Chapter 5

Henley is the subject of several of Hogarth’s prints. His life, professedly written by A. Welstede, but in all probability by himself, was inserted by him in hisOratory Transactions. See J. B. Nichols,History of Leicestershire; I. Disraeli,Calamities of Authors.

HENLEY, WILLIAM ERNEST(1849-1903), British poet, critic and editor, was born on the 23rd of August 1849 at Gloucester, and was educated at the Crypt Grammar School in that city. The school was a sort of Cinderella sister to the Cathedral School, and Henley indicated its shortcomings in his article (Pall Mall Magazine, Nov. 1900) on T. E. Brown the poet, who was headmaster there for a brief period. Brown’s appointment, uncongenial to himself, was a stroke of luck for Henley, for whom, as he said, it represented a first acquaintance with a man of genius. “He was singularly kind to me at a moment when I needed kindness even more than I needed encouragement.” Among other kindnesses Brown did him the essential service of lending him books. To the end Henley was no classical scholar, but his knowledge and love of literature were vital. Afflicted with a physical infirmity, he found himself in 1874, at the age of twenty-five, an inmate of the hospital at Edinburgh. From there he sent to theCornhill Magazinepoems in irregular rhythms, describing with poignant force his experiences in hospital. Leslie Stephen, then editor, being in Edinburgh, visited his contributor in hospital and took Robert Louis Stevenson, another recruit of theCornhill, with him. The meeting between Stevenson and Henley, and the friendship of which it was the beginning, form one of the best-known episodes in recent literature (see especially Stevenson’s letter to Mrs Sitwell, Jan. 1875, and Henley’s poems “An Apparition” and “Envoy to Charles Baxter”). In 1877 Henley went to London and began his editorial career by editingLondon, a journal of a type more usual in Paris than London, written for the sake of its contributors rather than of the public. Among other distinctions it first gave to the worldThe New Arabian Nightsof Stevenson. Henley himself contributed to his journal a series of verses chiefly in old French forms. He had been writing poetry since 1872, but (so he told the world in his “advertisement” to his collectedPoems, 1898) he “found himself about 1877 so utterly unmarketable that he had to own himself beaten in art and to addict himself to journalism for the next ten years.” After the decease ofLondon, he edited theMagazine of Artfrom 1882 to 1886. At the end of that period he came before the public as a poet. In 1887 Mr Gleeson White made for the popular series ofCanterbury Poets(edited by Mr William Sharp) a selection of poems in old French forms. In his selection Mr Gleeson White included a considerable number of pieces fromLondon, and only after he had completed the selection did he discover that the verses were all by one hand, that of Henley. In the following year, Mr H. B. Donkin in his volumeVoluntaries, done for an East End hospital, included Henley’s unrhymed rhythms quintessentializing the poet’s memories of the old Edinburgh Infirmary. Mr Alfred Nutt read these, and asked for more; and in 1888 his firm publishedA Book of Verse. Henley was by this time well known in a restricted literary circle, and the publication of this volume determined for them his fame as a poet, which rapidly outgrew these limits, two new editions of this volume being called for within three years. In this same year (1888) Mr Fitzroy Bell started theScots Observerin Edinburgh, with Henley as literary editor, and early in 1889 Mr Bell left the conduct of the paper to him. It was a weekly review somewhat on the lines of the oldSaturday Review, but inspired in every paragraph by the vigorous and combative personality of the editor. It was transferred soon after to London as theNational Observer, and remained under Henley’s editorship until 1893. Though, as Henley confessed, the paper had almost as many writers as readers, and its fame was mainly confined to the literary class, it was a lively and not uninfluential feature of the literary life of its time. Henley had the editor’s great gift of discerning promise, and the “Men of theScots Observer,” as Henley affectionately and characteristically called his band of contributors, in most instances justified his insight. The paper found utterance for the growing imperialism of its day, and among other services to literature gave to the world Mr Kipling’sBarrack-Room Ballads. In 1890 Henley publishedViews and Reviews, a volume of notable criticisms, described by himself as “less a book than amosaicof scraps and shreds recovered from the shot rubbish of some fourteen years of journalism.” The criticisms, covering a wide range of authors (except Heine and Tolstoy, all English and French), though wilful and often one-sided were terse, trenchant and picturesque, and remarkable for insight and gusto. In 1892 he published a second volume of poetry, named after the first poem,The Song of the Sword, but on the issue of the second edition (1893) re-christenedLondon Voluntariesafter another section. Stevenson wrote that he had not received the same thrill of poetry since Mr Meredith’s “Joy of Earth” and “Love in the Valley,” and he did not know that that was so intimate and so deep. “I did not guess you were so great a magician. These are new tunes; this is an undertone of the true Apollo. These are not verse; they are poetry.” In 1892 Henley published also three plays written with Stevenson—Beau Austin,Deacon BrodieandAdmiral Guinea. In 1895 followedMacaire, afterwards published in a volume with the other plays.Deacon Brodiewas produced in Edinburgh in 1884 and later in London. Beerbohm Tree producedBeau Austinat the Haymarket on the 3rd of November 1890andMacaireat His Majesty’s on the 2nd of May 1901.Admiral Guineaalso achieved stage performance. In the meantime Henley was active in the magazines and did notable editorial work for the publishers: theLyra Heroica, 1891;A Book of English Prose(with Mr Charles Whibley), 1894; the centenary Burns (with Mr T. F. Henderson) in 1896-1897, in which Henley’s Essay (published separately 1898) roused considerable controversy. In 1892 he undertook for Mr Nutt the general editorship of theTudor Translations; and in 1897 began for Mr Heinemann an edition of Byron, which did not proceed beyond one volume of letters. In 1898 he published a collection of hisPoemsin one volume, with the autobiographical “advertisement” above quoted; in 1899London Types, Quatorzains to accompany Mr William Nicolson’s designs; and in 1900 during the Boer War, a patriotic poetical brochure,For England’s Sake. In 1901 he published a second volume of collected poetry with the titleHawthorn and Lavender, uniform with the volume of 1898. In 1902 he collected his various articles on painters and artists and published them as a companion volume ofViews and Reviews: Art. These with “A Song of Speed” printed in May 1903 within two months of his death make up his tale of work. At the close of his life he was engaged upon his edition of the Authorized Version of the Bible for his series ofTudor Translations. There remained uncollected some of his scattered articles in periodicals and reviews, especially the series of literary articles contributed to thePall Mall Magazinefrom 1899 until his death. These contain the most outspoken utterances of a critic never mealy-mouthed, and include the splenetic attack on the memory of his dead friend R. L. Stevenson, which aroused deep regret and resentment. In 1894 Henley lost his little six-year-old daughter Margaret; he had borne the “bludgeonings of chance” with “the unconquerable soul” of which he boasted, not unjustifiably, in a well-known poem; but this blow broke his heart. With the knowledge of this fact, some of these outbursts may be better understood; yet we have the evidence of a clear-eyed critic who knew Henley well, that he found him more generous, more sympathetic at the close of his life than he had been before. He died on the 11th of July 1903. In spite of his too boisterous mannerism and prejudices, he exercised by his originality, independence and fearlessness an inspiring and inspiriting influence on the higher class of journalism. This influence he exercised by word of mouth as well as by his pen, for he was a famous talker, and figures as “Burly” in Stevenson’s essay onTalk and Talkers. As critic he was a good hater and a good fighter. His virtue lay in his vital and vitalizing love of good literature, and the vivid and pictorial phrases he found to give it expression. But his fame must rest on his poetry. He excelled alike in his delicate experiments in complicated metres, and the strong impressionism ofHospital SketchesandLondon Voluntaries. The influence of Heine may be discerned in these “unrhymed rhythms”; but he was perhaps a truer and more successful disciple of Heine in his snatches of passionate song, the best of which should retain their place in English literature.

