title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry met with the papal legates, Bishops Peter of Albano and Udalric of Padua, in Regensburg on 12 May 1079. They convinced him to send envoys to Fritzlar to begin negotiations with Rudolf of Rheinfelden with their mediation. At the Fritzlar conference, the parties agreed to hold a new meeting at Würzburg, but Rudolf failed to appoint his representatives, thinking Henry had bribed the papal legates. Henry invaded Saxony in August, but Rudolf persuaded the aristocrats in Henry's army to obtain his consent to a truce. Henry sent agents to Saxony, and they convinced many Saxon leaders to desert the anti-king. He mustered troops from the German duchies, Burgundy and Bohemia and invaded Saxony in January 1080. He could not surprise Rudolf who defeated Henry's army at Flarchheim on 27 January. Rudolf did not take advantage of his victory, however, because the Saxons who had deserted him did not return to his camp.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry sent envoys to the synod of Lent in Rome and demanded the Pope excommunicate Rudolf, hinting he was ready to appoint an antipope to achieve his goal. Instead Pope Gregory excommunicated and deposed Henry and acknowledged Rudolf as the lawful king. A treatise, known as "The Defence of King Henry", was published in Henry's defence which emphasised his hereditary claim to his realms. The treatise, likely written by the jurist Petrus Crassus, uses arguments based on Roman Law, showing the had already been studied in Italy. Before returning to Germany, Henry's envoys, Archbishop Liemar of Bremen and Bishop Rupert of Bamberg, raised a rebellion against the Pope's principal Italian ally Matilda of Tuscany. They also secured the support of northern Italian aristocrats for Henry.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's second excommunication was less harmful to his position than the previous ban. He held a council in Mainz on 31 May 1080. The nineteen German prelates and aristocrats who attended the council deposed Pope Gregory, labelling him as "the accused disturber of divine and human laws". Henry held a second synod in Brixen. Nineteen Italian, seven German and a lone Burgundian prelate confirmed the Pope's deposition 25 June, accusing him of simony, heresy and other sins. The synod elected Archbishop Wibert of Ravenna pope. Wibert assumed the name Clement III in reference to Pope Clement II who had been the first reformist pope to be elected through the intervention of Henry's father. Henry returned to Germany and assembled his troops for a new invasion of Saxony. Henry and Rudolf's armies met at Hohenmölsen on 14 October 1080. Henry's forces were defeated but it was a Pyrrhic victory for Rudolf, who lost his right hand and died. Henry took full advantage of the circumstances of Rudolf's death, describing it as a punishment for oath breaking. He began negotiations with the Saxons, offering to appoint his son, Conrad, king of Saxony, but Otto of Nordheim persuaded his fellows to refuse the offer.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry led a small army to Italy in March 1081. His Italian supporters had defeated Matilda of Tuscany's troops in the previous year at the battle of Volta Mantovana, enabling him to reach Rome without resistance. The Romans, however, remained loyal to Pope Gregory VII and Henry had to withdraw to northern Italy in late June. He began negotiations with the envoys of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos about an alliance against Robert Guiscard. He granted privileges to Lucca and Pisa, releasing them from Matilda's lordship. While Henry was in Italy, the Saxons invaded Franconia. Henry's southern German opponents elected Welf's kinsman, Hermann of Salm, king at a poorly attended assembly early in August. The Saxons only paid homage to Hermann four months later.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry left Italy for Germany in the autumn of 1081 but returned in February 1082. He laid siege to Rome but could not break the Romans' resistance. He charged Antipope Clement with the siege of Rome and began devastating Matilda's domains. Rumours of Hermann of Salm's plans to invade Italy forced Henry to remain in northern Italy, but Hermann did not risk an Italian campaign. Henry returned to the siege of Rome at the end of 1082. Emperor Alexios sent 144,000 gold pieces to him as a token of their friendship and promised a further 216,000 gold pieces in return for his support against Robert Guiscard. The treasure enabled Henry to bribe Roman aristocrats, and his troops captured the Leonine City in Rome on 3 June 1083. Pope Gregory VII continued to resist in the Castel Sant'Angelo. Henry withdrew from Rome again in early July. He concluded a secret treaty with the Roman aristocrats who promised to induce Gregory to crown Henry emperor or to elect another pope.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry launched a military campaign against Robert Guiscard in February and March 1084. During his absence, the Antipope convinced more than ten cardinals to desert Pope Gregory VII. They were followed by other clerics and papal officials. Resistance against Henry collapsed, and he entered Rome on 21 March. Clement was installed as pope and he crowned Henry emperor in St Peter's Basilica on 1 April. Henry stayed in the Lateran Palace for six weeks. He left Rome before Robert Guiscard came to Gregory VII's rescue on 24 May. Robert's troops sacked Rome, outraging the Romans, and Gregory had to leave Rome for Salerno. Henry ordered his Italian supporters to conquer Matilda of Tuscany's lands before he returned to Germany. However, her army routed his allies at the Battle of Sorbara on 2 July.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Pope Gregory VII repeated Henry's excommunication in late 1084, but many of the Pope's former supporters came to pay homage to Henry as emperor at Cologne at Christmas. His supporters and opponents held a joint conference on the river Werra on 20 January 1085 but could not reach a compromise. The Saxon Count Theoderic II of Katlenburg and Bishop Udo of Hildesheim entered into secret negotiations with Henry during the conference, but the Saxons who remained hostile to Henry soon murdered Theoderic and forced the bishop to flee from Saxony. After the bishop persuaded Henry to pledge he would respect the Saxons' liberties, many rebels laid down their arms.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: The papal legate, Cardinal Odo of Ostia, summoned the German prelates who were loyal to Pope Gregory VII to a synod at Quedlinburg. The synod issued a decree that papal judgements could not be questioned and forbade the faithful to make contact with those who had been excommunicated. In response, Henry held a general assembly in Mainz in late April or early May. Three or four archbishops and fifteen bishops obeyed his summons. They deposed their peers—two archbishops and thirteen bishops—who had failed to come to Mainz. The synod also established the "Peace of God" in Germany, prohibiting armed conflicts during the main Christian festivals. Vratislaus II of Bohemia, who had always been Henry's loyal supporter, was rewarded with the title of king during this meeting.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Pope Gregory VII died in Salerno on 25 May 1085. Henry exploited his most prominent opponent's death to consolidate his position. Henry visited Lower Lorraine to end a conflict between his two supporters, Bishops Theoderic of Verdun and Henry of Liège in June 1085. He granted the County of Verdun to Henry of Liège's kinsman, Godfrey of Bouillon, and compensated Bishop Theoderic with estates confiscated from Matilda of Tuscany. Peace was not restored, however, because Godfrey of Bouillon soon laid claim to Matilda's estates. Henry invaded Saxony, reaching as far as Magdeburg in July. Hermann of Salm, Hartwig, Archbishop of Magdeburg and the archbishop's three suffragans fled to Denmark and the Saxons paid homage to Henry. Henry did not restore the rebels' confiscated estates and appointed new officials. The Saxons rose up in a new rebellion and forced Henry to withdraw to Franconia. Henry mustered a new army and invaded Saxony in January 1086, but the Saxons avoided a pitched battle. Henry withdrew to Regensburg. Welf of Bavaria laid siege to the town at Easter, but Henry was relieved by his supporters.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's Bavarian, Swabian and Saxon opponents laid siege to Würzburg in July 1086, because possession of the town could secure their uninterrupted communication. Henry decided to force them to abandon the siege, but the rebels routed his army in the Battle of Pleichfeld on 11 August. Henry launched a military campaign against his enemies in Bavaria. In an attempt to restore peace, Bavarian and Swabian aristocrats from both kings' camps held a joint conference in Oppenheim in February 1087. Henry did not attend. He went to Aachen where his son, Conrad, was crowned his co-ruler on 30 May. On this occasion Henry likely rewarded Godfrey of Bouillon with the Duchy of Lower Lorraine.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: A new joint conference of the German prelates and aristocrats assembled at Speyer in August 1087. Henry's opponents were willing to pay homage to him provided he had been absolved by the Pope. Henry refused them, maintaining he had been unlawfully excommunicated. Pope Gregory VII's successor, Pope Victor III, held a synod in Benevento around the same time. The synod passed no resolution about Henry, suggesting the new Pope had adopted a conciliatory policy.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: A sudden illness prevented Henry from invading Saxony in October. After his recovery he launched a military expedition against the Saxon rebels. One of the rebel leaders, Egbert II of Brunswick, began to negotiate his surrender. Henry offered him the Margravate of Meissen, but Egbert decided to continue the fight against Henry after two Saxon prelates, Hartwig of Magdeburg and Burchard of Halberstadt, promised to achieve his election as king of Germany. The two prelates could not keep their promise, and Egbert swore fealty to Henry in early 1088. Egbert's about-face and Burchard's unexpected death on 7 April 1088 accelerated the disintegration of the Saxon rebels' camp. Hartwig of Magdeburg and his suffragans hurried to pay homage to Henry, and were followed to Henry's court by prominent Saxon aristocrats. Henry appointed Hartwig to be his lieutenant in Saxony.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Abandoned by his principal allies, the ailing Hermann of Salm sought Henry's permission to leave Saxony for his native Lorraine. His request was granted and he died in his homeland on 28 September 1088. Egbert of Brunswick rose up in a new rebellion and defeated Henry's army near Gleichen on 25 December. Egbert's estates were confiscated in February 1089. Henry, who had been widowed, went to Cologne to celebrate a new marriage with Eupraxia of Kiev in the summer of 1089. In the autumn, Henry returned to Saxony to prevent Egbert from attacking Hildesheim, but he continued to resist.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry began negotiations with his Bavarian and Swabian opponents. They were willing to surrender, but they demanded the deposition of Antipope Clement III. Henry was inclined to accept their offer, but his bishops dissuaded him, fearing they would also be dismissed after the Antipope's fall. To prevent further negotiations between the Emperor and his opponents, Pope Urban II mediated a marriage alliance between Welf I of Bavaria's 18-year-old son, Welf the Fat, and the 43-year-old Matilda of Tuscany in the autumn of 1089. Henry decided to launch a new invasion of Matilda's domains. The Jews of Speyer approached him around this time for the confirmation of their rights that had been granted by Bishop Rüdiger Huzmann. He summarised their liberties in a diploma, protecting them against physical assaults and prohibiting their forced baptism. He issued a similar document for the Jews of Worms. Henry was often in need of cash and according to Robinson, both communities had probably paid a significant sum of money in return for his protection.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry invaded Matilda's domains in March 1090, forcing her to seek refuge in the mountains in April. The retainers of Henry's sister, Abbess Adelaide of Quedlinburg, killed Egbert of Brunswick on 3 July 1090. Henry made Egbert's brother-in-law, Henry of Nordheim, his principal representative in Saxony. Egbert's death put an end to Saxon opposition to the Emperor's rule, because he had secured Nordheim's loyalty with land grants. Henry continued his Italian campaign and captured Matilda's fortresses north of the river Po at the end of 1091. In June 1092, Henry crossed the Po and forced Matilda to begin negotiations for her surrender, but she and her vassals refused to acknowledge Clement III as the lawful pope. Henry laid siege to Canossa, but the garrison made a surprise attack on his army, forcing him to abandon the siege in October.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's Swabian opponents elected the late Berthold of Rheinfelden's brother-in-law, Berthold II of Zähringen, to be their duke and he proclaimed himself the "vassal of St Peter" (that is of the Holy See). Henry had to send his German troops back to Germany to fight in Swabia and Bavaria. He began negotiations with King Ladislaus I of Hungary about an alliance, but Welf I prevented their meeting. Henry was forced to retreat to Pavia and Matilda's troops recaptured her fortresses.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Matilda of Tuscany and her husband managed to turn Henry's heir, Conrad, against him in the spring or summer of 1093. Henry had Conrad captured, but he escaped to Milan. According to Bernold of Constance, Henry tried to commit suicide after his son's rebellion, though Bernold probably invented this story to make a comparison between Henry and King Saul. Conrad's disloyalty aroused Henry's suspicion of his relatives, and he put his wife under strict supervision, allegedly for her infidelity. Four Lombard towns (Milan, Cremona, Lodi and Piacenza) made an alliance with Matilda of Tuscany. Henry fled to Verona whose margrave, Henry of Eppenstein, and Eppenstein's brother, Patriarch Udalric of Aquileia, were his last supporters in Italy. Henry's authority remained limited to north-eastern Italy, and Matilda and Welf I's troops prevented his return to Germany.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Empress Eupraxia decided to desert Henry and sought Matilda's assistance to rescue her from her house arrest early in 1094. Matilda sent a small force of soldiers to Verona who liberated the Empress and accompanied her to Tuscany. On meeting with Matilda, Eupraxia presented serious charges against her husband, accusing him of debauchery and group rape. She publicly repeated the charges in Pope Urban II's presence at the Council of Piacenza in March 1095. The Pope endorsed her words and confirmed Conrad's claim to the throne, recognizing him as the lawful king in April. Henry's enemies gladly spread Eupraxia's accusations, but modern scholars have regarded her statements as an effective propaganda tool against Henry, likely fabricated by Matilda's advisors. The Pope departed from Piacenza to France in triumph, but the teenage Welf the Fat left his middle-aged wife around the same time. The separation of Matilda and her husband came as a severe blow to the Pope, because the young Welf's father, Welf I, soon sought a reconciliation with Henry. Henry also conducted negotiations with Doge Vitale Faliero in Venice in June 1095. They renewed a commercial treaty and Faliero agreed to continue to pay a yearly tribute to the Emperor.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. The council also prohibited the bishops and abbots from swearing fealty to secular rulers. The first crusader bands, composed mainly of commoners and impoverished knights, departed for the Holy Land early in 1096. They attacked the towns along the Rhine and massacred thousands of Jews. After the first pogroms, the Jews sent a letter to Henry, seeking his protection. Henry ordered the German bishops, dukes and counts to protect the Jewish communities, but they could rarely prevent the fanatical mob from persecuting them.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Welf of Bavaria's father, Adalbert Azzo II of Este, mediated a reconciliation between his son and the Emperor in early 1096. Henry restored Bavaria to Welf who lifted the blockade of the Alpine passes, enabling Henry to return to Germany in May. Aristocrats who had rebelled against Henry came to pay homage to him at assemblies held in Regensburg, Nuremberg and Mainz. He allowed the Jews, who had been forcibly converted to Christianity, to return to Judaism. In early 1098, Berthold II of Zähringen was also reconciled with Henry who exempted his domains from the jurisdiction of the dukes of Swabia and rewarded him with the hereditary title of duke.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: The German magnates and prelates deposed Henry's rebellious son, Conrad, and elected his 12-year-old brother, Henry V, as Henry's co-ruler in May 1098. Conrad was abandoned by his allies and died forgotten in Tuscany. While in Mainz, Henry ordered an investigation into the missing property of the Jews who had been murdered by the crusaders. Several witnesses stated that Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz and his kinsmen had stolen large portions of it. Fearing retribution, the Archbishop and his kinsmen fled to Thuringia and began plotting against Henry.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Bretislav II, who had succeeded King Vratislaus as Duke of Bohemia, met Henry in Regensburg at Eastertide 1099. He wanted to alter the traditional order of succession to the Bohemian throne in favour of his brother, Bořivoj II. Henry granted his request and invested Bořivoj with Bohemia on 19 April. Although the dukes of Bohemia had acknowledged the German monarchs' suzerainty, this was the first occasion on which a Bohemian duke was invested in the same manner as the rulers of the German duchies. The restoration of public order was one of Henry's principal goals during the next months. He held assemblies at Bamberg and Mainz and ordered the (mainly Franconian and Saxon) magnates who were present to pursue robbers and thieves.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Antipope Clement III died on 8 September 1100, and his cardinals elected Theoderic of Albano as his successor. Henry's Italian supporters acknowledged Theoderic as the lawful pope, but Henry did not make contact with him. Count Henry of Limburg captured properties of Prüm Abbey. The Emperor laid siege to Limburg, forcing the Count to surrender in May 1101. The Emperor soon forgave Henry of Limburg for his rebellion and made him duke of Lower Lorraine before the end of the year.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: An assembly of the German leaders proposed that Henry make peace with Pope Urban II's successor, Paschal II, in late 1101; there is no proof Henry followed their advice. Pope Paschal II was determined to overcome Henry and ordered his legate, Bishop Gebhard of Constance, to keep the resistance against the Emperor alive in Germany. The papal synod confirmed Henry's excommunication in the Lateran Basilica on 3 April.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Robert II, Count of Flanders, allied with Bishop Manasses of Cambrai—a Frenchman supported by the Pope—against Walcher whom Henry had appointed to replace Manasses as bishop of Cambrai. Robert laid siege to Cambrai; Henry came to Walcher's rescue, forcing Robert to lift the siege in October 1102, but Robert resumed the war on Walcher soon after Henry left Cambrai. Henry held a general assembly in Mainz on 6 January 1103, and proclaimed the "Reichsfriede" (imperial peace), prohibiting feuds and other acts of violence, for the first time in the whole empire. He threatened those who broke the peace with mutilation, without allowing the wealthy to pay penance.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry also announced he was planning to launch a crusade to the Holy Land. He addressed a letter to Hugh of Cluny. In it he explained to his godfather he intended to "make good the ruin of the Church, which was caused by us, through the restoration of peace and justice". His correspondence with Hugh (who was Pope Paschal II's staunch supporter) suggests Henry was seeking reconciliation. The Pope regarded Henry as the "chief of the heretics". He granted Robert II of Flanders the "remission of sins" (the same spiritual privilege granted to crusaders) for his fight against the Emperor's supporters. Robert II, however, feared losing his imperial fiefs and swore fealty to Henry in Liège on 29 June 1103.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: A Bavarian count, Sigehard of Burghausen, criticised Henry for his favouritism towards the Saxon and Franconian aristocrats in Regensburg in January 1104. He had come to Regensburg accompanied by a large retinue arousing Henry's suspicion he was staging a plot. After Sigehard dismissed his retainers, a band of "ministeriales" and burghers murdered him on 4 February. The "ministeriales" likely took revenge on Sigehard for his arbitration in a case relating to their peers. Sigehard's kinsmen and other aristocrats, however, blamed Henry for his death saying he had failed to defend him.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Archbishop Hartwig of Magdeburg died in autumn 1104. His brother, Burgrave Herman of Magdeburg, and their nephew, Hartwig, departed for Henry's court most probably to achieve the younger Hartwig's appointment to the archbishopric, but Count Theoderic III of Katlenburg captured and imprisoned them for simony. Henry launched a punitive campaign against Theoderic. The military expedition ended abruptly because Henry's eighteen-year-old son unexpectedly deserted him on 12 December. The younger Henry later said that his father's failure to receive an absolution from the Pope had prompted his rebellion. His nearly contemporaneous biography claims that he wanted to secure the aristocrats' support before his ailing father's death to avoid a succession crisis. The discontented Bavarian aristocrats hurried to the young King and Pope Paschal II absolved him from excommunication early in 1105. Henry sent envoys to his son, who refused to negotiate with an excommunicated man.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Most Swabian and eastern Franconian aristocrats joined the younger Henry's rebellion. He also secured the Saxons' support during a visit to Saxony in April 1105. He launched a military campaign against Mainz to restore Archbishop Ruthard to his see in late June 1105, but his father's supporters prevented him crossing the Rhine. Henry expelled his son's troops from Würzburg in August, but his authority was quickly waning. His son took advantage of Frederick of Büren's death to take control of Swabia. Leopold III, Margrave of Austria, and Bořivoj II, Duke of Bohemia, deserted the Emperor at Regensburg in late September, though Bořivoj soon repented his betrayal, and supported Henry's flight from Regensburg to Saxony. His brother-in-law, Count Wiprecht of Groitzsch, accompanied Henry as far as Mainz in late October. Already in despair, Henry sent a letter to his son, asking him "not to persist in his desire to depose him from the kingship"; the younger Henry wanted no compromise.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry moved from Mainz to Hammerstein and then to Cologne. He decided to return to Mainz, because he wanted to defend himself at the German princes' assembly his son had convoked. The younger Henry met with his father at Koblenz on 21 December. Henry dismissed his retinue, because his son promised a safe conduct to Mainz. Instead, he was captured and brought to the castle of Böckelheim, where he was forced to cede the royal insignia to his son. The burghers of Mainz remained loyal to Henry, so his son summoned the German princes instead to an assembly at Ingelheim. Henry was allowed to attend the meeting, but it was dominated by his enemies. Having no other choice, he abdicated in his son's favour on 31 December. Later, he said he resigned only because of his "fears of imminent murder or execution".


