His excommunication encouraged the Imperial princes in their rising against the emperor—most of all the Saxon Duke Lothair of Supplinburg and Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz, Henry's long-time supporter who after his investiture had deserted him.

However, though he had Adalbert imprisoned at Trifels Castle and forced Lothair to submit himself after a court hearing at the Imperial Palace of Goslar, the smouldering Saxon conflict broke out again in March 1113 over the succession in the Thuringian territories left by late Count Ulric II of Weimar and Orlamünde.

According to the chronicles of Pegau Abbey, on 10 February 1115 the Imperial forces gathered at the Kaiserpfalz of Wallhausen and moved about 40 km (25 mi) towards Welfesholz (today part of Gerbstedt in Saxony-Anhalt) to meet the united Saxon troops led by Duke Lothair, with first skirmish occurring already on the same evening.

When the emperor again moved to Italy for the inheritance of Countess Matilda of Tuscany the next year, Duke Frederick was appointed regent, which laid the grounds for the rise of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

When the Salian dynasty became extinct with Henry's death in 1125, Lothair, strongly backed by Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz, was elected King of the Romans against the Hohenstaufen duke Frederick of Swabia.