See also references inStevenson’s Letters;Cornhill Magazine(1903) (Sidney Low);Fortnightly Review(August 1892) (Arthur Symons); and for bibliography,English Illustrated Magazine, vol. xxix. p. 548.

(W. P. J.)

HENLEY-ON-THAMES,a market town and municipal borough in the Henley parliamentary division of Oxfordshire, England, on the left bank of the Thames, the terminus of a branch of the Great Western railway, by which it is 35¾ m. W. of London, while it is 57½ m. by river. Pop. (1901) 5984. It occupies one of the most beautiful situations on the Thames, at the foot of the finely wooded Chiltern Hills. The river is crossed by an elegant stone bridge of five arches, constructed in 1786. The parish church (Decorated and Perpendicular) possesses a lofty tower of intermingled flint and stone, attributed to Cardinal Wolsey, but more probably erected by Bishop Longland. The grammar school, founded in 1605, is incorporated with a Blue Coat school. Henley is a favourite summer resort, and is celebrated for the annual Henley Royal Regatta, the principal gathering of amateur oarsmen in England, first held in 1839 and usually taking place in July. Henley is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 549 acres.

Henley-on-Thames (Hanlegang, Henle, Handley), not mentioned in Domesday, was a manor or ancient demesne of the crown and was granted (1337) to John de Molyns, whose family held it for about 250 years. It is said that members for Henley sat in parliaments of Edward I. and Edward III., but no writs have been found. Henry VIII. having granted the use of the titles “mayor” and “burgess,” the town was incorporated in 1570-1571 by the name of the warden, portreeves, burgesses and commonalty. Henley suffered from both parties in the Civil War. William III. on his march to London (1688) rested here and received a deputation from the Lords. The period of prosperity in the 17th and 18th centuries was due to manufactures of glass and malt, and to trade in corn and wool. The existing Thursday market was granted by a charter of John and the existing Corpus Christi fair by a charter of Henry VI.

See J. S. Burn,History of Henley-on-Thames(London, 1861).

HENNA,the Persian name for a small shrub found in India, Persia, the Levant and along the African coasts of the Mediterranean, where it is frequently cultivated. It is theLawsonia albaof botanists, and from the fact that young trees are spineless, while older ones have the branchlets hardened into spines, it has also received the names ofLawsonia inermisandL. spinosa. It forms a slender shrubby plant of from 8 to 10 ft. high, with opposite lance-shaped smooth leaves, which are entire at the margins, and bears small white four-petalled sweet-scented flowers disposed in panicles. Its Egyptian name isKhenna, its Arabic nameAl Khanna, its Indian nameMendee, while in England it is calledEgyptian privet, and in the West Indies, where it is naturalized,Jamaica mignonette.

Henna or Henné is of ancient repute as a cosmetic. This consists of the leaves of theLawsoniapowdered and made up into a paste; this is employed by the Egyptian women, and also by the Mahommedan women in India, to dye their fingernails and other parts of their hands and feet of an orange-red colour, which is considered to add to their beauty. The colour lasts for three or four weeks, when it requires to be renewed. It is moreover used for dyeing the hair and beard, and even the manes of horses; and the same material is employed for dyeing skins and morocco-leather a reddish-yellow, but it contains no tannin. The practice of dyeing the nails was common amongst the Egyptians, and not to conform to it would have been considered indecent. It has descended from very remote ages, as is proved by the evidence afforded by Egyptian mummies, the nails of which are most commonly stained of a reddish hue. Henna is also said to have been held in repute amongst the Hebrews, being considered to be the plant referred to as camphire in the Bible (Song of Solomon i. 14, iv. 13). “The custom of dyeing the nails and palms of the hands and soles of the feet of an iron-rust colour with henna,” observes Dr J. Forbes Royle, “exists throughout the East from the Mediterranean to the Ganges, as well as in northern Africa. In some parts the practice is not confined to women and children, but is also followed by men, especially in Persia. In dyeing the beard the hair is turned to red by this application, which is then changed to black by a preparation of indigo. In dyeing the hair of children, and the tails and manes of horses and asses, the process is allowed to stop at the red colour which the henna produces.” Mahomet, it is said, used henna as a dye for his beard, and the fashion was adopted by the caliphs. “The use of henna,” remarks Lady Callcott in herScripture Herbal, “is scarcely to be called a caprice in the East. There is a quality in the drug which gently restrains perspiration in the hands and feet, and produces an agreeable coolness equally conducive to health and comfort.” She further suggests that if the Jewish women were not in the habit of using this dye before the time of Solomon, it might probably have been introduced amongst them by his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, and traces to this probability the allusion to “camphire” in the passages in Canticles above referred to.

