“… Henry [IV] is something of an unkown quantity elsewhere”, Dr. Levi Roach (@DrLRoach, Exeter) notes.1 This is quite interessting and points to an important aspect for memory: Who remembers and why? Probably it was the “Gang nach Canossa” and its significance for German historiography – or more specifically for the German national historiography – as a “lieux de memoiré” that made Heinrich famous.2 Most of the people I randomly asked what they know about the Salians answer “Heinrich” and/or “Canossa” – they remember from school (more often they remembered Friedrich Barbarossa of course, in “Stauferland”). So Heinrich became the best known Salian – in the German-speaking world. But what about historography in the rest of Europe? How do non-german Historians remember the Salians? I will pursue this question further.
- Levi Roach, Henry IV of Germany: a “Bad King”?, in: History Today, 67 (3), S. 4-5, full text online. [↩]
- This can be seen here for example: https://salime.hypotheses.org/323. [↩]