Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV, the third Holy Roman Emperor of the Salian dynasty, was born in Goslar in 1050. Elected king of Germany and thereby successor to his father, the emperor Henry III on the latter's death in 1056, he was crowned emperor in 1084. Deposed in 1105, he died the following year in Liège.

Henry IV's reign was marked by efforts to consolidate Imperial power. In reality, however, it was a careful balancing act between maintaining the loyalty of the nobility and the support of the pope. Henry jeopardized both when, in 1075, his insistence on the right of a secular ruler to invest, i.e., to place in office, members of the clergy, especially bishops, began the conflict known as the Investiture dispute.

Henry's first marriage, to Bertha, countess of Maurine, produced two sons, of whom Conrad died after chaiming the imperial crown, and Henry forced his father's abdication in 1105, replacing him as Henry V. A daughter, Agnes of Franconia, married the later Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Henry's second marriage (1089-93) was to Eupraxia of Kiev, the daughter of Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev.