Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III, called the Black or the Pious, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1046 until his death in 1056. A member of the Salian dynasty, he was the eldest son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia.
Henry was raised by his father, who made him Duke of Bavaria in 1026, appointed him co-ruler in 1028 and bestowed him with the duchy of Swabia and the Kingdom of Burgundy ten years later in 1038. The emperor's death the following year ended a remarkably smooth and harmonious transition process towards Henry's sovereign rule, that was rather uncharacteristic for the Ottonian and Salian monarchs. Henry succeeded Conrad II as Duke of Carinthia and King of Italy and continued to pursue his father's political course on the basis of virtus et probitas, which led to an unprecedented sacral exaltation of the kingship. In 1046 Henry ended the papal schism, was crowned Emperor by Pope Clement II, freed the Vatican from dependence on the Roman nobility and laid the foundation for its empire-wide authority. In the duchies, Henry enforced the sovereign royal right of disposition, thereby ensuring tighter control. In Lorraine, this led to years of conflict from which he emerged victorious. Another sphere of defiance formed in southern Germany from 1052 to 1055. Henry III died in 1056, aged only 39. Modern historians identify the final years of his reign as the beginning of a crisis in the Salian monarchy.
Early life
Born on 28 October 1016, or 1017, Henry was the son of Conrad of Worms and Gisela of Swabia. Conrad was a Franconian aristocrat who held domains along the river Rhine when his son was born. He was related to the imperial Ottonian dynasty through his great-grandmother, Liutgard—a daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I. Conrad may have fathered a son before his marriage to Gisela, because a royal charter referred to his sons in 1024, but its reliability is dubious. Henry was always mentioned as his father's sole son in charters issued after February 1028. Gisela, who was descended from Charlemagne, had a strong claim both to Swabia and to Burgundy. Conrad was Gisela's third husband and she had given birth to three sons and possibly a daughter during her previous two marriages. Conrad was illiterate, but Gisela was solicitous to their son's education and Henry learnt to read.The last Ottonian monarch, Henry II, died on 13 July 1024. The German aristocrats who assembled at Kamba to elect his successor proclaimed Conrad of Worms king on 4 September. Conrad's opponent formed a coalition that included his stepson, Ernest II, Duke of Swabia. They took up arms against the King in the second half of 1025, but he forced most of them into submission before the end of the year. Ernest asked his mother Gisela to mediate a reconciliation and she convinced the eight-year-old Henry also to intervene on Ernest's behalf in early 1026. Ernest had to promise to provide military assistance to Conrad to achieve a pardon.
Conrad designated Henry as his heir in Augsburg in February 1027. A year later, before departing for his first Italian campaign, Conrad charged Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg, with Henry's guardianship. Historian Stefan Weinfurter states that Bruno, who was Emperor Henry II's brother, was "particularly well-suited to impart regal concepts and imperial traditions" to his ward. Bruno accompanied Henry to Rome where they attended Conrad's imperial coronation on Easter 1027.
Dynastic consolidation and co-ruler
Emperor Conrad II was determined to strengthen royal authority in Germany. Ignoring the claim of Emeric, the son of King Stephen I of Hungary, to Bavaria, Conrad persuaded the Bavarian aristocrats to acknowledge Henry as their duke in Regensburg on 24 July 1027. Henry's appointment to the duchy was unprecedented—Bavaria had never been ruled by a ten-year-old duke. In autumn 1027, the Emperor sent Bishop Werner of Strasbourg to Constantinople to win a bride from the Byzantine imperial family for Henry, but Werner's sudden death put an end to the negotiations with Emperor Constantine VIII.At Conrad's initiative, the "clergy and the people" elected Henry his co-ruler and Pilgrim, Archbishop of Cologne, crowned Henry king in Aachen on Easter 1028. Henry was thereafter named the "hope of the empire" on his father's seals in accordance with Byzantine customs. Conrad sent another embassy to Constantinople. Constantine VIII's successor, Emperor Romanos III Argyros, proposed the hand of one of his sisters to Henry, but Conrad's envoy, Count Manegold of Donauwörth, refused the offer since she was already married.
Bishop Bruno of Augsburg died on 6 April 1029 and Conrad appointed Egilbert, Bishop of Freising, as Henry's new tutor. Bavaria made raids into Hungary and provoked a Hungarian counter-attack. Conrad assembled Bavarian, Lorrainian and Bohemian troops and invaded Hungary in June 1030. Insufficient supplies forced him to return and the Hungarians attacked and beat his army at Vienna. Conrad left Bavaria, assigning the task to deal with the Hungarians to the twelve-year-old Henry. Egilbert of Freising started negotiations with Stephen I of Hungary on Henry's behalf. Egilbert agreed to cede lands along the frontier to the Hungarians in return for the release of their prisoners. Henry accepted the terms and signed the peace treaty during a meeting with Stephen I in Hungary in early 1031.