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry was staying in Ingelheim after his abdication, but his supporters warned him his son had decided to imprison or execute him. In early February 1106, he fled to Cologne where he was received by the townspeople with great respect. He declined all ceremonies, demonstrating that he was doing penance for his sins. His loyal supporter, Othbert, Bishop of Liège, made peace with Henry of Limburg to secure the Duke's support. Henry joined them at Liège and mediated a reconciliation between Henry of Limburg and Albert III, Count of Namur. Robert II of Flanders also promised him assistance. Henry addressed a letter to Hugh of Cluny, offering to accept all his terms in return for an absolution. He also wrote letters to his son, the German princes and King Philip I of France. All of them show he was determined to regain his throne.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry V invaded Lorraine, but his father's supporters routed his army at Visé on 22 March 1106. Henry of Limburg and the burghers of Cologne and Liège jointly persuaded the elderly Henry to "resume the office of emperor". Henry V laid siege to Cologne early in July but had to withdraw from the well-fortified town three or four weeks later. The deposed Emperor sent letters to the German princes accusing his son of treachery and hypocrisy. He fell unexpectedly ill and died in Liège on 7 August. On his deathbed, he asked his son to pardon his supporters and to have him buried next to his ancestors in Speyer Cathedral.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Bishop Othbert buried Henry in Liège Cathedral, but the excommunicated Emperor's body could not rest in a consecrated place. Eight days later, his corpse was unearthed and buried in an unconsecrated chapel near Liège. On 24 August his son ordered a new exhumation because he wanted to execute Henry's last will. The townspeople of Liège tried to prevent the transfer of Henry's corpse, but it was carried in a sarcophagus to Speyer. The sarcophagus was placed in an unconsecrated chapel of the Speyer Cathedral on 3 September. Five years later, Pope Paschal II granted permission to the younger Henry to bury his father as he had requested. Henry IV was buried next to Henry III in the cathedral on 7 August 1111.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's conflicts with his subjects, both sons, his wives and with the popes gave rise to a rich polemical literature during his lifetime. Both his supporters and his opponents based their portraits of Henry on two early medieval works: "The Twelve Abuses" contained a discussion about legitimate kingship, while Isidore of Seville's contrasted kingship with tyranny. Consequently, polemical literature tended to provide a list of the characteristics of either good or wicked rulers when portraying Henry. For instance, in the 1080s, the "Song of the Saxon War" praised him as a "king second to none in his piety" who defended the widows and the poor and gave laws to the lawless Saxons. The , an anonymous biography completed in the early 1110s, described him as a vigorous and warlike monarch who employed learned officials and enjoyed conversations about spiritual themes and the liberal arts. In contrast Lambert of Hersfeld stated Henry had inherited a peaceful realm, but he "rendered it filthy, despicable, bloodstained, a prey to internal conflicts". Lambert also emphasised that Henry destroyed and robbed churches and put freemen into servitude.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Rumours of Henry's immorality established his bad reputation for centuries. The Saxons were the first to accuse him of debauchery and demanded he dismiss the "swarm of concubines with whom he slept". Polemical writings spreading in Germany after 1085 accused Henry of incest and pederasty, also claiming that he had fathered illegitimate children. Isidore of Seville listed immoral sexual practices among the tyrants' characteristics. Consequently, as Robinson emphasises, allegations of Henry's alleged sexual misconduct "provided his opponents with a useful polemical weapon".


