Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris

Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris. Regensburg, St. Emmeram Monastery. Munich Bavarian State Library, Clm 14095, 45 fol. 17v

The Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris is a biography of Henry IV in the form of a lament for the dead.

The author has remained anonymous and wrote his vita under the impression of the death of Henry IV around 1105/1106. As a loyal follower of Henry IV, he wanted to maintain his anonymity under all circumstances, so as not to fear personal disadvantages from the camp of the young King Henry V. The writer is well educated in the classical writers, especially in Sallust's style .

The Vita traces the life of a ruler under the impression of capricious Fortuna . The introduction discusses the virtues of the ruler (c. 1). The life of the ruler is portrayed in three major sections: the royal years and coronation (c. 2–6), the high points of the rule and peace efforts in 1103 (c. 9–13) and the catastrophe. The author withholds the actual reason for the conflict between Henry IV and Gregory VII. Contrary to the actual events, the author lets Henry IV abdicate voluntarily in order not to question the legitimacy of his son Henry V in the succession. Henry V's outrage against his father is also not portrayed as a betrayal of the son's father, but ascribed to the negative influence of the princes.

In the Vita there is a detailed report on Würzburg events. For the first time, Wilhelm Giesebrecht identified the author of the Vita in Bishop Erlung von Würzburg . However, this assumption has not yet been confirmed. Several times in the history of science, clear similarities between the Vita and the Carmen de bello saxonico have been pointed out. It is very likely that the author of the Vita is identical to the poet of Carmen.

The Vita Heinrici IV is only available in a St. Emmeram manuscript from the beginning of the 12th century.

Work editions

Franz-Josef Schmale , Irene Schmale-Ott : Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. Latin and German. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006 (= Selected Sources on German History of the Middle Ages Freiherr vom Stein Memorial Edition. Volume 12). 5th edition, unchanged reprint of the 4th edition. Darmstadt 2006 ISBN 3-534-19876-X . Contains the Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris (pp. 408–467).
Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris (= MGH SS rer. Germ. Volume 58). Published by Wilhelm Eberhard. Hahn, Hanover / Leipzig 1899. ( digitized version )

literature

Manfred Schluck: The Vita Heinrici IV. Imperatoris. Her contemporary sources and her special relationship to Carmen de bello Saxonico (= lectures and research. Special volume 26). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1979, ISBN 3-7995-6686-4 (also: Marburg, Universität, Dissertation, 1971) ( online ).

Remarks

^ Steffen Patzold : Kingship in threatened order: Heinrich IV. And Heinrich V. 1105/06. In: Gerhard Lubich (Ed.): Heinrich V. in his time. Rule in a European empire from the High Middle Ages. Vienna et al. 2013. pp. 43–68, here: p. 48.
↑ Helmut Beumann : On the manuscript of the Vita Heinrici IV. (Clm 14095). In: Clemens Bauer , Laetitia Boehm and Max Müller (eds.): Speculum historiale. History in the mirror of historiography and the interpretation of history. Freiburg et al. 1965, pp. 204-223.

[1] Steffen Patzold : Kingship in threatened order: Heinrich IV. And Heinrich V. 1105/06. In: Gerhard Lubich (Ed.): Heinrich V. in his time. Rule in a European empire from the High Middle Ages. Vienna et al. 2013. pp. 43–68, here: p. 48.

[2] Helmut Beumann : On the manuscript of the Vita Heinrici IV. (Clm 14095). In: Clemens Bauer , Laetitia Boehm and Max Müller (eds.): Speculum historiale. History in the mirror of historiography and the interpretation of history. Freiburg et al. 1965, pp. 204-223.