Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 People against Mercenaries: The Capuchins in Southern Gaul
- 2 The Last Italian Expedition of Henry IV: Re-reading the Vita Mathildis of Donizone of Canossa
- 3 Jaime I of Aragon: Child and Master of the Spanish Reconquest
- 4 Numbers in Mongol Warfare
- 5 Battlefield Medicine in Wolfram's Parzival
- 6 Battle-Seeking, Battle-Avoiding or perhaps just Battle-Willing? Applying the Gillingham Paradigm to Enrique II of Castile
- 7 Outrance and Plaisance
- 8 Guns and Goddams: Was there a Military Revolution in Lancastrian Normandy 1415–50?
- The Name of the Siege Engine trebuchet: Etymology and History in Medieval France and Britain
- Journal of Medieval Military History 1477–545
2 - The Last Italian Expedition of Henry IV: Re-reading the Vita Mathildis of Donizone of Canossa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 People against Mercenaries: The Capuchins in Southern Gaul
- 2 The Last Italian Expedition of Henry IV: Re-reading the Vita Mathildis of Donizone of Canossa
- 3 Jaime I of Aragon: Child and Master of the Spanish Reconquest
- 4 Numbers in Mongol Warfare
- 5 Battlefield Medicine in Wolfram's Parzival
- 6 Battle-Seeking, Battle-Avoiding or perhaps just Battle-Willing? Applying the Gillingham Paradigm to Enrique II of Castile
- 7 Outrance and Plaisance
- 8 Guns and Goddams: Was there a Military Revolution in Lancastrian Normandy 1415–50?
- The Name of the Siege Engine trebuchet: Etymology and History in Medieval France and Britain
- Journal of Medieval Military History 1477–545
Summary
It is well over a century since the second and last Italian expedition of Emperor Henry IV was the subject of a dedicated study. The gap is notable since the Italian policy of Henry IV was once studied intensively under the rubric of the Investiture Controversy. The neglect of the military aspects of that policy is even more striking since Henry IV was known to be “tireless in war” and “quick to resort to arms” in a generation that did not lack aggressive military leaders. William of Malmesbury's estimate that Henry IV undertook some sixty-two military actions could as easily be an underestimate as an exaggeration.
Henry IV's first recorded military action is an expedition to Hungary undertaken on behalf of his brother-in-law Salomon in 1063, when he was thirteen years old. Assuming that the young king's presence was symbolic and that this was a learning experience, there was plenty of opportunity to put such learning to use in later years. Once he was old enough to be allowed to rule independently, Henry IV, like Charlemagne, campaigned almost every year.
Despite this record of sustained bellicosity, Henry IV's military career remains largely unstudied. The Saxon wars of 1073–75 and 1077–80 have been briefly and selectively discussed, but until the end of the twentieth century the Italian expeditions merited only a single brief mention in a survey of medieval warfare. Although neglected, Henry IV's Italian expeditions are not unknown or obscure and are treated in the standard compendia of Gerold Meyer von Knonau and Alfred Overmann.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Journal of Medieval Military History , pp. 23 - 68Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2010