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry was not a successful military commander, primarily because he did not avoid pitched battles, in contrast with most 11th-century military leaders. He could likely adopt this high-risk strategy because he often mustered his troops from among merchants and peasants who were regarded as expendable. He lost most of his major battles; his sole victory at Homburg was primarily attributed to Rudolf of Rheinfelden by their contemporaries. On the other hand, Henry's adaptability and openness to compromise and his preference for dilatory tactics enabled him to survive most crises of his reign.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's penitential "Walk to Canossa" developed into a powerful metaphor. Catholic clerics were the first to adopt it, regarding it as the symbol of the triumph of the Holy See over an immoral monarch. For 19th-century Protestant German nationalists, the "Gang nach Canossa" ("Road to Canossa") symbolized the humiliation of Germany by a haughty pope. Otto von Bismarck proudly declared before the Reichstag that "Don't worry, we are not going to Canossa, neither physically nor spiritually!" during his campaign against political Catholicism on 14 May 1872. Historians have adopted more sophisticated approaches. They emphasize that penance and reconciliation were integral parts of medieval life, so an anointed king's excommunication was more disturbing for Henry's contemporaries than his act of penance at Canossa. Henry, as Schutz concludes, "cleverly maneuvered the pope into a position in which he had to absolve him", but Gregory VII reduced him "from Vicar of Christ to being a mere layman".


