On 14 February 1014, in Rome, Pope Benedict VIII ⓘ crowned Henry II as Holy Roman Emperor in the old Basilica of St Peter ⓘ.

Henry, already King of Germany (1002) and King of Italy (1004), now assumed the full imperial dignity, becoming the last ruler of the Ottonian dynasty to wear the imperial crown.

The coronation formalised a close alliance between emperor and pope. Benedict VIII relied on Henry’s military authority to stabilise Italy, counter renewed Saracen raids, and resist Byzantine expansion in the south. Henry, in turn, reinforced papal authority and collaborated in ecclesiastical reform.

The partnership bore fruit in the Synod of Pavia ⓘ (1022), where emperor and pope jointly sought to curb simony ⓘ and clerical abuses — a significant step in the early eleventh-century reform movement that would later culminate in the Gregorian Reform ⓘ.

Henry’s imperial coronation marked a moment of relative harmony between empire and papacy, before the conflicts of the Investiture Controversy later in the century.