Imperial Charter issued by Emperor Heinrich V of the Holy Roman Empire | Italy, likely Treviso | 1116, with Imperial monogram and seal

Single leaf, 455 cm x 285 mm, 20 lines, ruled, Latin, written in diplomatic Minuscule with Littera Elongata at top and bottom, including imperial monogram and contemporary signatures at foot of page, date of issue in lower margin, wax seal in lower right-hand corner (100 mm diameter), seal in excellent condition, likely the best preserved seal of Emperor Henry V; overall good copy with few illegible instances, in custom made box; creases from vertical and horizontal folding noticeable, light water damage to bottom and right margin.

SENSATIONAL REDISCOVERY OF AN EXTREMELY RARE CHARTER BY KING HENRY V, EMPEROR OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, WITH HIS SEAL IN PRISTINE CONDITION

PROVENANCE

1. Written in the chancellery of Henry V in 1116 during his travels to Italy.

2. Europe, Private Collection.

COMMENTARY

This intriguing charter was issued on behalf of King Henry V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1081/86 –1125) in 1116. The document was believed to be lost in 1917 during the Battle of Caporetto but has now resurfaced. Only three imperial charters issued by German emperors of the Saxon to the Hohenstaufen period were sold in the last fifty years, two of them in poor condition and without their seals. Fewer than ten examples have come onto the market over the last century, making the appearance of this charter a sensational find. Imperial Charters are elusively rare on the market, with most extant examples being held in public libraries.

Adding to its rarity, the charter is also a fascinating witness to the tumultuous reign of Henry V, the last king of the Salian dynasty, which controlled the Holy Roman Empire from 1024 until 1125. Henry had forced his father to abdicate and captured Pope Paschal II to increase his control over the church. In the year of the issuance, the emperor was forced to travel to Italy to secure his dominion over the Italian states, in the hope of tipping the scales in his favour in the power struggles against rising forces in the North.

According to Ficker (cf. Forschungen vol.1, p.201) this charter provides the earliest textual witness for an imperial ban that combined imperial disgrace with the confiscation of goods to punish vassals. To deter the Duke of Treviso from rallying against him, Henry V had previously enacted one of the severest punishments an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire could bestow upon one of his subjects. The so-called imperial ban (germ. Reichsacht) stripped a subject of all their rights and properties, negating even the most fundamental right to live. Anyone who injured or killed someone under an imperial ban was absolved from any legal repercussions.

It remains unclear which crime exactly was committed by Duke Rainbald of Treviso against Henry V and his father. Maybe the Duke supported the uprising of the Italian city-states against the German king, destabilising the region? Interestingly, the document includes the then two underage sons of Duke Rainbald, whose children, contrary to the wording of the charter, most likely didn’t play a role in the offences committed against the emperor.

However, in his charter, Emperor Henry V forgives the brothers Ansedisius and Wido, as well as their father, Duke Rainbald of Treviso, officially lifting the imperial ban which had been placed upon them. The charter reinstates all three men into the current Emperor’s good graces and forgoes the charges brought against them. Henry V also restitutes and confirms their father’s property to them, which the brothers had lost in consequence of the imperial ban.

The charter was written by the Notary Adalbert A (cf. Hausmann, Reichskanzlei 66 n^o 74). 18^th-century copies of the charter can be found in Ms. 1060, p. 68 of the Public Library of Treviso and in the State Archive of Modena, no. 12, p.24-25, who were used for the text of the Monumenta Germania Historica.

This charter is an important historical witness to the reign of Heinrich V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire with his seal in excellent condition.

We thank Professor Gerhard Lubich for his insights.

LITERATURE

Published in two 18^th-century copies: ms. 1060 (Doglioni), p.68, Public Library of Treviso and no. 12 in the State Archive of Modena, p.24-25.

Printed in Muratori, Ant. Ital. 2,39 incomplete (cf. Anm. e) “ex archivo praestantissimi viri Antonii Rambaldi comitis de Collalto” (m); 4,67. – Vinciguerra Conte di Collalto etc. (based on the copy of 1814) 16 incomplete (s. Anm. z).

Sansovino, Origine delle famiglie illustri d’Italia (ed.I) 3; (ed.II) 4. – Ficker in Wilmans, Add. z. Westf. UB 92 n^o 116/27. – Indices … Muratorii 87 n^o 788. – Lizier, Note intorno alla storia di Treviso 83. – Jaksch, Mon. duc. Carinthiae 3,225 n^o 555. – Huter, Tyrol UB 1.1,67 n^o 145. – KLAAR, Eppensteiner in Kärnten 67 n^o 92b. – Böhmer Reg. 2046. – Stumpf Reg. 3127; all dated March 1161.

Transcription of a copy of the document in Monumenta Germaniae Historica https://data.mgh.de/databases/ddhv/dhv_155.htm

FURTHER READING

Ficker, Julius, Forschungen zur Reichs- und Rechtsgeschichte Italiens, vol. 1, (Innsbruck: Wagner, 1868)

Goez, Elke. "Zwischen Reichszugehörigkeit und Eigenständigkeit: Heinrich V. und Italien. Ein Werkstattbericht." In Heinrich V. in seiner Zeit. Herrschen in einem europäischen Reich des Hochmittelalters, ed. Gerhard Lubich, Köln: Böhlau, 2013, pp. 215-232.

Hausmann, Friedrich, Reichskanzlei und Hofkapelle unter Heinrich V. und Konrad III. (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1956)

Lubich, Gerhard, Heinrich V. — Der letzte Salierkaiser (Theiss: Freiburg i. Br., 2024).

Lubich, Gerhard (ed.). Heinrich V. in seiner Zeit: Herrschen in einem europäischen Reich des Hochmittelalters. Forschungen zur Kaiser- und Papstgeschichte des Mittelalters, Beihefte, 34. Wien: Böhlau, 2013.

Thiel, Matthias, Studien zu den Urkunden Heinrichs V. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017).

Waas, Adolf. Heinrich V. Gestalt und Verhängis des letzten salischen Kaisers, (München: Gerog D. W. Callwey, 1967).