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's death did not put an end to the Investiture Controversy. A renowned French lawyer, Bishop Ivo of Chartres, and his pupil, Hugh of Fleury, had paved the road to a compromise already in Henry's lifetime. They actually adopted an old view, condemned by reformist clerics, making a distinction between the secular possessions and properties of bishoprics and abbeys (temporalities), and the ecclesiastical authority and sacramental powers of the bishops and abbots (spiritualities). In 1122, Henry V and Pope Calixtus II included a similar distinction in their Concordat of Worms, whereby the Emperor renounced the right to install the prelates in their ecclesiastical offices with ring and staff in return for the right to invest them with their secular possessions using the sceptre. However, the German monarchs' right to acquire a dead prelate's treasury, introduced by Henry, remained an important source of wealth, especially during the reigns of Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI in the second half of the 12th century.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's first wife, Bertha of Savoy, was a year younger than he. Until 5 August 1068, Henry regularly mentioned her as "consort of our kingdom and our marriage-bed" in his diplomas. Her disappearance from the diplomas was the sign of a growing disaffection. Henry sought a divorce at a general assembly in June 1069 stating their marriage had not been consummated. The assembled German aristocrats referred his request to a synod, which passed the matter to the Holy See in early October. Pope Alexander II made it clear Henry would only be crowned emperor if he abandoned his plan. Henry obeyed and Bertha was again mentioned regularly in his diplomas from 26 October 1069. She died on 27 December 1087.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Bertha gave birth to five children, but two of them—Adelaide and Henry—died in infancy. Her surviving children were:


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: The —the earliest Icelandic chronicle of the Norwegian kings—refers to a daughter of an emperor (who must have been identical with Henry for chronological reasons), called Mathilde. According to this source, Magnus III of Norway exchanged messages with her and also composed a stanza for her. Other primary sources do not list Mathilde among Henry's children.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: Henry's second wife, Eupraxia (known as Adelaide in Germany), was born around 1068. She was the daughter of Vsevolod I, Grand Prince of Kiev, but it was not her connection to Kievan Rus', but her first marriage to Henry of Stade, Margrave of the Nordmark, that made her an ideal spouse for Henry after her husband died in 1087. Henry of Stade had been a wealthy Saxon aristocrat and his widow's marriage to Henry contributed to his reconciliation with the Saxons. Henry and Eupraxia were engaged in 1088. In contrast with Bertha, Eupraxia was mentioned in only one of her husband's diplomas, showing that she never gained Henry's confidence. After the scandalous end of their marriage, she returned to Kiev where she died on 10 July 1109.


