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Birth:          28 Oct 1017 of Schwaben, Bavaria
Death:          5 Oct 1056 Bodfeld Hartz
Burial:         Speyer

Notes
also King of Burgundy, King of Germany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_III,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
Henry III (28 October 1016 – 5 October 1056), called the Black or the Pious, was a 
member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors. He was the eldest son of 
Conrad II of Germany and Gisela of Swabia.[1] His father made him Duke of Bavaria 
(as Henry VI) in 1026, after the death of Duke Henry V.

On Easter Day 1028, after his father was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was 
elected and crowned King of Germany in the cathedral of Aachen by Pilgrim, 
Archbishop of Cologne.

After the death of Herman IV, Duke of Swabia in 1038, his father gave him that duchy, 
as well as the kingdom of Burgundy, which Conrad had inherited in 1033. Upon the 
death of his father on 4 June 1039, he became sole ruler of the kingdom and was 
crowned emperor by Pope Clement II in Rome (1046).
Early life and reign[edit]

Henry's first tutor was Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg. On Bruno's death in 1029, Egilbert, 
Bishop of Freising, was appointed to take his place. In 1033, at the age of sixteen, 
Henry came of age and Egilbert was compensated for his services. In 1035, Adalbero, 
Duke of Carinthia, was deposed by Conrad, but Egilbert convinced Henry to refuse 
this injustice and the princes of Germany, having legally elected Henry, would not 
recognise the deposition unless their king did also. Henry, in accordance with his 
promise to Egilbert, did not consent to his father's act and Conrad, stupefied, fell 
unconscious after many attempts to turn Henry. Upon recovering, Conrad knelt before 
his son and exacted the desired consent. Egilbert was penalised dearly by the 
emperor.

In 1036, Henry was married to Gunhilda of Denmark, the daughter of Canute the 
Great, King of Denmark, England, and Norway, by his wife Emma of Normandy.[2] 
Early on, Henry's father had arranged with Canute to have him rule over some parts of 
northern Germany (Kiel) and in turn to have their children married. The marriage took 
place in Nijmegen at the earliest legal age.

In 1038, Henry was called to aid his father in Italy, and Gunhilda died on the Adriatic 
Coast during the return trip (from the same epidemic in which Herman IV of Swabia 
died). In 1039, his father also died, and Henry became sole ruler and imperator in spe.
After marriage[edit]

Henry was remarried at Ingelheim in 1043 to Agnes, daughter of duke William V of 
Aquitaine and Agnes of Burgundy. Agnes was then living at the court of her 
stepfather, Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou. This connection to the obstreperous 
vassal of the French king as well as her consanguinity—she and Henry being both 
descended from Henry the Fowler—caused some churchmen to oppose their union, but 
the marriage went as planned. Agnes was crowned at Mainz.
Preparing Italy and Germany for his death[edit]


 


 Imperial orb from the burial inventory of Henry III
In 1055, Henry turned south, to Italy again, for Boniface III of Tuscany, ever an 
imperial ally, had died, and his widow, Beatrice of Bar had married Godfrey of Lorraine 
(1054). First, however, he gave his old hostage, Spitignev, the son of Bretislaus to the 
Bohemians as duke. Spitignev did homage and Bohemia remained securely, loyally, 
and happily within the Imperial fold. By Easter, Henry had arrived in Mantua. He held 
several courts, one at Roncaglia, where, a century later (1158), Frederick Barbarossa 
held a far more important diet, sent out his missi dominici to establish order. Godfrey, 
ostensibly the reason for the visit, was not well received by the people and returned to 
Flanders. Henry met the pope at Florence and arrested Beatrice for marrying a traitor, 
and her daughter Matilda, later to be such an enemy of Henry's son. The young 
Frederick of Tuscany, son of Beatrice, refused to come to Florence and died within 
days. Henry returned via Zürich and there betrothed his young son to Bertha, daughter 
of Count Otto of Savoy.

