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Holy Roman Emperor  Image Courtesy of A Website I Can't Remember, Email Me If You Know Where. I think Henry V is the one on the left.  Born in 1081, son of Henry IV (the Holy Roman Emperor one), Henry was a presumably spoilt little brat. So spoilt that in 1104, at the age of 23, he rebelled against his father Henry IV, captured him and locked him away until his daddy cracked and abdicated, leaving Henry to ascend to the role of Holy Roman Emperor in an undisputed fashion when daddy finally kicked the bucket in 1106. Henry V did quite a few things in his time as Emperor including kidnapping Pope Paschal II and running away with him until the Pope "retracted his concessions" (eewww!) in 1112, putting down rebellions among the German princes, invading Italy to seize some of the Pope's paddocks, and finally driving Pope Paschal The Pestered out of Rome in 1117. He was then partially responsible (well okay, totally responsible) for setting up the anti-pope Gregory VIII in direct opposition to the "real pope" Pope Gelasius II. The "Concordat of Worms" in 1122 was historically important, as most history is, and dissolved the anti-pope (not literally) and reinstated the real pope, as well as returning Henry V from the spiritual abandonment of excommunication (in force from 1118). In 1125, being the last year of his all too brief reign, Henry V did quite a lot which included an alliance with Henry I of England to invade France (at the time led by Louis VI, not the famous one). And then he died. As well as being a positively rotten father-imprisoner, Henry V obviously had issues with the Church, being a serial Pope-annoyer. Or perhaps his problem was just with Pope Paschal II (and with a name like Paschal, who can blame Henry?). |