16) King Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII, c.1073–1085

In late 1075, it looked as though Henry IV's right to rule in Saxony had been vindicated by his victory in a battle at Homburg. In October 1075, the leading rebels surrendered to the king and were imprisoned in castles throughout the Rhineland, and the programme of 're-vindication' of the royal prerogatives in Saxony was resumed. But, Henry's positon wasn't as secure as it appeared. His forces and those of his supporters had been severely depleted by the battle and it would be almost impossible to secure a decisive victory in any battles that followed. The Saxon peasantry remained defiant with passive resistance replacing open hostility making it very difficult for Henry's ministeriales to carry out their orders in Saxony.

So, Henry released Duke Otto of Northeim from prison and attempted to use him as an ally in holding the region, but he soon rebelled again. The southern dukes and their magnates now began to regret supporting Henry and began to work together with the Saxons against him. Henry was unable to make his victory at Homburg count. The Saxons rebelled again in 1076 and his castles in the Harz mountains and the palace at Goslar became bases for his enemies and for the anti-kings who raised against him.

Gregory VII had long been a central figure in the rise of the papal reform movement. His exact origins are obscure, but he was probably born in southern Tuscany in the 1020s. He became a monk at the monastery of St Mary on the Aventine Hill in Rome and became pope when he was about 40 years old.

In the late 1050s he emerged as an uncompromising advocate of reform and wanted to remake Christian society after the model of the so-called Jerusalem Community described in the Bible. But his vision of how society should be organised seems to owe more to a quasi-imperial notion of papal authority for which there were few historical precedents. He believed everyone, including kings, owed the pope complete obedience as the Pope alone was always the true follower of Christ. But, it was the loyalties of the bishops of the German church and their failure to enforce his canons against simony and nicolaitism that led to the falling out between Henry IV and Gregory VII. He expected the priests to behave like monks and should live like the Christians in Jerusalem from the Bible.

When Gregory's decrees reached Germany, including that priests weren't allowed wives and had to dismiss those already married to them, there was much resistance. This was especially because of the dates he had specified he wanted his orders to be carried out by. The bishops were reluctant to impose reformations on the clergy as they seemed to be alienating them, and there were few educated people able to fill the positions that would be created. So, they started complaining to the king about the pope.

There had already been a dispute over the election of a new Archbishop of Milan where Gregory had complained about Henry's attitude to his authority. But it was the pressure Gregory put the bishops of the German church under which was the most serious issue. Henry seems to have disliked many of his bishops, but he had to support these crucial vassals because he needed their military support, among other things. A meeting was held where it was decided that 2 letters should be sent to the pope, one from the bishops, and the other from Henry. He severely called the pope out in his letter and told him to 'Come down, come down, and be accursed through all the ages'. He also tried to appoint bishops to sees under the Pope's power which upset Gregory who then wrote a letter back to Henry.

In Gregory's response, he invoked the authority of St Peter in a curse issued at a Roman synod in February 1076. The German bishops and princes now abandoned the king as they awaited for God's verdict. He had very few supporters by the end.

Henry couldn't get away with ignoring the curse or launching an offensive back because there was just so much dissatisfaction within the kingdom of Germany. He wasn't in a strong position and the lay aristocracy had abandoned him. The magnates were now planning to depose Henry and establish a new constitutional principle that would allow them to remove royal families who had proved themselves unsuitable. They wanted to establish election by the princes as the decisive element in the way in which kings would be chosen in the future so they could get rid of sons of kings who had failed to serve their interests.

But, the magnates were also counting on Gregory to legitimise the removal of the present king as they didn't envisage taking on this power themselves. A plan was agreed where Gregory would come to Germany to preside over the removal of the king and the king was told if he didn't reconcile himself with the pope within 1 year from the date of his excommunication, they would elect a new ruler.

But Henry found a cunning plan that enabled him to evade the magnates' trap. He appealed to his godfather, the abbot of Cluny, who came to Speyer. His godfather agreed to go on ahead to Canossa to plead Henry's cause to Gregory who was staying with his loyal supporter there and making preparations for his visit to Germany to meet the princes, and he successfully intercepted him closely followed by Henry.

Henry appeared to Gregory barefoot and dressed as a pennitent sinner before the gates of the castle less than a month before the deadline set by the princes at Tribur. Gregory was forced to forgive him as Henry had performed the traditional act of surrender as a penitent, he had basically backed him into a corner. This move was a ruse intended to deny Henry's enemies the legitimacy they needed to unify the kingdom around their attempt to depose him.

None of this prevented the dukes from going ahead with their plans to depose Henry. They elected Rudolf of Rheinfelden, the duke of Suabia, as anti-king in February 1077 at Forcheim. But, by obtaining the pope's forgiveness, Henry denied them the only recognised 'constitutional' means of deposing a king. He therefore ensured he still had the sufficient support to keep his cause alive and was now able to gather sufficent supporters, including from the church, to resist Rudolf and his supporters.

There was a full-scale battle on the River of Elster in October 1080, and under the leadership of Otto of Northeim, Rudolf won. But, Rudolf lost his right hand, the hand used to take an oath to God, and he later died of blood loss. Henry's supporters were able to spin this as a sign of divine support for their cause and so ultimately, Henry left victorious.

But, the kingdom was condemned to another 4 decades of civil war. The Saxons and their allies tried to continue their struggle by electing a second anti-king, Hermann of Salm, but the war was now headed towards a stalemate. Henry was able to rebuild his position in the Rhineland and Lotharingia through a prolonged effort, and he retained significant support in Bohemia and the March of Meissen. But, he never succeeded in eliminating resistance elsewhere. He fought 6 great pitched battles in Saxony between 1075 and 1088 without any success. In 1088, he suffered his last defeat and withdrew from Saxony, never to return. In the 1090s, much of the kingdom remained outside his sphere of influence, and this continued into his son's reign.

Gregory regretted his act of forgiveness at Canossa and excommunicated Henry IV for the 2nd time in 1080. It was clear now that Henry's words had just been tactical. But, this 2nd excommunication seemed malicious to many, especially the bishops who didn't want to endure the trauma of 1076/7 again. The excommunication also didn't work, so many now believed God was on Henry's side. So, many fell in with Henry's plan and there were calls to elect a new pope. Archbishop Wibert of Ravenna was chosen and he became Pope Clement III.

Henry then organised 2 expeditions to Italy between 1081-4 in an attempt to expel Gregory VII and install Clement III. The first in 1081 failed because the army wasn't big enough, the second in 1083/4 saw the capture of the city, but not the papal fortress, the Castel Sant'Angelo. Gregory took refuge in a secret passage in the Castel Sant'Angelo. While his men continued the siege, Henry had himself and his wife crowned emperor and empress by Clement III in 1084. But, they were soon driven from the city by the arrival of the papacy's ally in the south, Robert Guiscard and his followers, the Normans. Guiscard freed Gregory, but his men made so much damage that the pope found he had lost the last vestiges of his support in the city. Ruined by his ally, Gregory departed with Guiscard southwards to Salerno while Clement III returned to Rome.

Gregory died in May 1085, and it took almost a year after his death before the reformers could elect a successor: Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassino who became Pope Victor III. Most rulers and bishops outside the empire had been holding back waiting to see what happened. But now, in the late 1080s, many inferred that Henry IV and pope Clement III had been vindicated by God.