The preparation of henna consists in reducing the leaves and young twigs to a fine powder, catechu or lucerne leavesin a pulverized state being sometimes mixed with them. When required for use, the powder is made into a pasty mass with hot water, and is then spread upon the part to be dyed, where it is generally allowed to remain for one night. According to Lady Callcott, the flowers are often used by the Eastern women to adorn their hair. The distilled water from the flowers is used as a perfume.

HENNEBONT,a town of western France, in the department of Morbihan, 6 m. N.E. of Lorient by road. Pop. (1906) 7250. It is situated about 10 m. from the mouth of the Blavet, which divides it into two parts—theVille Close, the medieval military town, and theVille Neuveon the left bank and theVieille Villeon the right bank. The Ville Close, surrounded by ramparts and entered by a massive gateway flanked by machicolated towers, consists of narrow quiet streets bordered by houses of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Ville Neuve, which lies nearer the river, developed during the 17th century and later than the Ville Close, while the Vieille Ville is older than either. The only building of architectural importance is the church of Notre-Dame de Paradis (16th century) preceded by a tower with an ornamented stone spire. There are scanty remains of the old fortress. Hennebont has a small but busy river-port accessible to vessels of 200 to 300 tons. An important foundry in the environs of the town employs 1400 work-people in the manufacture of tin-plate for sardine boxes and other purposes. Boat-building, tanning, distilling and the manufacture of earthenware, white lead and chemical manures are also carried on. Granite is worked in the neighbourhood. Hennebont is famed for the resistance which it made, under the widow of Jean de Montfort, when besieged in 1342 by the armies of Philip of Valois and Charles of Blois during the War of the Succession in Brittany (seeBrittany).

HENNEQUIN, PHILIPPE AUGUSTE(1763-1833), French painter, was a pupil of David. He was born at Lyons in 1763, distinguished himself early by winning the “Grand Prix,” and left France for Italy. The disturbances at Rome, during the course of the Revolution, obliged him to return to Paris, where he executed the Federation of the 14th of July, and he was at work on a large design commissioned for the town-hall of Lyons, when in July 1794 he was accused before the revolutionary tribunal and thrown into prison. Hennequin escaped, only to be anew accused and imprisoned in Paris, and after running great danger of death, seems to have devoted himself thenceforth wholly to his profession. At Paris he finished the picture ordered for the municipality of Lyons, and in 1801 produced his chief work, “Orestes pursued by the Furies” (Louvre, engraved by Landon,Annales du Musée, vol. i. p. 105). He was one of the four painters who competed when in 1802 Gros carried off the official prize for a picture of the Battle of Nazareth, and in 1808 Napoleon himself ordered Hennequin to illustrate a series of scenes from his German campaigns, and commanded that his picture of the “Death of General Salomon” should be engraved. After 1815 Hennequin retired to Liége, and there, aided by subventions from the Government, carried out a large historical picture of the “Death of the Three Hundred in defence of Liége”—a sketch of which he himself engraved. In 1824 Hennequin settled at Tournay, and became director of the academy; he exhibited various works at Lille in the following year, and continued to produce actively up to the day of his death in May 1833.

HENNER, JEAN JACQUES(1829-1905), French painter, was born on the 5th of March 1829 at Dornach (Alsace). At first a pupil of Drolling and of Picot, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1848, and took the Prix de Rome with a painting of “Adam and Eve finding the Body of Abel” (1858). At Rome he was guided by Flandrin, and, among other works, painted four pictures for the gallery at Colmar. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1863 a “Bather Asleep,” and subsequently contributed “Chaste Susanna” (1865); “Byblis turned into a Spring” (1867); “The Magdalene” (1878); “Portrait of M. Hayem” (1878); “Christ Entombed” (1879); “Saint Jerome” (1881); “Herodias” (1887); “A Study” (1891); “Christ in His Shroud,” and a “Portrait of Carolus-Duran” (1896); a “Portrait of Mlle Fouquier” (1897); “The Levite of the Tribe of Ephraim” (1898), for which a first-class medal was awarded to him; and “The Dream” (1900). Among other professional distinctions Henner also took a Grand Prix for painting at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900. He was made Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1873, Officer in 1878 and Commander in 1889. In 1889 he succeeded Cabanel in the Institut de France.

See E. Bricon,Psychologie d’art(Paris, 1900); C. Phillips,Art Journal(1888); F. Wedmore,Magazine of Art(1888).

HENRIETTA MARIA(1609-1666), queen of Charles I. of England, born on the 25th of November 1609, was the daughter of Henry IV. of France. When the first serious overtures for her hand were made on behalf of Charles, prince of Wales, in the spring of 1624, she was little more than fourteen years of age. Her brother, Louis XIII., only consented to the marriage on the condition that the English Roman Catholics were relieved from the operation of the penal laws. When therefore she set out for her new home in June 1625, she had already pledged the husband to whom she had been married by proxy on the 1st of May to a course of action which was certain to bring unpopularity on him as well as upon herself.

That husband was now king of England. The early years of the married life of Charles I. were most unhappy. He soon found an excuse for breaking his promise to relieve the English Catholics. His young wife was deeply offended by treatment which she naturally regarded as unhandsome. The favourite Buckingham stirred the flames of his master’s discontent. Charles in vain strove to reduce her to tame submission. After the assassination of Buckingham in 1628 the barrier between the married pair was broken down, and the bond of affection which from that moment united them was never loosened. The children of the marriage were Charles II. (b. 1630), Mary, princess of Orange (b. 1631), James II (b. 1633), Elizabeth (b. 1636) Henry, duke of Gloucester (b. 1640), and Henrietta, duchess at Orleans (b. 1644).

For some years Henrietta Maria’s chief interests lay in her young family, and in the amusements of a gay and brilliant court. She loved to be present at dramatic entertainments, and her participation in the private rehearsals of theShepherd’s Pastoral, written by her favourite Walter Montague, probably drew down upon her the savage attack of Prynne. With political matters she hardly meddled as yet. Even her co-religionists found little aid from her till the summer of 1637. She had then recently opened a diplomatic communication with the see of Rome. She appointed an agent to reside at Rome, and a papal agent, a Scotsman named George Conn, accredited to her, was soon engaged in effecting conversions amongst the English gentry and nobility. Henrietta Maria was well pleased to become a patroness of so holy a work, especially as she was not asked to take any personal trouble in the matter. Protestant England took alarm at the proceedings of a queen who associated herself so closely with the doings of “the grim wolf with privy paw.”