title: Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

text: "*Gunhilda's daughter by Emperor Henry III, Beatrix, is not displayed. She was Abbess of Quedlinburg and Gandersheim until her death in 1061."


title: Anne Parillaud

text: Anne Parillaud (; born 6 May 1960) is a French actress who has been active since 1977. She is best known internationally for playing the title character in Luc Besson's film "La Femme Nikita".


title: Anne Parillaud

text: Parillaud was born in Paris. While in school she studied ballet and her ambition was to become a lawyer, but a role during summer vacation – when she was only 16 – in Michel Lang's "L'hôtel de la plage" (1978) launched her into the world of film. She had a three-year relationship with actor Alain Delon and co-starred with him in his only two films as director, "Pour la peau d'un flic" (1981) and "Le Battant" (1983).


title: Anne Parillaud

text: She met director Luc Besson and they started a relationship. They married in 1986, but the couple separated shortly after he directed her in "La Femme Nikita" (1990). "La Femme Nikita" was an especially intense experience for Parillaud:


title: Anne Parillaud

text: After the international success of "La Femme Nikita", Parillaud left France to star in three films abroad: "Map of the Human Heart", "Innocent Blood," and "Frankie Starlight". She has said regarding the experience of playing a vampire in John Landis's "Innocent Blood":


title: Anne Parillaud

text: In 2010 she starred in the French psychological thriller "In Their Sleep" which was directed by Caroline du Potet and Eric du Potet.


title: Anne Parillaud

text: Parillaud's first husband was Luc Besson, with whom she has a daughter, Juliette Besson, born in 1987. She became an actress.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Thailand face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Thailand, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. About eight percent of the Thai population, five million people, are thought to be in the LGBT demographic.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2013, the "Bangkok Post" said that "while Thailand is viewed as a tourist haven for same-sex couples, the reality for locals is that the law, and often public sentiment, is not so liberal." A 2014 report by the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Programme said that LGBT people "still face discrimination affecting their social rights and job opportunities", and "face difficulty gaining acceptance for non-traditional sexuality, even though the tourism authority has been promoting Thailand as a gay-friendly country".


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Changes in attitudes and public policy towards LGBT issues began to occur in Thailand during the 1990s and, in particular, the early part of the 21st century. In 2015, Thailand enacted comprehensive anti-discrimination law covering sexual orientation and gender identity. As of 2022, a group of bills is being considered in the Thai parliament that will grant either civil partnerships or full marriage for same-sex couples.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2017, Bangkok was named the second-most gay-friendly city in Asia, after Tel Aviv, Israel, due to its LGBT dating scene, nightlife, openness and safety. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has launched a global project entitled "Go Thai Be Free", to encourage LGBTQ+ tourists from around the world and raise its international profile as a LGBTQ+ friendly country.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Private, adult, consensual, and non-commercial sodomy was decriminalized in Thailand in 1956. However, same-sex attraction and transgender identities were still seen as socially unacceptable. Through the "Penal Code Amendment Act of 1997" (), the age of consent was set at fifteen years regardless of gender or sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2002, the Ministry of Health announced that homosexuality would no longer be regarded as a mental illness or disorder.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2007, the Thai Government expanded the definition of a sexual assault and rape victim to include both women and men. The government also prohibited marital rape, with the law stipulating that women or men can be victims.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Thailand does not recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, domestic partnerships, unregistered cohabitations, or any other form of same-sex unions.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In September 2011, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Sexual Diversity Network, an NGO, proposed draft legislation on same-sex marriage and sought the Thai Government's support for the law. Instead, in December 2012, the Government formed a committee to draft legislation providing legal recognition for same-sex couples in the form of civil partnerships. On 8 February 2013, the Rights and Liberties Protection Department and the Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice, and Human Rights held a first public hearing on the civil partnership bill, drafted by the committee's chairman, Police General Viroon Phuensaen.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In September 2013, the "Bangkok Post" reported that an attempt in 2011 by Natee Teerarojjanapong, president of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, to register a marriage certificate with his male partner had been rejected.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: By 2014, the civil partnership bill had bipartisan support, but was stalled due to political unrest in the country. In the second half of 2014, reports emerged that a draft bill called the "Civil Partnership Act" would be submitted to the junta-appointed Thai Parliament. It would give couples some of the rights of heterosexual marriage, but was criticized for increasing the minimum age from 17 to 20 and omitting adoption rights.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2017, Thai government officials responded favourably to a petition signed by 60,000 people calling for civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Pitikan Sithidej, director-general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department at the Justice Ministry, confirmed she had received the petition and would do all she could to get it passed as soon as possible. The Justice Ministry convened on 4 May 2018 to begin discussions on a draft civil partnership bill, titled the "Same Sex Life Partnership Registration Bill". Under the proposal, same-sex couples would be able to register themselves as "life partners" and will be granted some of the rights of marriage. The bill was discussed in public hearings between 12 and 16 November, where a reported 98% expressed support for the measure. On 25 December 2018, the Cabinet approved the bill.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: On 8 July 2020, the Cabinet approved a new draft of the bill. It will now be introduced in the National Assembly.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In June 2020, Move Forward Party deputy Tunyawat Kamolwongwat introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The public consultation on the bill was launched on 2 July.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled that Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code interpreting marriages as only between women and men is constitutional, but after the release of full ruling, one phrase mentioned that members of the LGBTQ community cannot reproduce, as it is against nature, and they are unlike other animals with unusual behaviours or physical characteristics. The verdict cites LGBTQ as a different "species" that needs to be separated and studied as it is incapable of creating the "delicate bond" of human relationships. The text was criticised by the LGBT community as homophobic and politically incorrect.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2022, a group of bills concerning same-sex unions passed their first readings in the Thai parliament. These include the Marriage Equality Bill proposed by the opposition Move Forward Party, which would amend the current marriage law to include couples of any gender, and the government-proposed Civil Partnership Bill, which would instead introduce civil partnerships as a separate category, granting some but not all rights given to married couples.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Only married couples may adopt in Thailand with the exception of single women, who are allowed to petition for the adoption of a special-needs child (Thai law on what qualifies a child as special-needs remain unclear). The draft legislation working its way through the Thai bureaucracy in late 2018 would ensure only property and inheritance rights and some other rights of same-sex couples, but not their rights to public welfare, tax benefits or child adoption.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Thailand had long been a popular destination for surrogacy arrangements. In 2015, however, the Thai Parliament passed a law banning foreigners from travelling to Thailand to have commercial surrogacy arrangements. Only married couples as Thai residents are allowed to make commercial surrogacy contracts. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is restricted to married couples.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: None of the various Thai constitutions has mentioned sexual orientation or gender identity. Natee Theerarojnapong, of the Human Rights Commission, and Anjana Suvarnananda, a lesbian rights advocate, campaigned unsuccessfully for the inclusion of "sexual identity" in the Interim Constitution of 2006 and the Constitution of 2007. The 2007 Constitution did contain a broad prohibition of "unfair discrimination" based on "personal status" and promises to respect various civil liberties in accordance with "state security" and "public morality".


