emperor of Germany in 1056, styled the Great, was memorable for his quarrels with Pope Gregory II. whom at one time he deposed, for having presumed to judge his sovereign; but at another, dreading the effects of the papal anathemas, he had the weakness to submit to the most humiliating personal solicitations and penances to obtain absolution; which impolitic measure increased the power of the pope, and alienated the affections of his subjects: thus circumstanced, he reassumed the hero, but too late; marched with an army to Rome, expelled Gregory, deposed him, and set up another pope. Gregory died soon after; but Urban II. and Paecal II. successively, excited his ambitious sons, Conrad and Henry, to rebel against him, and the latter was crowned emperor by the title of Henry V. in 1106; and he had the inhumanity to arrest his father, and to de- prive him, not only of all his dignities, but even of the necessaries of life. The unfortunate Henry IV. was reduced to such extremities (after having fought 62 battles in defence of the German empire), that he solicited the bishop of Spire to grant him an under-chaunter's place in his cathedral, but was refused. He died in the same year at Liege, aged 55, a martyr to the ignorance and superstition of the age, and to his own blind confidence in favourites and mistresses.

king of France (in 1589) and Navarre, justly styled the Great, was the son of Anthony de Bourbon, chief of the branch of Bourbon (so called from a fief of that name which fell to them by marriage with the heirs of the estate). His mother was the daughter of Henry d'Albert, king of Navarre; a woman of masculine genius; intrepid, simple, and rustic in her manners, but deeply versed in politics, and a zealous Protestant. Foreseeing that her party would want such a protector (for her husband was a weak indolent prince), she undertook the care of the education of the young hero: his diet was coarse; his clothes neat, but plain; he always went bare-headed; he sent him to school with the other children of the same age, and accustomed him to climb the rocks and neighbouring mountains, according to the custom of the country. He was born in 1553; and in 1569, the 16th year of his age, he was declared the Defender and Chief of the Protestants at Rochelle. The peace of St Germain, concluded in 1570, recalled the lords in the Protestant interest to court; and in 1572 Henry was married to Margaret de Valois, sister to Charles IX., king of France. It was in the midst of the rejoicings for these nuptials that the horrid massacre of Paris took place. Henry was reduced, by this infernal stroke of false policy, to the alternative of changing his religion or being put to death: he chose the former, and was detained prisoner of state three years. In 1587 he made his escape; put himself at the head of the Huguenot party, exposing himself to all the risks and fatigues of a religious war, often in want of the necessaries of life, and enduring all the hardships of the common soldiers; but he gained a victory this year at Courtras, which established his reputation in arms, and endeared him to the Protestants. On the death of Henry III. religion was urged as a pretext for one half of the officers of the French army to reject him, and for the leaguers not to acknowledge him. A phantom, the cardinal de Bourbon, was set up against him; but his most formidable rival was the duke de Mayenne: however, Henry, with few friends, fewer important places, no money, and a very small army, supplied every want by his activity and valour. He gained several victories over the duke; particularly that of Ivri in 1590, memorable for his heroic admonition to his soldiers: "If you love your enigths, rally by my white plume; you will always find it in the road to honour and glory." Paris held out against him, notwithstanding his successes: he took all the suburbs in one day; and might have reduced the city by famine, if he had not humanely suffered his own army to relieve the besieged; yet the bigotted friars and priests in Paris all turned soldiers, except four of the Mendicant order; and made daily military reviews and processions, the sword in one hand and the crucifix in the other, on which they made the citizens swear rather to die with famine than to admit Henry. The scarcity of provisions in Paris at last degenerated to an universal famine; bread had been sold, whilst any remained, for a crown the pound, and at last it was made from the bones of the charnel-house of St Innocents; human flesh became the food of the obstinate Parisians, and mothers ate the dead bodies of their children. In fine, the duke of Mayenne, seeing that neither Spain nor the league would ever grant him the crown, determined to assist in giving it to the lawful heir. He engaged the states to hold a conference with the chiefs of both parties; which ended in Henry's abjuration of the Protestant religion at St Dennis, and his consecration at Chartres in 1593. The following year Paris opened its gates to him; in 1596, the duke of Mayenne was pardoned; and in 1598, peace was concluded with Spain. Henry now showed himself doubly worthy of the throne, by his encouragement of commerce, the fine arts, and manufactures, and by his patronage of men of ingenuity and found learning of every country: but though the fermentations of Romish bigotry were calmed, the leaven was not destroyed; scarce a year passed without some attempt being made on this real father of his people; and at last the monster Ravaillac stabbed him to the heart in his coach, in the streets of Paris, on the 14th of May 1610, in the 57th year of his age and 22d of his reign.