When the Scottish troubles broke out, she raised money from her fellow-Catholics to support the king’s army on the borders in 1639. During the session of the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640, the queen urged the king to oppose himself to the House of Commons in defence of the Catholics. When the Long Parliament met, the Catholics were believed to be the authors and agents of every arbitrary scheme which was supposed to have entered into the plans of Strafford or Laud. Before the Long Parliament had sat for two months, the queen was urging upon the pope the duty of lending money to enable her to restore her husband’s authority. She threw herself heart and soul into the schemes for rescuing Strafford and coercing the parliament. The army plot, the scheme for using Scotland against England, and the attempt upon the five members were the fruits of her political activity.

In the next year the queen effected her passage to the Continent. In February 1643 she landed at Burlington Quay, placed herself at the head of a force of loyalists, and marched through England to join the king near Oxford. After little more than a year’s residence there, on the 3rd of April 1644, she left her husband,to see his face no more. Henrietta Maria found a refuge in France. Richelieu was dead, and Anne of Austria was compassionate. As long as her husband was alive the queen never ceased to encourage him to resistance.

During her exile in France she had much to suffer. Her husband’s execution in 1649 was a terrible blow. She brought up her youngest child Henrietta in her own faith, but her efforts to induce her youngest son, the duke of Gloucester, to take the same course only produced discomfort in the exiled family. The story of her marriage with her attached servant Lord Jermyn needs more confirmation than it has yet received to be accepted, but all the information which has reached us of her relations with her children points to the estrangement which had grown up between them. When after the Restoration she returned to England, she found that she had no place in the new world. She received from parliament a grant of £30,000 a year in compensation for the loss of her dower-lands, and the king added a similar sum as a pension from himself. In January 1661 she returned to France to be present at the marriage of her daughter Henrietta to the duke of Orleans. In July 1662 she set out again for England, and took up her residence once more at Somerset House. Her health failed her, and on the 24th of June 1665, she departed in search of the clearer air of her native country. She died on the 31st of August 1666, at Colombes, not far from Paris.

See I. A. Taylor,The Life of Queen Henrietta Maria(1905).

HENRY(Fr.Henri; Span.Enrique; Ger.Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger.HeinrîchandHeimrîch; O.H.G.Haimi-orHeimirîh,i.e.“prince, or chief of the house,” from O.H.G.heim, the Eng.home, andrîh, Goth.reiks; compare Lat.rex“king”—“rich,” therefore “mighty,” and so “a ruler.” Compare Sans.rādsh“to shine forth, rule, &c.” and mod.raj“rule” andraja, “king”), the name of many European sovereigns, the more important of whom are noticed below in the following order: (1) emperors and German kings; (2) kings of England; (3) other kings in the alphabetical order of their states; (4) other reigning princes in the same order; (5) non-reigning princes; (6) bishops, nobles, chroniclers, &c.

HENRY I.(c.876-936), surnamed the “Fowler,” German king, son of Otto the Illustrious, duke of Saxony, grew to manhood amid the disorders which witnessed to the decay of the Carolingian empire, and in early life shared in various campaigns for the defence of Saxony. He married Hatburg, a daughter of Irwin, count of Merseburg, but as she had taken the veil on the death of a former husband this union was declared illegal by the church, and in 909 he married Matilda, daughter of a Saxon count named Thiederich, and a reputed descendant of the hero Widukind. On his father’s death in 912 he became duke of Saxony, which he ruled with considerable success, defending it from the attacks of the Slavs and resisting the claims of the German king Conrad I. (seeSaxony). He afterwards won the esteem of Conrad to such an extent that in 918 the king advised the nobles to make the Saxon duke his successor. After Conrad’s death the Franks and the Saxons met at Fritzlar in May 919 and chose Henry as German king, after which the new king refused to allow his election to be sanctioned by the church. His authority, save in Saxony, was merely nominal; but by negotiation rather than by warfare he secured a recognition of his sovereignty from the Bavarians and the Swabians. A struggle soon took place between Henry and Charles III., the Simple, king of France, for the possession of Lorraine. In 921 Charles recognized Henry as king of the East Franks, and when in 923 the French king was taken prisoner by Herbert, count of Vermandois, Lorraine came under Henry’s authority, and Giselbert, who married his daughter Gerberga, was recognized as duke. Turning his attention to the east, Henry reduced various Slavonic tribes to subjection, took Brennibor, the modern Brandenburg, from the Hevelli, and secured both banks of the Elbe for Saxony. In 923 he had bought a truce for ten years with the Hungarians, by a promise of tribute, but on its expiration he gained a great victory over these formidable foes in March 933. The Danes were defeated, and territory as far as the Eider secured for Germany; and the king sought further to extend his influence by entering into relations with the kings of England, France and Burgundy. He is said to have been contemplating a journey to Rome, when he died at Memleben on the 2nd of July 936, and was buried at Quedlinburg. By his first wife, Hatburg, he left a son, Thankmar, who was excluded from the succession as illegitimate; and by Matilda he left three sons, the eldest of whom, Otto (afterwards the emperor Otto the Great), succeeded him, and two daughters. Henry was a successful ruler, probably because he was careful to undertake only such enterprises as he was able to carry through. Laying more stress on his position as duke of Saxony than king of Germany, he conferred great benefits on his duchy. The founder of her town life and the creator of her army, he ruled in harmony with her nobles and secured her frontiers from attack. The story that he received the surname of “Fowler” because the nobles, sent to inform him of his election to the throne, found him engaged in laying snares for the birds, appears to be mythical.