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: The "Gender Equality Act B.E. 2558" () was passed on 13 March 2015 and came into force on 9 September 2015. This act bans discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and was the first law in Thailand to contain language mentioning LGBT people. Under the law, discrimination against a male, female or "a person who has a sexual expression different from that person's original sex" is punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of up to 20,000 baht. However, the law specified an exception for "education, religion and the public interest", which was strongly criticised by women's rights groups.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Sex reassignment operations have been performed in Thailand since 1975, and Thailand is among the most popular destinations globally for patients seeking such operations.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Transgender people are quite common in Thai popular entertainment, television shows and nightclub performances, however, transgender people lack various legal rights compared to the rest of the population, and may face discrimination from society.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Transgender people face substantial barriers to employment, including full-time work, executive positions or promotions, according to 2015 research for the International Labour Organization. Discrimination in job applications also often discourages transgender people from seeking further employment opportunities or entering the job market. The research also found that they are faced with "daily discrimination and humiliation" which often cuts short their careers. An editorial in the "Bangkok Post" in 2013 noted that "we don't find transgenders as high-ranking officials, doctors, lawyers, scientists, or teachers in state-run schools and colleges. Nor as executives in the corporate world. In short, the doors of government agencies and large corporations are still closed to transgender women."


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2007, the Thai National Assembly debated allowing transgender people to legally change their names after having a sex change operation. Post-operation male-to-female transgender government employees are not granted the right to wear female uniforms at work, and are still expected to perform military service. Specific cases of inequality include a hospital which refused to allow a transgender woman to stay in a woman's ward, even though she had undergone sex reassignment surgery.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2014, a Matthayom 1 textbook was criticized for discrimination and lack of gender sensitivity, due to a description of transgender people as suffering from gender confusion, "khon long phet" (คนหลงเพศ), and illustrations in the textbook featuring performances by transgender dancers. Critics argued that the word "long" (หลง: 'confused') had negative connotations, and that "transgender" or "kham phet" (ข้ามเพศ) was more suitable. It was reported that officials at the Ministry of Education would investigate the matter.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In July 2019, a proposal to regulate sex changes for transgender individuals was presented to the National Assembly. Among others, the proposed bill would allow those who have undergone sex reassignment surgery to change their legal gender on official documents. It also covers name changes, marriage rights and military conscription.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2005, the Thai Armed Forces lifted their ban on LGBT people serving in the military. Prior to this reform, LGBT people were exempted as suffering from a "mental disorder".


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In May 2009, the Thai Red Cross reaffirmed its ban of men who have sex with men (MSM) becoming blood donors, despite campaigns to change this policy.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: The Thai word for "gay" or "queer" is เกย์ (). The term "katoey" or "kathoey" (; ) refers to transgender women or effeminate gay men. Thai society perceives "kathoeys" as belonging to a third gender alongside male and female. The term "dee" (ดี้) alludes to homosexual or bisexual women. Thai has also adopted the word "lesbian" from English: (; ).


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: The Thai language recognises several other gender and sexual identities, including "tom" (ทอม), from the English "tomboy", which refers to women who dress, act, and speak in a masculine fashion. "Toms" are not necessarily lesbian or bisexual, but may be perceived as such by others. Other identities include "angees", "kathoeys" who are attracted to "toms", and "adams", men who are attracted to "toms".


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In 2016, Paisarn Likhitpreechakul, a board member of the Sogi Foundation, wrote an op-ed in the "Bangkok Post" warning of so-called corrective rape being widely used to "cure" lesbians of their sexual orientation, highlighting the case of a father in Loei who confessed to raping his 14-year-old daughter for four years to stop her from socialising with tomboys. Paisarn expressed further concern that such practices were being normalised in Thai society, and that the true number of such cases was far higher, as many murders of Thai LGBTs are categorised as crimes of passion, because the Thai legal system does not include the concept of "hate crimes". The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights identified murder, beatings, kidnappings, rape and sexual assault against LGBT people as examples of homophobic and transphobic violence and noted that violence against LGBT people "tends to be especially vicious compared to other bias-motivated crimes".


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: On 26 December 1996, in a report in the "Bangkok Post", the Rajabat Institute Council, the collective governing body of all of Thailand's colleges, declared that it would bar homosexuals from enrolling in any of its teacher training schools, the idea of Deputy Education Minister Suraporn Danaitangtrakul. The announcement was strongly criticised by human rights groups and many others, who urged the repeal of the policy. On 25 January 1997, Danaitangtrakul proposed that the Institute set new criteria to bar people with "improper personalities", but not specific groups such as homosexuals.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: For several years, the official policy of Thai prisons has been to respect and recognize sexual diversity, placing inmates in cells based on their stated gender and sexual orientation. Homosexual male prisoners, like all male prisoners, have their heads shaved. Female inmates are not allowed to wear make-up, but gay male inmates are. According to the Department of Corrections, there were 4,448 LGBT prisoners in the country in 2016. Of these, 1,804 were "katoey" (transgender women or effeminate gay men), 352 were gay (เกย์), 1,247 were "tom" (ทอม; female with masculine characteristics), 1,011 were "dee" (ดี้; female homosexual with feminine characteristics), and 34 were male-to-female transgender people.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Ahead of the 2019 general election, several political parties expressed support for same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. The Future Forward Party called for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and amendments to the official school curriculum "so that it no longer propagates stereotypes and prejudice against the LGBTQ community". The Mahachon Party, the Thai Local Power Party, the Polamuang Thai Party, the Thai Liberal Party, the Puea Chat Party, the Commoners' Party and the Democrat Party all expressed support for same-sex marriage. The Pheu Thai Party, the largest party in Parliament, also supports same-sex marriage. The Thai Raksa Chart Party, banned in March 2019 due to the involvement of Princess Ubol Ratana, stated that it supported civil partnerships for same-sex couples.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In March 2019, transgender filmmaker Tanwarin Sukkhapisit of the Future Forward Party was elected to the Thai Parliament, becoming its first ever transgender MP. Three other transgender candidates from the same party, Tunyawaj Kamonwongwat, Nateepat Kulsetthasith, and Kawinnath Takey, were also elected.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Thailand has long had a reputation of tolerance when it comes to LGBT people; there are many LGBT nightclubs and bars in the country and the first Thai LGBT magazine, "Mithuna", began publication in 1983.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: However, in 1989, LGBT activist Natee Teerarojjanapongs described the situation as more complicated; although LGBT citizens do not face direct repression from the state, instead "it is a question of subtle negation through invisibility and a lack of social awareness about homosexual people", and although people acknowledge the existence of homosexuality, "they are still not used to the idea of openly gay people. Even fewer have any understanding of the notion of lesbian and gay rights".


