Henry V of Germany (1048-1125) was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1111 to 1125, succeeding Henry IV of Germany and preceding Lothair III of Germany. He overthrew his father while King of Italy and made amends with the Papacy, agreeing to the Concordat of Worms in 1122 and ending the Investiture Controversy.
Biography[]
Henry V was the eldest natural son of Henry IV of Germany and Bertha of Savoy, biological brother of Agnes of Germany and Leopold of Vienna. Henry V was a healthy man and a promising commander, taking Magdeburg in 1094 from the German Rebels of the empire. Henry was declared King of Italy in 1098, when Pope Paschal II ascended the papacy and excommunicated his father. Henry V of Germany and Pope Paschal II conspired to oust Henry IV, and in 1104 Henry began a rebellion in Saxony and Thuringia with the aid of the bishops. Forced to sign the Diet of Mainz in December 1104, Henry IV was deposed and Henry V became King of Germany and was crowned as Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Henry forced his imprisoned father to "confess" to wrongly persecuting Pope Gregory VII and illegally promoting Pope Clement III, and this decision heralded opposition by the people of Germany against the pro-Papacy Henry V.
In 1106, Henry IV was freed from prison with aid from many barons, including lower Rhenish nobility. Henry V was defeated in the Battle of Vise in early 1106, but his father died shortly after, and Henry V emerged the victor. Henry V continued his support of the Pope, and signed the Concordat of Worms in 1122. The King was recognized as having the right to invest bishops with secular authority ("by the lance") in the territories they governed, but not with sacred authority ("by ring and staff"); the result was that bishops owed allegiance in worldly matters both to the pope and to the king, for they were obligated to affirm the right of the sovereign to call upon them for military support, under his oath of fealty. Henry V thus shared power with Pope Callixtus II, temporarily ending the Guelph-Ghibelline struggles. He died in 1125.