See Widukind of Corvei,Res gestae Saxonicae, edited by G. Waitz in theMonumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Band iii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 seq.); “Die Urkunde des deutschen Königs Heinrichs I.,” edited by T. von Sickel in theMonumenta Germaniae historica. Diplomata(Hanover, 1879); W. von Giesebrecht,Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Bände i., ii. (Leipzig, 1881); G. Waitz,Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter König Heinrich I.(Leipzig, 1885); and F. Löher,Die deutsche Politik König Heinrich I.(Munich, 1857).

HENRY II.(973-1024), surnamed the “Saint,” Roman emperor, son of Henry II, the Quarrelsome, duke of Bavaria, and Gisela, daughter of Conrad, king of Burgundy, or Arles (d. 993), and great-grandson of the German king Henry I., the Fowler, was born on the 6th of May 973. When his father was driven from his duchy in 976 it was intended that Henry should take holy orders, and he received the earlier part of a good education at Hildesheim. This idea, however, was abandoned when his father was restored to Bavaria in 985; but young Henry, whose education was completed at Regensburg, retained a lively interest in ecclesiastical affairs. He became duke of Bavaria on his father’s death in 995, and appears to have governed his duchy quietly and successfully for seven years. He showed a special regard for monastic reform and church government, accompanied his kinsman, the emperor Otto III., on two occasions to Italy, and about 1001 married Kunigunde (d. 1037), daughter of Siegfried, count of Luxemburg. When Otto III. died childless in 1002, Henry sought to secure the German throne, and seizing the imperial insignia made an arrangement with Otto I., duke of Carinthia. There was considerable opposition to his claim; but one rival, Ekkard I., margrave of Meissen, was murdered, and, hurrying to Mainz, Henry was chosen German king by the Franks and Bavarians on the 7th of June 1002, and subsequently crowned by Willigis, archbishop of Mainz, who had been largely instrumental in securing his election. Having ravaged the lands of another rival, Hermann II., duke of Swabia, Henry purchased the allegiance of the Thuringians and the Saxons; and when shortly afterwards the nobles of Lorraine did homage and Hermann of Swabia submitted, he was generally recognized as king. Danger soon arose from Boleslaus I., the Great, king of Poland, who had extended his authority over Meissen and Lusatia, seized Bohemia, and allied himself with some discontented German nobles, including the king’s brother, Bruno, bishop of Augsburg. Henry easily crushed his domestic foes; but the incipient war with Boleslaus was abandoned in favour of an expedition into Italy, where Arduin, margrave of Ivrea, had been elected king. Crossing the Alps Henry met with no resistance from Arduin, and in May 1004 he was chosen and crowned king of the Lombards at Pavia; but a tumult caused by the presence of the Germans soon arose in the city, and having received the homage of several cities of Lombardy the king returned to Germany. He then freed Bohemia from the rule of the Poles, led an expedition into Friesland, and was successful in compelling Boleslaus to sue for peace in 1005. A struggle with Baldwin IV., count of Flanders, in 1006 and 1007 was followed by trouble with the king’s brothers-in-law, Dietrich and Adalbero of Luxemburg, who had seized respectively the bishopric of Metz and thearchbishopric of Trier (Treves). Henry sought to dislodge them, but aided by their elder brother Henry, who had been made duke of Bavaria in 1004, they held their own in a desultory warfare in Lorraine. In 1009, however, the eldest of the three brothers was deprived of Bavaria, while Adalbero had in the previous year given up his claim to Trier, but Dietrich retained the bishopric of Metz. The Polish war had been renewed in 1007, but it was not until 1010 that the king was able to take a personal part in these campaigns. Meeting with indifferent success, he made peace with Boleslaus early in 1013, when the duke retained Lusatia, but did homage to Henry at Merseburg.

In 1013 the king made a second journey to Italy where two popes were contending for the papal chair, and meeting with no opposition was received with great honour at Rome. Having recognized Benedict VIII. as the rightful pope, he was crowned emperor on the 14th of February 1014, and soon returned to Germany laden with treasures from Italian cities. But the struggle with the Poles now broke out afresh, and in 1015 and 1017 the king, having obtained assistance from the heathen Liutici, led formidable armies against Boleslaus. During the campaign of 1017 he had as an ally the grand duke of Russia, but his troops suffered considerable loss, and on the 30th of January 1018 he made peace at Bautzen with Boleslaus, who again retained Lusatia. As early as 1006 Henry had concluded a succession treaty with his uncle Rudolph III., the childless king of Burgundy, or Arles; but when Rudolph desired to abdicate in 1016 Henry’s efforts to secure possession of the territory were foiled by the resistance of the nobles. In 1020 the emperor was visited at Bamberg by Pope Benedict, in response to whose entreaty for assistance against the Greeks of southern Italy he crossed the Alps in 1021 for the third and last time. With the aid of the Normans he captured many fortresses and seriously crippled the power of the Greeks, but was compelled by the ravages of pestilence among his troops to return to Germany in 1022. It was probably about this time that Henry gave Benedict the diploma which ratified the gifts made by his predecessors to the papacy. Spending his concluding years in disputes over church reform he died on the 13th of July 1024 at Grona near Göttingen, and was buried at Bamberg, where he had founded and richly endowed a bishopric.

Henry was an enthusiast for church reform, and under the influence of his friend Odilo, abbot of Cluny, sought to further the principles of the Cluniacs, and seconded the efforts of Benedict VIII. to prevent the marriage of the clergy and the sale of spiritual dignities. He was energetic and capable, but except in his relations with the church was not a strong ruler. But though devoted to the church and a strict observer of religious rites, he was by no means the slave of the clergy. He appointed bishops without the formality of an election, and attacked clerical privileges although he made clerics the representatives of the imperial power. He held numerous diets and issued frequent ordinances for peace, but feuds among the nobles were common, and the frontiers of the empire were insecure. Henry, who was the last emperor of the Saxon house, was the first to use the title “King of the Romans.” He died childless, and a tradition of the 12th century says he and his wife took vows of chastity. He was canonized in 1146 by Pope Eugenius III.

See Adalbold of Utrecht,Vita Heinrici II., Thietmar of Merseburg,Chronicon, both in theMonumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores, Bände iii. and iv. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 seq.); W. von Giesebrecht,Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit(Leipzig, 1881-1890); S. Hirsch, continued by R. Usinger, H. Pabst and H. Bresslau,Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Kaiser Heinrich II. (Leipzig, 1874); A. Cohn,Kaiser Heinrich II. (Halle, 1867); H. Zeissberg,Die Kriege Kaiser Heinrichs II. mit Boleslaw I. von Polen(Vienna, 1868); and G. Matthaei,Die Klosterpolitik Kaiser Heinrichs II. (Göttingen, 1877).

