| rdfs:comment | - The Salian king Henry IV had inherited the quarrels with the Saxons from his father Emperor Henry III, whose long and costly sojournments at the Imperial Palace of Goslar had annoyed the local nobles. From the start of his reign in 1065, 15-year-old Henry IV suffered numerous setbacks enforcing his Imperial authority in Saxony after the regency of his mother Agnes of Poitou. Attempts to restore the rights over the Harz forests were not received well by the Saxon freedmen, and efforts to extend the crownlands in general as well as the increased demands laid upon the fisc were opposed. A policy of building castles and supplying them with loyal, mainly Swabian officials, continued from the time of his father, fostered resentment among multiple groups. In particular, the large Harzburg became
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| abstract | - The Salian king Henry IV had inherited the quarrels with the Saxons from his father Emperor Henry III, whose long and costly sojournments at the Imperial Palace of Goslar had annoyed the local nobles. From the start of his reign in 1065, 15-year-old Henry IV suffered numerous setbacks enforcing his Imperial authority in Saxony after the regency of his mother Agnes of Poitou. Attempts to restore the rights over the Harz forests were not received well by the Saxon freedmen, and efforts to extend the crownlands in general as well as the increased demands laid upon the fisc were opposed. A policy of building castles and supplying them with loyal, mainly Swabian officials, continued from the time of his father, fostered resentment among multiple groups. In particular, the large Harzburg became a symbol of Imperial tyranny and was seen as impeding on traditional Saxon rights. Like his father, Henry desired to set Goslar as the fixed capital of the German Kingdom. In 1070/71 Henry had already picked a quarrel with the Saxon count Otto of Nordheim, then Duke of Bavaria, and Magnus Billung, son of Duke Ordulf of Saxony. The king seized Otto's title and property and kept Magnus prisoner at Harzburg Castle, even after the latter succeeded his father to the Saxon duchy in 1072. This heightened tensions between the Imperial court and the Saxons; Magnus' subsequent release in exchange for seventy Swabians captured in Lüneburg did little to encourage a thaw in relations. In anger, the king rejected several Saxon petitions for redress. In 1073 several bishops and princes organized a resistance. Several castles were besieged, and the King was forced to escape from the Harzburg to Hessewech. In February 1074 he proceeded to Gerstungen, where the insurrection, numbering twice the size of his forces, met him; he agreed to several concessions, reasoning that the Saxons would break their end of the deal eventually. The freedmen, who felt betrayed by the nobles due to the peace treaty, sacked the Harzburg in a frenzy, destroyed the castle, and committed such acts of sacrilege (tossing the bones of members of the royal family, along with those of an abbot and St. Anastasius) that they shocked the local population and the religious authorities. Henry used the destruction as a pretext for renewed hostilities. He gained the support of several bishops, the lower feudality and city burghers. While Henry was conducting a campaign against the Magyars on the one hand, papal legates were attempting to create support for the Saxon rebels on the other. In 1075 Otto of Nordheim, together with the count palatine in Saxony and Bishop Burckhard II of Halberstadt openly declared their hostility, using Henry's violations of the Treaty of Gerstungen as an excuse. They gained many Saxon and Thuringian freedmen, but many nobles and peasants did not join. The King made camp in Bredingen, and managed to gain the defections of some lower Saxon nobles with promises to listen to their grievances. In June, he moved to Langensalza.
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