Henry entered a Germany in turmoil. A staunch ally against Cuno in Bavaria, Gebhard 
of Regensburg, was implicated in a plot against the king along with Cuno and Welf of 
Carinthia. Sources diverge here: some claim only that the retainers of the princes 
plotted the undoing of the king. Whatever the case, it all came to naught, and Cuno 
died of plague, and Welf soon following him to the grave. Baldwin of Flanders and 
Godfrey were at it again, besieging Antwerp, and they were defeated again. Henry's 
reign was clearly changing in character: old foes were dead or dying and old friends 
as well.

Herman of Cologne died. Henry appointed his confessor, Anno, as Herman's 
successor. Henry of France, so long eyeing Lorraine greedily, met for a third time with 
the emperor at Ivois in May 1056. The French king, not renowned for his tactical or 
strategic prowess, but admirable for his personal valour on the field, had a heated 
debate with the German king and challenged him to single combat. Henry fled at night 
from this meeting. Once in Germany again, Godfrey made his final peace, and Henry 
went to the northeast to deal with a Slav uprising after the death of William of 
Meissen. He fell ill on the way and took to bed. He freed Beatrice and Matilda and 
had those with him swear allegiance to the young Henry, whom he commended the 
pope, present.

On 5 October, not yet forty, Henry died at Bodfeld,[5] the imperial hunting lodge in the 
Harz Mountains. His heart went to Goslar, his body to Speyer, to lie next to his father's 
in the family vault in the cathedral of Speyer. He had been one of the most powerful of 
the Holy Roman Emperors: his authority as king in Burgundy, Germany, and Italy was 
only rarely questioned, his power over the church was at the root of what the 
reformers he sponsored later fought against in his son, and his achievement in binding 
to the empire her tributaries was clear. Nevertheless, his reign is often pronounced a 
failure in that he apparently left problems far beyond the capacities of his successors 
to handle. The Investiture Controversy was largely the result of his church politics, 
though his popemaking gave the Roman diocese to the reform party. He united all the 
great duchies save Saxony to himself at one point or another but gave them all away. 
His most enduring and concrete monument may be the impressive palace (kaiserpfalz) 
at Goslar.
Family and children[edit]
Henry III was married twice and had at least seven children:
With his first wife, Gunhilda of Denmark:[6]
1.Beatrice (1037 – 13 July 1061), abbess of Quedlinburg and Gandersheim
With his second wife, Agnes:[7]
1.Adelaide II (1045, Goslar – 11 January 1096), abbess of Gandersheim from 1061 and 
Quedlinburg from 1063[7]
2.Gisela (1047, Ravenna – 6 May 1053)[7]
3.Matilda (October 1048 – 12 May 1060, Pöhlde), married 1059 Rudolf of Rheinfelden, 
duke of Swabia and anti-king (1077)[7]
4.Henry, his successor[5]
5.Conrad (1052, Regensburg – 10 April 1055), duke of Bavaria (from 1054)[7]
6.Judith (1054, Goslar – 14 March 1092 or 1096), married firstly 1063 Solomon of 
Hungary and secondly 1089 Ladislaus I Herman, duke of Poland[7]

Parents
OF FRANCONIA Conrad (Konrad) II "the Salic" ( 989 - 4 Jun 1039)
OF SWABIA Gisela (Gisele) (11 Nov  990 - 14 Feb 1043)

Siblings
____ Henry (Heinrich) III "the Black" (28 Oct 1017 - 5 Oct 1056)

Marriage To DE POITOU Agnes (ABT 1025 - 14 Dec 1077)
    m. 21 Nov 1043 his 2d

Notes

Parents
DE POITOU William (Guillaume) V (III) "The Grand" (ABT  969 - 31 Jan 1030)
OF BURGUNDY (DE MACON) Agnes (ABT  987 - 10 Nov 1068)

Children by DE POITOU Agnes ABT 1025 - 14 Dec 1077
OF FRANCONIA Henry (Heinrich) IV (11 Nov 1050 - 7 Aug 1106)

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