HENRY III.(1017-1056), surnamed the “Black,” Roman emperor, only son of the emperor Conrad II., and Gisela, widow of Ernest I., duke of Swabia, was born on the 28th of October 1017, designated as his father’s successor in 1026, and crowned German king at Aix-la-Chapelle by Pilgrim, archbishop of Cologne, on the 14th of April 1028. In 1027 he was appointed duke of Bavaria, and his early years were mainly spent in this country, where he received an excellent education under the care of Bruno, bishop of Augsburg and, afterwards, of Egilbert, bishop of Freising. He soon began to take part in the business of the empire. In 1032 he took part in a campaign in Burgundy; in 1033 led an expedition against Ulalrich, prince of the Bohemians; and in June 1036 was married at Nijmwegen to Gunhilda, afterwards called Kunigunde, daughter of Canute, king of Denmark and England. In 1038 he followed his father to Italy, and in the same year the emperor formally handed over to him the kingdom of Burgundy, or Arles, and appointed him duke of Swabia. In spite of the honours which Conrad heaped upon Henry the relations between father and son were not uniformly friendly, as Henry disapproved of the emperor’s harsh treatment of some of his allies and adherents. When Conrad died in June 1039, Henry became sole ruler of the empire, and his authority was at once recognized in all parts of his dominions. Three of the duchies were under his direct rule, no rival appeared to contest his claim, and the outlying parts of the empire, as well as Germany, were practically free from disorder. This peaceful state of affairs was, however, soon broken by the ambition of Bretislaus, prince of the Bohemians, who revived the idea of an independent Slavonic state, and conquered various Polish towns. Henry took up arms, and having suffered two defeats in 1040 renewed the struggle with a stronger force in the following year, when he compelled Bretislaus to sue for peace and to do homage for Bohemia at Regensburg. In 1042 he received the homage of the Burgundians and his attention was then turned to the Hungarians, who had driven out their king Peter, and set up in his stead one Aba Samuel, or Ovo, who attacked the eastern border of Bavaria.

In 1043 and the two following years Henry crushed the Hungarians, restored Peter, and brought Hungary completely under the power of the German king. In 1038 Queen Kunigunde had died in Italy, and in 1043 the king was married at Ingelheim to Agnes, daughter of William V., duke of Guienne, a union which drew him much nearer to the reforming party in the church. In 1044 Gothelon (Gozelo), duke of Lorraine, died, and some disturbance arose over Henry’s refusal to grant the whole of the duchy to his son Godfrey, called the Bearded. Godfrey took up arms, but after a short imprisonment was released and confirmed in the possession of Upper Lorraine in 1046 which, however, he failed to secure. About this time Henry was invited to Italy where three popes were contending for power, and crossing the Alps with a large army he marched to Rome. Councils held at Sutri and at Rome having declared the popes deposed, the king secured the election of Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who took the name of Clement II., and by this pontiff Henry was crowned as emperor on the 25th of December 1046. He was immediately recognized by the Romans asPatricius, an office which carried with it at this time the right to appoint the pope. Supreme in church and state alike, ruler of Germany, Italy and Burgundy, overlord of Hungary and Bohemia, Henry occupied a commanding position, and this time may be regarded as marking the apogee of the power of the Roman empire of the Germans. The emperor assisted Pope Clement in his efforts to banish simony. He made a victorious progress in southern Italy, where he restored Pandulph IV. to the principality of Capua, and asserted his authority over the Normans in Apulia and Aversa. Returning to Germany in 1047 he appointed two popes, Damasus II. and Leo IX., in quick succession, and turned to face a threatening combination in the west of the empire, where Godfrey of Lorraine was again in revolt, and with the help of Baldwin V., count of Flanders and Dirk IV., count of Holland, who had previously caused trouble to Henry, was ravaging the lands of the emperor’s representatives in Lorraine. Assisted by the kings of England and Denmark, Henry succeeded with some difficulty in bringing the rebels to submission in 1050. Godfrey was deposed; but Baldwin soon found an opportunity for a further revolt, which an expedition undertaken by the emperor in 1054 was unable to crush.

Meanwhile a reaction against German influence had taken place in Hungary. King Peter had been driven out in 1046 and his place taken by Andreas I. Inroads into Bavaria followed, and in 1051 and 1052 Henry led his forces against the Hungarians, and after the pope had vainly attempted to mediate, peace was made in 1053. It was quickly broken, however, and the emperor, occupied elsewhere, soon lost most of his authority in the east; although in 1054 he made peace between Brestislav of Bohemia and Casimir I., duke of the Poles. Henry had not lost sight of affairs in Italy during these years, and had received several visits from the pope, whose aim was to bring southern Italy under his own dominion. Henry had sent military assistance to Leo, and had handed over to him the government of the principality of Benevento in return for the bishopric of Bamberg. But the pope’s defeat by the Normans was followed by his death. Henry then nominated Gebhard, bishop of Eichstädt, who took the name of Victor II., to the vacant chair, and promised his assistance to the reluctant candidate. In 1055 the emperor went a second time to Italy, where his authority was threatened by Godfrey of Lorraine, who had married Beatrice, widow of Boniface III., margrave of Tuscany, and was ruling her vast estates. Godfrey fled, however, on the appearance of Henry, who only remained a short time in Italy, during which he granted the duchy of Spoleto to Pope Victor, and negotiated for an attack upon the Normans. Before the journey to Italy, Henry had found it necessary to depose Conrad III., duke of Bavaria, and to suppress a rising in southern Germany. During his absence Conrad formed an alliance with Welf, duke of Carinthia, and Gebhard III., bishop of Regensburg. A conspiracy to depose the emperor, support for which was found in Lorraine, was quickly discovered, and Henry, leaving Victor as his representative in Italy, returned in 1055 to Germany to receive the submission of his foes. In 1056, the emperor was visited by the pope; and on the 5th of October in the same year he died at Bodfeld and was buried at Spires. Henry was a pious and peace-loving prince, who favoured church reform, sought earnestly to suppress private warfare, and alone among the early emperors is said to have been innocent of simony. Although under his rule Germany enjoyed considerable tranquillity, and a period of wealth and progress set in for the towns, yet his secular and ecclesiastical policy showed signs of weakness. Unable, or unwilling, seriously to curb the increasing power of the church, he alienated the sympathies of the nobles as a class, and by allowing the southern duchies to pass into other hands restored a power which true to its traditions was not always friendly to the royal house. Henry was a patron of learning, a founder of schools, and built or completed cathedrals at Spires, Worms and Mainz.