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: This began to change in the 1990s with more public events, such as LGBT pride festivals that were held every year from 1999 to 2007 in Bangkok, until internal disputes within the LGBT community and arguments with the festival's financial backers prevented future events from being held. Bangkok Pride was expected to take place again in November 2017, the first time in 11 years, but was postponed due to the national one year mourning period for King Bhumibol Adulyadej.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: In the city of Phuket, pride events have been held annually since 1999. The second parade in the northern city of Chiang Mai in 2009 stirred such hostility that it had to be canceled. As participants were preparing to march, a local political group surrounded the compound where they had gathered, shouting insults through megaphones and throwing fruit and rocks at the building. However, ten years later, more than 500 people including some politicians marched in the Chiang Mai Pride parade on 21 February 2019.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Songkran is the Thai New Year's national holiday. Songkran falls on 13 April every year, but the holiday period extends from 14 to 15 April. It has taken on particular meaning in recent years for LGBT residents and visitors, as it is held simultaneously to the Songkran Bangkok Gay Circuit Party, considered the largest such gay celebration in Asia. The event celebrated its 14th anniversary in 2019.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Since the 1980s, many LGBT-themed publications have been available in Thailand. LGBT characters in Thai films have also been common since the 1970s, often as comic relief, although it was not until the new wave of Thai cinema in the late 1990s that Thai films began to examine LGBT characters and issues in more depth.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: Censorship does not affect LGBT-related media directly, but pornography and sex toys are illegal in Thailand.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: According to a 2015 opinion poll, 89% of Thais would accept a colleague who is gay or lesbian, 80% would not mind if a family member was LGBT, and 59% were in favour of legalizing same-sex marriage.


title: LGBT rights in Thailand

text: According to a 2019 YouGov poll of 1,025 respondents, 63% of Thais supported the legalisation of same-sex partnerships, with 11% against and 27% preferring not to answer. 69% of people aged 18 to 34 supported civil partnerships, with 10% opposed. Legalisation was supported by 56% of those aged between 35 and 54 (33% opposed), and 55% of those aged 55 and over (13% opposed). 66% of those with university degrees were in favour (10% opposed), and 57% of those without university degrees (12% opposed). 68% of those with a high income supported civil partnerships (7% opposed), and 55% of those with a low income (13% opposed). 68% of women responded in favour (7% opposed), and 57% of men (14% opposed).


title: Compulsory education

text: Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all people and is imposed by the government. This education may take place at a registered school or at other places.


title: Compulsory education

text: Compulsory school attendance or compulsory schooling means that parents are obliged to send their children to a certain school.


title: Compulsory education

text: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requires, within a reasonable number of years, the principle of compulsory education free of charge for all. All countries except Bhutan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vatican City have compulsory education.


title: Compulsory education

text: At the start of the 20th century, compulsory education was to master physical skills which are necessary and can be contributed to the nation. It also instilled values of ethics and social communications abilities in teenagers, it would allow immigrants to fit in the unacquainted society of a new country. Nowadays, compulsory education has been considered as a right of every citizen in many countries.


title: Compulsory education

text: It is mostly used to advance the education of all citizens, minimize the number of students who stop going to school because of family economic reasons, and balance the education differences between rural and urban areas.


title: Compulsory education

text: The overall correlation between the level of access to education in a country and the skills of its student population is weak. This disconnect between education access and education quality may be the consequence of weak capacity to implement education policies or lack of information on the part of policymakers on how to promote student learning. In other situations, governments might be intentionally motivated to provide education for reasons that have nothing to do with improving the knowledge and skills of citizens. On the other hand, in countries with a republican system of government, being educated is necessary and important for every citizen.


title: Compulsory education

text: Throughout history, compulsory education laws have typically been the latest form of education intervention enacted by states. In general, governments in Europe and Latin America began to intervene in primary education an average of 107 years before democratization as measured by Polity. Compulsory education laws, despite being one of the last measures introduced by central governments seeking to regulate primary education, nevertheless were implemented an average of 52 years before democratization as measured by Polity and 36 years before universal male suffrage.


title: Compulsory education

text: Historically, there is a trend of mass education being introduced in the aftermath of civil wars. According to a 2022 study, nondemocracies frequently introduced mass education to teach obedience and respect for authority.


title: Compulsory education

text: Compulsory education was not unheard of in ancient times. However instances are generally tied to royal, religious or military organization—substantially different from modern notions of compulsory education.


title: Compulsory education

text: Plato's "The Republic" (c. 424–c. 348 BCE) is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought. Plato's rationale was straightforward. The ideal city would require ideal individuals, and ideal individuals would require an ideal education.


title: Compulsory education

text: The popularization of Plato's ideas began with the wider Renaissance and the translation of Plato's works by Marsilio Ficino (1434–1499), culminating in the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known for his own work on education (including Emile, or On Education), said, 'To get a good idea of public education, read Plato's Republic. It is not a political treatise, as those who merely judge books by their title think, but it is the finest, most beautiful work on education ever written.'


title: Compulsory education

text: In Sparta boys between the age 6 and 7 left their homes and were sent to military school. School courses were harsh and have been described as a "brutal training period". Between the age of 18 and 20, Spartan males had to pass a test that consisted of fitness, military ability, and leadership skills. A student's failure meant a forfeiture of citizenship () and political rights. Passing was a rite of passage to manhood and citizenry, in which he would continue to serve in the military and train as a soldier until the age of 60 when the soldier could retire to live with his family.


title: Compulsory education

text: Every parent in Judea since ancient times was required to teach their children at least informally. Over the centuries, as cities, towns and villages developed, a class of teachers called Rabbis evolved. According to the Talmud (tractate Bava Bathra 21a), which praises the sage Joshua ben Gamla with the institution of formal Jewish education in the 1st century AD, Ben Gamla instituted schools in every town and made formal education compulsory from age 6–8.


title: Compulsory education

text: The Aztec Triple Alliance, which ruled from 1428 to 1521 in what is now central Mexico, is considered to be the first state to implement a system of universal compulsory education.


title: Compulsory education

text: The Protestant Reformation prompted the establishment of compulsory education for boys and girls, first in regions that are now part of Germany, and later in Europe and in the United States.


title: Compulsory education

text: Martin Luther's seminal text "An die Ratsherren aller Städte deutschen Landes" (To the Councillors of all Towns in German Countries, 1524) called for establishing compulsory schooling so that all parishioners would be able to read the Bible by themselves. The Protestant South-West of the Holy Roman Empire soon followed suit. In 1559, the German Duchy Württemberg established a compulsory education system for boys. In 1592, the German Duchy Palatine Zweibrücken became the first territory in the world with compulsory education for girls and boys, followed in 1598 by Strasbourg, then a free city of the Holy Roman Empire and now part of France.


