[1][2][3] Henry was raised by his father, who made him Duke of Bavaria in 1026, appointed him co-ruler in 1028 and bestowed him with the duchy of Swabia and the Kingdom of Burgundy ten years later in 1038.

[4] The emperor's death the following year ended a remarkably smooth and harmonious transition process towards Henry's sovereign rule, that was rather uncharacteristic for the Ottonian and Salian monarchs.

[4] Henry succeeded Conrad II as Duke of Carinthia and King of Italy and continued to pursue his father's political course on the basis of virtus et probitas (courage and honesty), which led to an unprecedented sacral exaltation of the kingship.

In 1046 Henry ended the papal schism, was crowned Emperor by Pope Clement II, freed the Vatican from dependence on the Roman nobility and laid the foundation for its empire-wide authority.

[14] Historian Stefan Weinfurter states that Bruno, who was Emperor Henry II's brother, was "particularly well-suited to impart regal concepts and imperial traditions" to his ward.

[25] Ignoring the claim of Emeric, the son of King Stephen I of Hungary, to Bavaria, Conrad persuaded the Bavarian aristocrats to acknowledge Henry as their duke in Regensburg on 24 July 1027.

[31] Constantine VIII's successor, Emperor Romanos III Argyros, proposed the hand of one of his sisters to Henry, but Conrad's envoy, Count Manegold of Donauwörth, refused the offer since she was already married.

On 1 August 1034, Conrad II officially incorporated the Kingdom of Burgundy into the Holy Roman Empire at a ceremony held in the Cathedral of Geneva.

[38] On the same occasion Conrad declared war on the Liutizi, a pagan Slavic tribe[40] and deposed his brother-in-law, Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia.

On their return trip along the Adriatic coast Gunhilda died from an epidemic that apparently had also caused the death of Herman IV of Swabia near Naples.

Heading an army he entered Thuringia where he met Eckard II, Margrave of Meissen, whose advice and counsel he sought with regard to the recent successes of Duke Bretislav I of Bohemia in Poland.

[46] Henry spent Christmas 1041 at Strasbourg, and received emissaries from the Duchy of Burgundy, where he travelled during the new year to settle administrative and judicial matters.

On the road near Basel he learnt of Hungarian raids into Bavaria and bestowed the duchy to a certain Henry VII, a relative of the last independent duke.

[48][49] In October 1043, Henry, displaying deep personal piety, announced from the pulpit of the Konstanz Minster that the Peace and Truce of God be respected all over his realms on that very day.

He, Henry, granted universal indulgence and pardon while in turn promised himself to forgive all injuries suffered, pains endured and to refrain from all acts of vengeance[42] and he encouraged all his imperial subjects to do likewise.

[50] On 6 July 1044 Henry, accompanied by Peter Orseolo, entered Hungary at the head of a moderately sized force, which engaged Samuel Aba's sizeable army.

[46] Upon his return from the Hungarian expedition, Godfrey of Upper Lorraine established new alliances, including with Henry of France, who might support him in a likely future insurrection.

During the preparations of the jaunt to Hungary where Henry had intended to spend Pentecost with King Peter, a wooden floor collapsed in a residence where Bruno, Bishop of Würzburg was killed.

Henry moved on to Saxony and held imperial courts at Quedlinburg, Merseburg (in June) and Meissen, where he appointed his daughter Beatrice abbess and ended the strife between Siemomysł, Duke of Pomerania and Casimir of Poland.

In Rome he held a synod, declared all Roman priests unfit for office and as Adalbert of Bremen refused the honour, Henry appointed Suidger of Bamberg, who was acclaimed by the people and clergy.

Guaimar had been acclaimed as Duke of Apulia and Calabria by the Norman mercenaries under William Iron Arm and his brother Drogo of Hauteville.

Henry gathered an army and went north, where he gave Adalbert of Bremen Godfrey's former lands and oversaw the trial by combat of Thietmar, the brother of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony, accused of plotting to kill the king.

Henry's most enduring papal selection was Bruno of Toul, who took office as Leo IX, under whom the Church would be divided between East and West.

In Lower Lorraine, Lambert, Count of Louvain; and Richildis, widow of Herman of Mons and new bride of Baldwin of Antwerp, caused trouble.

In 1052, Henry undertook a fourth campaign against Hungary, and besieged Pressburg without success, as the Hungarians sank his supply ships on the Danube river.

At Christmas 1052, Cuno of Bavaria was summoned to Merseburg and deposed by a small council of princes for his conflict with Gebhard III, Bishop of Regensburg.

Leo, without assistance from Guaimar (distanced from Henry since 1047), was defeated at the Battle of Civitate on 18 June 1053 by Humphrey, Count of Apulia; Robert Guiscard, his younger brother; and Prince Richard I of Capua.

[55] 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).

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.

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.