The chief original authorities for the life and reign of Henry III. are theChroniconof Herimann of Reichenau, theAnnales Sangallenses majores, theAnnales Hildesheimenses, all in theMonumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores(Hanover and Berlin, 1826 fol.). The best modern authorities are W. von Giesebrecht,Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Band ii. (Leipzig, 1888); M. Perlbach, “Die Kriege Heinrichs III. gegen Böhmen,” in theForschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, Band x. (Göttingen, 1862-1886); E. Steindorff,Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich III.(Leipzig, 1874-1881); and F. Steinhoff,Das Königthum und Kaiserthum Heinrichs III.(Göttingen, 1865).

HENRY IV.(1050-1106), Roman emperor, son of the emperor Henry III. and Agnes, daughter of William V., duke of Guienne, was born on the 11th of November 1050, chosen German king at Tribur in 1053, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 17th of July 1054. In 1055 he was appointed duke of Bavaria, and on his father’s death in October 1056 inherited the kingdoms of Germany, Italy and Burgundy. These territories were governed in his name by his mother, who was unable to repress the internal disorder or to take adequate measures for their defence. Some opposition was soon aroused, and in 1062 Anno, archbishop of Cologne, and others planned to seize the person of the young king and to deprive Agnes of power. This plot met with complete success. Henry, who was at Kaiserwerth, was persuaded to board a boat lying in the Rhine; it was immediately unmoored and the king sprang into the stream, but was rescued by one of the conspirators and carried to Cologne. Agnes made no serious effort to regain her control, and the chief authority was exercised for a time by Anno; but his rule proved unpopular, and he was soon compelled to share his power with Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen. The education and training of Henry were supervised by Anno, who was called hismagister, while Adalbert was styledpatronus; but Anno was disliked by Henry, and during his absence in Italy the chief power passed into the hands of Adalbert. Henry’s education seems to have been neglected, and his wilful and headstrong nature was developed by the conditions under which his early years were passed. In March 1065 he was declared of age, and in the following year a powerful coalition of ecclesiastical and lay nobles brought about the banishment of Adalbert from court and the return of Anno to power. In 1066 Henry was persuaded to marry Bertha, daughter of Otto, count of Savoy, to whom he had been betrothed since 1055. For some time he regarded his wife with strong dislike and sought in vain for a divorce, but after she had borne him a son in 1071 she gained his affections, and became his most trusted friend and companion.

In 1069 the king took the reins of government into his own hands. He recalled Adalbert to court; led expeditions against the Liutici, and against Dedo or Dedi II., margrave of a district east of Saxony; and soon afterwards quarrelled with Rudolph, duke of Swabia, and Berthold, duke of Carinthia. Much more serious was Henry’s struggle with Otto of Nordheim, duke of Bavaria. This prince, who occupied an influential position in Germany, was accused in 1070 by a certain Egino of being privy to a plot to murder the king. It was decided that a trial by battle should take place at Goslar, but when the demand of Otto for a safe conduct for himself and his followers, to and from the place of meeting, was refused, he declined to appear. He was thereupon declared deposed in Bavaria, and his Saxon estates were plundered. He obtained sufficient support, however, to carry on a struggle with the king in Saxony and Thuringia until 1071, when he submitted at Halberstadt. Henry aroused the hostility of the Thuringians by supporting Siegfried, archbishop of Mainz, in his efforts to exact tithes from them; but still more formidable was the enmity of the Saxons, who had several causes of complaint against the king. He was the son of one enemy, Henry III., and the friend of another, Adalbert of Bremen. He had ordered a restoration of all crown lands in Saxony and had built forts among this people, while the country was ravaged to supply the needs of his courtiers, and its duke Magnus was a prisoner in his hands. All classes were united against him, and when the struggle broke out in 1073 the Thuringians joined the Saxons; and the war, which lasted with slight intermissions until 1088, exercised a most potent influence upon Henry’s fortunes elsewhere (seeSaxony).

Henry soon found himself confronted by an abler and more stubborn antagonist than either Thuringian or Saxon. In 1073 Hildebrand became pope as Gregory VII. Two years later this great ecclesiastic issued his memorable prohibition of lay investiture, and the blow then struck at the secular power by the papacy threatened seriously to undermine the imperial authority. Spurred on by his advisers, Henry did not refuse the challenge. Threatened with the papal ban, he summoned a synod of German bishops which met at Worms in January 1076 and declared Gregory deposed; and he wrote his famous letter to the pope, in which he referred to him as “not pope, but false monk.” The king was at once excommunicated. His adherents gradually fell away, the Saxons were again in arms, and Otto of Nordheim succeeded in uniting the malcontents of north and south Germany. In October 1076 an important diet met at Tribur, and after discussing the deposition of the king, decided that he should be judged by an assembly to be held at Augsburg in the following February under the presidency of the pope. This union of the temporal and spiritual forces was too strong for the king, and he decided to submit.

Crossing the Alps, Henry appeared in January 1077 as a penitent before the castle of Canossa, where Gregory had takenrefuge. The story of this famous occurrence, which represents the king as standing in the courtyard of the castle for three days in the snow, clad as a penitent, and entreating to be admitted to the pope’s presence, is now regarded as mythical in its details; but there is no doubt that the king visited the castle at intervals, and prayed for admission for three days until the 28th of January, when he was received by Gregory and absolved, after promising to submit to the pope’s authority and to secure for him a safe journey to Germany. No historical incident has more profoundly impressed the imagination of the Western world. It marked the highest point reached by papal authority, and presents a vivid picture of the awe inspired during the middle ages by the supernatural powers supposed to be wielded by the church.

