(1086–1125), German king (1098–1125) and Holy Roman emperor (1106–25), last of the Salian emperors, who enlarged the German Kingdom, ended its civil war, and settled the INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY, (q.v.).

Henry was born on Nov. 8, 1086, in Goslar, Germany. Fearing that his succession was endangered, Henry rebelled against his father, Emperor Henry IV, in 1104, captured him, and forced him to abdicate. The young Henry became undisputed ruler on the death of his father in 1106.

In 1110 Henry agreed to respect the decree of Pope Paschal II against lay investiture, that is, the king’s right to confer symbols of authority on church officials, providing that the pope would crown him and that the church would surrender all its secular property and rights within the empire. Because Henry’s demand raised such a furor among the clergy when it was announced to them on the day of coronation, Paschal refused to crown Henry, who thereupon departed from Rome, taking the pope prisoner. To gain his freedom, the pope allowed Henry the power of investiture and crowned him emperor, but in 1112 he retracted his concessions. From 1114 to 1121 many of the German princes rebelled against Henry. Although northern Germany was in revolt in 1116, Henry invaded Italy to seize the territories that had been left to the papacy by Matilda, countess of Tuscany (1046–1115). After driving Pope Paschal from Rome, Henry had himself recrowned in 1117 by Maurice Bourdin, archbishop of Braga, whom he established as the antipope Gregory VIII (d. about 1137) after the death of Paschal in 1118. Henry was accordingly excommunicated by Paschal’s successor, Pope Gelasius II (r. 1118–19).

On returning to Germany, Henry concluded peace with his former domestic enemies at the Diet of Würzburg in 1121. By the Concordat of Worms in 1122 he established a compromise on investiture with the papacy, abandoning the antipope Gregory VIII; he was then reinstated in the communion of the church, but retained the right to appoint church officials. In the last year of his reign the emperor, in alliance with his father-in-law, Henry I of England, led an unsuccessful expedition against Louis VI of France. Henry died in Utrecht on May 23, 1125, and was succeeded by Lothair II.