Episode 35 – To Rome! to Rome! – Henry IV takes Revenge on pope gregory VII
Suddenly the boot os on the other foot and emperor Henry IV chases pope Gregory VII out of Rome and into exile in Salerno
The Holy Roman empire from 919 – 1250
A condensed history of the Holy Roman Empire from emperor Otto the Great to Frederick II, or from 919 to 1250
Episode 38 – The First Crusade
In 1095 Pope Urban II launches the First Crusade and things get out of control almost immediately as preachers whip up crowds to set off immediately. These crowds bring unimaginable horrors to the Jewish communities in Mainz, Worms, Trier and elsewhere
Episode 36 – Henry IV is Coming Home
Henry IV returned as emperor and made his mark on Saxony, waiting for gregiry VII and his appointees to die
Episode 34 – Gaining the Upper Hand
Unperturbed by Henry IV’s release from the ban the German princes elect Rudolph von Rheinfelden as the new king, change the constitution of the empire and start a civil war that is lost when a man loses not his head, but his hand.
The most untimely death of the bishop of Utrecht
When Bishop William of Utrecht hurls insults at the “false monk who claims to be pope Gregory VII” the wrath of the lord leads to a major turning point in medieval history
Episode 33 – Canossa Finally
It is time – we are finally going to Canossa. Expect imperial power to go up in smoke, greedy mothers-in-laws, frozen passes, hoisted horses and tobogganing empresses.
How King (future Emperor ) Henry IV (1056-1105) turned a disagreement over the archbishop of Milan into a major crisis
Henry had appointed a new archbishop of Milan in direct opposition to the Pope Gregory VII’s candidate (see previous post). As a consequence Gregory had sent a letter to Henry admonishing him and threatening excommunication. Henry then called a synod of 26 German bishops in Worms for the 24th of January. These mighty prelates were […]
How an uprising in Milan leads to the excommunication of the King Henry IV.
Milan is not only Europe’s largest city in the 11th century but also a powder keg. The Pataria, movement of the urban poor, demands better behaved clergymen, resulting in competing archbishops, one supported by the empire, the other by the pope
Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand), 1020-1085
Gregory VII is one of the great papal figures of the Middle Ages. He establishes the concept of the universal primacy of the papacy that has never erred and will never err. His clash with Emperor Henry IV, erroneously called the Investiture Controversy is about much more than that, it may even be one of the great turning points in European history on par with the French and Russian Revolutions