Henry IV

Henry IV

Regency

Conflict with the Pope

Henry's first task after assuming control was to restore his authority in the duchies, especially in Saxony, where a revolt (1073) was subdued in 1075. He then turned his attention to Italy, where he sought to restore imperial authority; this provoked a conflict with the papacy. Henry disregarded the opposition of Pope Gregory VII to lay investiture and invested a new bishop of Milan. Gregory supported the previous bishop, who had been put in office by a revolutionary movement in the city, and threatened Henry with deposition. Henry summoned a council at Worms, which declared Gregory deposed (Jan., 1076).

Gregory, at a synod in Feb., 1076, declared Henry excommunicated and deposed and absolved his subjects of their oaths of fealty. A powerful coalition of German nobles, including the rebellious Saxons, agreed (Oct., 1076) not to recognize the king unless he obtained absolution by February; his fitness to rule was to be decided at a diet to be held at Augsburg under the chairmanship of the pope. To forestall the action of this diet, Henry crossed the Alps in the dead of winter to seek absolution. By his humiliation and penitence he moved the pope to grant him absolution at Canossa in Jan., 1077.

Despite the absolution, the rebel dukes were determined to depose Henry, and they elected Duke Rudolf of Swabia antiking, thus plunging Germany into civil war. Gregory remained neutral until Mar., 1080, when he renewed Henry's excommunication and deposition and recognized Rudolf's title. But Henry was now supported by a large party; German and Italian bishops joined him in declaring Gregory deposed and in electing an antipope, Clement III (see Guibert of Ravenna).

Rudolf died in 1080, and his supporters elected a Lotharingian count, Herman of Salm, to succeed him. By this time, however, the German revolt was practically broken, and in 1081 Henry carried the war into Italy. After several unsuccessful attempts he occupied Rome in 1084, installed Clement III as pope, and was crowned emperor. He retired before the advance of Gregory's Norman allies under Robert Guiscard, who rescued Gregory but plundered Rome. The Normans then withdrew from Rome, taking Gregory, who had gained the hatred of the Romans, with them.

In Germany, Henry broke (1088) the power of Herman, but his stubborn support of Clement III against Gregory's successors made his own family turn against him because they felt he was endangering the monarchy. When his son Henry (later Henry V) rebelled in 1104, only the Rhenish cities were loyal to the emperor. Trapped by a promise of conciliation, Henry IV was imprisoned and forced to abdicate (1105). In 1106, just before his death, he escaped and received considerable support. During his reign Henry was caught between the rising particularism of the princes and the reformist demands of a revivified papacy, but he managed to salvage enough of his father's legacy to make possible a restoration of imperial power under the Hohenstaufens.

Henry IV

Seizure of Crown from Richard

By 1377 Henry had become the earl of Derby, and in 1380 he married Mary de Bohun, coheiress of the earl of Hereford. In 1387 he joined the opposition to King Richard II led by his uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, and became one of the five “lords appellant” who ruled England in 1388–89. In the early 1390s he served in Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights and went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

He supported the king when Richard took his revenge on three of the “lords appellant,” including Gloucester, and was made duke of Hereford in 1397. However, in 1398 after a quarrel with Thomas Mowbray, 1st duke of Norfolk, whose confidence he betrayed to Richard, Hereford was banished for 10 years by the king. When John of Gaunt died in 1399, Richard confiscated the vast Lancastrian estates, which were Hereford's inheritance.

The irate duke, taking advantage of Richard's absence in Ireland and the widespread dissatisfaction with Richard's rule, landed in England in July, 1399. He gained ample support, and Richard, who surrendered to him in August, was forced to abdicate. Henry's claim to the throne was confirmed by Parliament in September. He thus, by revolution and election, founded the Lancastrian dynasty.

Reign

The new king was immediately faced with insurrections. Early in 1400, supporters of Richard II rebelled, but the revolt was easily suppressed and most of its leaders were subsequently executed. Richard himself died at Pontefract Castle, either by self-starvation or murdered on Henry's orders. The Welsh, aided by France, also revolted in 1400, and Henry led an ineffective invasion of Scotland. The Scots were decisively defeated in 1402 at Homildon Hill, but the Welsh continued their rebellion under Owen Glendower. The Percys (Sir Henry Percy, his father, the 1st earl of Northumberland, and his uncle, the earl of Worcester), once the king's partisans, unexpectedly rebelled and were defeated at Shrewsbury in 1403. A rebellion of 1405 in the north was crushed, and the leaders, among them Richard Le Scrope, archbishop of York, were executed; Henry was severely criticized for their deaths. Despite the capture (1406) of James (later James I), heir to the Scottish throne, trouble with Scotland continued under Robert Stuart, 1st duke of Albany. Northumberland's new rebellion was put down at Bramham Moor in 1408, the Welsh were crushed shortly afterward (though Owen Glendower was not captured), and the French armies ceased to harry English possessions in France.

No sooner had his military troubles ended than others began for Henry—an illness that left him an invalid for much of his few remaining years and a somewhat obscure struggle between two parties, one of them led by his son, the future Henry V, for control of the council. Henry V came to a throne made temporarily secure by the military efforts of his father, but Henry IV had lacked the skill and patience to restore the financial stability of the crown, now enormously in debt, and to provide a satisfactory administration of civil justice.

Bibliography

See biography by J. L. Kirby (1971); V. H. H. Green, The Later Plantagenets (1955, repr. 1966); E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century (1961).

Henry IV

Early Life

Struggle for Succession

Henry became the legal heir to the French throne upon the death (1584) of Francis, duke of Alençon, brother and heir to King Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. The Catholic League, led by Henri, 3d duc de Guise, refused to recognize a Protestant as heir and persuaded the king to revoke concessions to the Protestants and to exclude Henry of Navarre from the succession. In the resulting war, known as the War of the Three Henrys, Henry of Navarre defeated (1587) the king's forces at Coutras but was reconciled with Henry III when the League revolted against him (1588).

After Henry III's death (1589), Henry IV defeated the League forces under the duc de Mayenne at Arques (1589) and Ivry (1590) but was forced to abandon the siege of Paris when the League received Spanish aid. In 1593 he again abjured Protestantism, allegedly with the remark, “Paris is well worth a Mass.” He was received in Paris in 1594. His conciliatory policy soon won him general support. To rid France of Spanish influence, Henry declared war on Spain (1595) and brought it to a successful conclusion with the Treaty of Vervins (1598).

Internal and Foreign Policy

Personal Life

Bibliography

See biographies by P. G. Willert (1893), Q. Hurst (1938), H. Mann (2 vol., tr. 1937–39), and D. Seward (1971); R. Mousnier, The Assassination of Henry IV (tr. 1973).

Henry IV

Bibliography

See study by T. Miller (1972).

Henry IV

Henry IV (1050–1106)

Henry IV