Burchard II held the see of Halberstadt from 1059 to 1088, a tenure that placed him squarely inside the Investiture Controversy — the defining power struggle between papal and imperial authority over the appointment of bishops. He remained an imperial loyalist throughout, backing Henry IV against Gregory VII even as the conflict fractured the German episcopate. The inclusion of the emperor on this coinage was a deliberate statement of that allegiance.
Henry IV's excommunication in 1076 and his famous submission at Canossa in 1077 did nothing to shake Burchard's position.
Burchard II held the see of Halberstadt from 1059 to 1088, a tenure that placed him squarely inside the Investiture Controversy — the defining power struggle between papal and imperial authority over the appointment of bishops. He remained an imperial loyalist throughout, backing Henry IV against Gregory VII even as the conflict fractured the German episcopate. The inclusion of the emperor on this coinage was a deliberate statement of that allegiance.
Henry IV's excommunication in 1076 and his famous submission at Canossa in 1077 did nothing to shake Burchard's position.