Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, (1081 – May 23, 1125) was the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. In 1099, 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. 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.

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