmark, England, and Norway, by his wife Emma of Normandy. Early on, Henry's father had arranged with Canute to have him rule over some parts of northern Germany (Kiel) and in turn to have their children married. The marriage took place in Nijmegen at the earliest legal age.
In 1038, Henry was called to aid his father in Italy (1038) and Gunhilda died on the Adriatic Coast, during the return trip (during the same epidemic in which Herman IV of Swabia died). In 1039, his father, too, died and Henry became sole ruler and imperator in spe.
After Conrad's death
First tour
Henry spent his first year on a tour of his domains. He visited the Low Countries to receive the homage of Gothelo I, Duke of Upper and Lower Lorraine. In Cologne, he was joined by Herman II, Archbishop of Cologne, who accompanied him and his mother to Saxony, where he was to build the town of Goslar up from obscurity to stately imperial grandeur. He had an armed force when he entered Thuringia to meet with Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen, whose advice and counsel he desired on the recent successes of Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia in Poland.
Only a Bohemian embassy bearing hostages appeased Henry and he disbanded his army and continued his tour. He passed through Bavaria where, upon his departure, King Peter Urseolo of Hungary sent raiding parties into Swabia. There, at Ulm, he convened a Fürstentag at which he received his first recognition from Italy.
He returned to Ingelheim after that and there was recognised by a Burgundian embassy and Aribert, Archbishop of Milan, whom he had supported against his father. This peace with Aribert healed the only open wound in the Empire. Meanwhile, in 1039, while he was touring his dominions, Conrad, Adalbero's successor in Carinthia and Henry's cousin, died childless. Henry being his nearest kin automatically inherited that duchy as well. He was now a triple-duke (Bavaria, Swabia, Carinthia) and triple-king (Germany, Burgundy, Italy).
Subjecting Bohemia

Henry's first military campaign as sole ruler took place then (1040). He turned to Bohemia, where Bretislaus was still a threat, especially through his Hungarian ally's raiding. At Stablo, after attending to the reform of some monasteries, Henry summoned his army. In July, he met with Eckhard at Goslar and joined together his whole force at Regensburg. On 13 August, he set out. He was ambushed and the expedition ended in disaster. Only by releasing many Bohemian hostages, including Bretislaus's son, did the Germans procure the release of many of their comrades and the establishment of a peace. Henry retreated hastily and with little fanfare, preferring to ignore his first great defeat. On his return to Germany, Henry appointed Suidger bishop of Bamberg. He would later be Pope Clement II.
First Hungarian campaign
In 1040, Peter of Hungary was overthrown by Samuel Aba and fled to Germany, where Henry received him well despite the enmity formerly between them. Bretislaus was thus deprived of an ally and Henry renewed preparations for a campaign in Bohemia. On 15 August, he and Eckard set out once more, almost exactly a year after his last expedition. This time he was victorious and Bretislaus signed a peace treaty at Regensburg.
He spent Christmas 1041 at Strasbourg, where he received emissaries from Burgundy. He travelled to that kingdom in the new year and dispensed justice as needed. On his return, he heard, at Basel, of the raids into Bavaria being made by the king of Hungary. He thus granted his own duchy of Bavaria to one Henry, a relative of the last independent duke. At Cologne, he called together all his great princes, including Eckard, and they unanimously declared war on Hungary. It wasn't until September 1042 that he set out, after having dispatched men to seek out Agnes de Poitou to be his new bride. The expedition into Hungary successfully subdued the west of that nation, but Aba fled to eastern fortresses and Henry's installed candidate, an unknown cousin of his, was quickly removed when the emperor turned his back.
After Christmas at Goslar, his intended capital, he entertained several embassies: Bretislaus came in person, a Kievan embassy was rejected because Henry was not seeking a Rus bride, and the ambassadors of Casimir I of Poland were likewise rejected because the duke came not in person. Gisela, Henry's mother, died at this juncture and Henry went to the French borders, probably near Ivois to meet King Henry I of France, probably over the impending marriage to the princess of Aquitaine. Henry next turned to Hungary again, where he forced Aba to recognise the Danubian territory donated to Germany by Stephen I of Hungary pro causa amicitiae (for friendship's sake). These territories were ceded to Hungary after the defeat of Conrad II in 1030. This border remained the border between Hungary and Austria until 1920.
After this victory, Henry, a pious man, who dreamed of a Peace and Truce of God being respected over all his realms, declared from the pulpit in Konstanz in October 1043 a general indulgence or pardon whereby he promised to forgive all injuries to himself and to forgo vengeance. He encouraged all his vassals to do likewise. This is known as the "Day of Indulgence" or "Day of Pardon".
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