Scorned by his Lombard allies, Henry left Italy to find that in his absence Rudolph, duke of Swabia, had been chosen German king; and although Gregory had taken no part in this election, Henry sought to prevent the pope’s journey to Germany, and regaining courage, tried to recover his former position. Supported by most of the German bishops and by the Lombards, now reconciled to him, and recognized in Burgundy, Bavaria and Franconia, Henry (who at this time is referred to by Bruno, the author ofDe bello Saxonico, asexrex) appeared stronger than his rival Rudolph; but the ensuing war was waged with varying success. He was beaten at Mellrichstadt in 1078, and at Flarchheim in 1080, but these defeats were due rather to the fierce hostility of the Saxons, and the military skill of Otto of Nordheim, than to any general sympathy with Rudolph. Gregory’s attitude remained neutral, in spite of appeals from both sides, until March 1080, when he again excommunicated Henry, but without any serious effect on the fortunes of the king. At Henry’s initiative, Gregory was declared deposed on three occasions, and an anti-pope was elected in the person of Wibert, archbishop of Ravenna, who took the name of Clement III.

The death of Rudolph in October 1080, and a consequent lull in the war, enabled the king to go to Italy early in 1081. He found considerable support in Lombardy; placed Matilda, marchioness of Tuscany, the faithful friend of Gregory, under the imperial ban; took the Lombard crown at Pavia; and secured the recognition of Clement by a council. Marching to Rome, he undertook the siege of the city, but was soon compelled to retire to Tuscany, where he granted privileges to various cities, and obtained monetary assistance from a new ally, the eastern emperor, Alexius I. A second and equally unsuccessful attack on Rome was followed by a war of devastation in northern Italy with the adherents of Matilda; and towards the end of 1082 the king made a third attack on Rome. After a siege of seven months the Leonine city fell into his hands. A treaty was concluded with the Romans, who agreed that the quarrel between king and pope should be decided by a synod, and secretly bound themselves to induce Gregory to crown Henry as emperor, or to choose another pope. Gregory, however, shut up in the castle of St Angelo, would hear of no compromise; the synod was a failure, as Henry prevented the attendance of many of the pope’s supporters; and the king, in pursuance of his treaty with Alexius, marched against the Normans. The Romans soon fell away from their allegiance to the pope; and, recalled to the city, Henry entered Rome in March 1084, after which Gregory was declared deposed and Clement was recognized by the Romans. On the 31st of March 1084 Henry was crowned emperor by Clement, and received the patrician authority. His next step was to attack the fortresses still in the hands of Gregory. The pope was saved by the advance of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia, with a large force, which compelled Henry to return to Germany.

Meanwhile the German rebels had chosen a fresh anti-king, Hermann, count of Luxemburg, whom Henry’s supporters had already driven to his last line of defence in Saxony. During the campaign of 1086 Henry was defeated near Würzburg, but in 1088 Hermann abandoned the struggle and the emperor was generally recognized in Saxony, to which country he showed considerable clemency. Although Henry’s power was in the ascendent, a few powerful nobles adhered to the cause of Gregory’s successor, Urban II. Among them was Welf, son of Welf I., the deposed duke of Bavaria, whose marriage with Matilda of Tuscany rendered him too formidable to be neglected. The emperor accordingly returned to Italy in 1090, where Mantua and Milan were taken, and Pope Clement was restored to Rome. Henry’s communications with Germany were, however, threatened by a league of the Lombard cities, and his anxieties were soon augmented by domestic troubles.

Henry’s first wife had died in 1087, and in 1089 he had married a Russian princess, Praxedis, afterwards called Adelaide. Her conduct soon aroused his suspicions, and his own eldest son, Conrad, who had been crowned German king in 1087, was thought to be a partner in her guilt. Escaping from prison, Adelaide fled to Henry’s enemies and brought grave charges against her husband; while the papal party induced Conrad to desert his father and to be crowned king of Italy at Monza in 1093. Crushed by this blow, Henry remained almost helpless and inactive in northern Italy for five years, until 1097, when having lost every shred of authority in that country, he returned to Germany, where his position was stronger than ever. Welf had submitted, had forsaken the cause of Matilda and had been restored to Bavaria, and in 1098 the diet assembled at Mainz declared Conrad deposed, and chose the emperor’s second son, Henry, afterwards the emperor Henry V., as German king. The crusade of 1096 had freed Germany from many turbulent spirits, and the emperor, meeting with some success in his efforts to restore order, could afford to ignore his repeated excommunication. A successful campaign in Flanders was followed in 1103 by a diet at Mainz, where serious efforts were made to restore peace, and Henry himself promised to go on crusade. But this plan was shattered by the revolt of the younger Henry in 1104, who, encouraged by the adherents of the pope, declared he owed no allegiance to an excommunicated father. Saxony and Thuringia were soon in arms, the bishops held mainly to the younger Henry, while the emperor was supported by the towns. A desultory warfare was unfavourable, however, to the emperor, who, deceived by false promises, became a prisoner in the hands of his son in 1105. The diet met at Mainz in December, when he was compelled to abdicate; but contrary to the conditions, he was detained at Ingelheim and denied his freedom. Escaping to Cologne, he found considerable support in the lower Rhineland; he entered into negotiations with England, France and Denmark, and was engaged in collecting an army when he died at Liége on the 7th of August 1106. His body was buried by the bishop of Liége with suitable ceremony, but by command of the papal legate it was unearthed, taken to Spires, and placed in an unconsecrated chapel. After being released from the sentence of excommunication the remains were buried in the cathedral of Spires in August 1111.

Henry IV. was very licentious and in his early years was careless and self-willed, but better qualities were developed in his later life. He displayed much diplomatic ability, and his abasement at Canossa may fairly be regarded as a move of policy to weaken the pope’s position at the cost of a personal humiliation to himself. He was always regarded as a friend of the lower orders, was capable of generosity and gratitude, and showed considerable military skill. Unfortunate in the time in which he lived, and in the troubles with which he had to contend, he holds an honourable position in history as a monarch who resisted the excessive pretensions both of the papacy and of the ambitious feudal lords of Germany.

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