Egilbert's mentorship lasted until Henry's accolade in late June or early July in 1033. Egilbert received generous grants for his services on 19 July.
Upon Rudolph III of Burgundy's death Conrad II claimed the title to the Burgundian succession and marched his army to Burgundy during the winter of 1032/1033. In two large-scale military summer campaigns in 1033 and 1034, Conrad defeated his rival Odo II, Count of Blois. On 1 August 1034, Conrad II officially incorporated the Kingdom of Burgundy into the Holy Roman Empire at a ceremony held in the Cathedral of Geneva.
Henry and Gunhilda of Denmark, the daughter of Emma of Normandy and Canute the Great, King of Denmark, England and Norway, were engaged on 18 May 1035. On the same occasion Conrad declared war on the Liutizi, a pagan Slavic tribe and deposed his brother-in-law, Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia. Conrad entrusted Canute with Southern Jutland upon their children's marriage, which took place in Nijmegen during the 1036 feast of Pentecost.
In 1038, Henry was called to aid his father in Italy. On their return trip along the Adriatic coast Gunhilda died from an epidemic that apparently had also caused the death of Herman IV of Swabia near Naples. In 1039, Emperor Conrad II also died, and Henry succeeded him as king and imperator in spe.
Royal and imperial reign
Inaugural tour
Henry inaugurated his reign with a tour through his domains. In the Low Countries he received homage of Gothelo I, Duke of Upper and Lower Lorraine, and in Cologne, he was joined by Herman II, Archbishop of Cologne, who accompanied him and his mother to Saxony, where he established the town of Goslar as a future imperial residence. Heading an army he entered Thuringia where he met Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen, whose advice and counsel he sought with regard to the recent successes of Duke Bretislav I of Bohemia in Poland.In Bohemia only a delegation that offered hostages appeased Henry and he disbanded his army and continued his tour. He visited Bavaria, when, upon his departure, King Peter Orseolo of Hungary sent raiding parties into Swabia. At Ulm, Henry convened a diet and received acknowledgement from the present Italian princes.
Henry returned to Ingelheim where he was recognized by a Burgundian embassy and by Aribert, Archbishop of Milan, whom he had supported against his father. Henry's consensus with Aribert was an attempt to solve the old interior imperial conflict with Conrad. When Adalbero I of Eppenstein was deposed by Conrad, Henry also inherited the Duchy of Carinthia, by which he became triple-duke on top of being triple-king of Germany, Burgundy and Italy.
Conflict with Bohemia and Hungary
Henry led his first military campaign as sovereign in 1040 into Bohemia, where Bretislav I intended to establish a separate archbishopric. After having attended the reform sessions of a number of monasteries, Henry summoned his army at Stablo. In July he joined with contingents at Goslar and deployed his entire army at Regensburg. He set out on 13 August and was soon ambushed in the passes of the Bohemian Forest and forced to retreat with heavy losses at the Battle at Brůdek. Only after the release of a large number of Bohemian hostages, including Bretislav's son, did Henry procure the release of his prisoners. Upon conclusion of the peace, Henry retreated hastily. On his return to Germany, he appointed Suidger—the future Pope Clement II—as bishop of Bamberg.In 1040, Peter of Hungary was overthrown by Samuel Aba and fled to Germany, where Henry welcomed him despite their former enmity. Bretislav was now deprived of his former ally, upon which Henry prepared another campaign into Bohemia. On 15 August, almost exactly one year after his last expedition he set out once more, was victorious and signed a peace treaty with Bretislav at Regensburg.
File:Konrad und seine Gemahlin Gisela.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Conrad II and his wife Gisela kneel in front of the Majestas Domini, Codex Aureus Escorialensis, around 1045/46; Madrid, Biblioteca del monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial
Henry spent Christmas 1041 at Strasbourg, and received emissaries from the Duchy of Burgundy, where he travelled during the new year to settle administrative and judicial matters. On the road near Basel he learnt of Hungarian raids into Bavaria and bestowed the duchy to a certain Henry VII, a relative of the last independent duke. At Cologne, Henry summoned the royal princes, who unanimously declared war on Hungary. After he had sent a wedding delegation to Agnes of Poitou he set out in September 1042 and successfully subdued the western territories of Hungary. Aba fled to his eastern estates, as Henry installed a cousin as steward, who was, however, quickly removed after the emperor had left.
After Christmas at his chosen imperial residence, Goslar, he received foreign guests. Duke Bretislav appeared in person, a Kievan marriage embassy was dismissed and the ambassadors of Casimir I of Poland were rejected as the duke did not show up in person. Henry left for the French border near Ivois, in order to meet King Henry I of France, most likely to discuss the impending marriage to the princess of Aquitaine. Henry next returned to Hungary and forced Aba to recognize the Danubian territories, a former donation of Stephen I of Hungary, pro causa amicitiae. These territories had been ceded to Hungary after Conrad II's defeat of 1030. This border remained in place between Hungary and Austria until 1920.