title: Compulsory education

text: In Scotland, the School Establishment Act of 1616 commanded every parish to establish a school for everyone paid for by parishioners. The Parliament of Scotland confirmed this with the Education Act of 1633 and created a local land-based tax to provide the required funding. The required majority support of parishioners, however, provided a tax evasion loophole which heralded the Education Act of 1646. The turmoil of the age meant that in 1661 there was a temporary reversion to the less compulsory 1633 position. However, in 1696 a new Act re-established the compulsory provision of a school in every parish with a system of fines, sequestration, and direct government implementation as a means of enforcement where required. Making Scotland the first country with national compulsory education.


title: Compulsory education

text: In the United States, following Luther and other Reformers, the Separatist Congregationalists who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620, obliged parents to teach their children how to read and write. The Massachusetts School Laws, three legislative acts enacted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1642, 1647, and 1648, are commonly regarded as the first steps toward compulsory education in the United States. The 1647 law, in particular, required every town having more than 50 families to hire a teacher, and every town of more than 100 families to establish a school. The Puritan zeal for learning was reflected in the early and rapid rise of educational institutions; e.g., Harvard College was founded as early as 1636.


title: Compulsory education

text: Prussia implemented a modern compulsory education system in 1763. It was introduced by the Generallandschulreglement (General School Regulation), a decree of Frederick the Great in 1763–5. The Generallandschulreglement, authored by Johann Julius Hecker, asked for all young citizens, girls and boys, to be educated from age 5 to age 13-14 and to be provided with a basic outlook on (Christian) religion, singing, reading and writing based on a regulated, state-provided curriculum of text books. The teachers, often former soldiers, were asked to cultivate silk worms to make a living besides contributions from the local citizens and municipalities.


title: Compulsory education

text: In Austria, Hungary and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Czech lands), mandatory primary education was introduced by Empress Maria Theresa in 1774.


title: Compulsory education

text: Compulsory school attendance based on the Prussian model gradually spread to other countries. It was quickly adopted by the governments in Denmark-Norway and Sweden, and also in Finland, Estonia and Latvia within the Russian Empire, and later England and Wales and France.


title: Compulsory education

text: Due to population growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO calculated in 2006 that over the subsequent 30 years, more people would receive formal education than in all prior human history.


title: Compulsory education

text: France was slow to introduce compulsory education, this time due to conflicts between the secular state and the Catholic Church,[20] and as a result between anti-clerical and Catholic political parties. During the July Monarchy, government officials proposed a variety of public primary education provisions, culminating in the Guizot Law of 28 June 1833. The Guizot law mandated that all communes provide education for boys and required that schools implement a curriculum focused on religious and moral instruction. The first set of Jules Ferry Laws, passed in 1881, extended the central government’s role in education well beyond the provisions of the Guizot Law, and made primary education free for girls and boys. In 1882, the second set of Jules Ferry Laws made education compulsory for girls and boys until the age of 13. In 1936, the upper age limit was raised to 14. In 1959, it was further extended to 16.


title: Compulsory education

text: In 1852, Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to pass a compulsory universal public education law. In particular, the Massachusetts General Court required every town to create and operate a grammar school. Fines were imposed on parents who did not send their children to school, and the government took the power to take children away from their parents and apprentice them to others if government officials decided that the parents were "unfit to have the children educated properly." In 1918, Mississippi became the last state to enact a compulsory attendance law.


title: Compulsory education

text: In 1922 an attempt was made by the voters of Oregon to enact the Oregon Compulsory Education Act, which would require all children between the ages of 8 and 16 to attend public schools, only leaving exceptions for mentally or physically unfit children, exceeding a certain living distance from a state school, or having written consent from a county superintendent to receive private instruction. The law was passed by popular vote but was later ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, determining that "a child is not a mere creature of the state." This case settled the dispute about whether or not private schools had the right to do business and educate within the United States.


title: Compulsory education

text: In the Soviet Union, a compulsory education provision law was implemented in 1930. State-provided education during this era was primarily focused on eradicating illiteracy. In line with the overall goals of the regime’s Five Year Plans, the motivation behind education provision and literacy instruction was to ”train a new generation of technically skilled and scientifically literate citizens.” Industrial development needed more skilled workers of all kinds. No possible source of talent could be left untapped, and the only way of meeting these needs was by the rapid development of a planned system of mass education.” Soviet schools “responded to the economic requirements of society” by emphasizing “basic formation in math, and polytechnic knowledge related to economic production.” The Soviet regime’s deliberate expansion of mass education supremacy was what most impressed the U.S. education missions to the USSR in the 1950s.


title: Compulsory education

text: China's nine-year compulsory education was formally established in 1986 as part of its economic modernization program. It was designed to promote "universalization", the closure of the education gap by economic development and between rural and urban areas by provision of safe and high-quality schools. The program initially faced shortages due to a huge population and weak economic foundation, but by 1999 primary and junior middle schools respectively served 90% and 85% of the national population.


title: Compulsory education

text: The following table indicates at what ages compulsory education starts and ends in different countries. The most common age for starting compulsory education is 6, but that varies between 3 and 7.


title: Compulsory education

text: While compulsory education is mostly seen as important and useful, compulsory schooling is seen by some as obsolete and counterproductive in today's world and has repeatedly been the subject of sharp criticism. Critics of compulsory schooling argue that such education violates the freedom of children; is a method of political control; is ineffective at teaching children how to deal with the "real world" outside of school; and may have negative effects on children, leading to higher rates of apathy, bullying, stress, and depression.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: The New Day are an American professional wrestling stable consisting of Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods. The stable is currently performing in WWE on the SmackDown brand, but also appears on the NXT brand where Kingston and Woods are the current NXT Tag Team Champions in their first reign. Big E is currently inactive after suffering an injury in March 2022.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: One of the most popular and decorated teams in WWE history, The New Day holds several records, including the most reigns as SmackDown Tag Team Champions at seven, and the longest-reigning Raw Tag Team Champions at 483 days. As a team, they also hold the record for most WWE-branded tag team championship reigns at 12 (seven SmackDown, four Raw, and one NXT)—the only team WWE recognizes with more is The Dudley Boyz at 18, but this includes their eight Extreme Championship Wrestling and one World Championship Wrestling tag team title reigns. While performing as a trio, The New Day defend their tag team titles under the Freebird rule, with all three members being recognized as champions.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: The stable was prominently formed by Xavier Woods with Big E and Kofi Kingston on the July 21, 2014, episode of "Raw", but made their debut as The New Day on the November 28, 2014, episode of "SmackDown". In April 2015 at Extreme Rules, they won their first WWE Tag Team Championship. Their second reign, which began at that year's SummerSlam in August, became the longest in the title's history, the first to last more than a year, and the last with the title being the sole tag team championship on WWE's main roster, as it was renamed Raw Tag Team Championship in September 2016 following the creation of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. In December 2016, they set the record for the longest male tag team championship reign in WWE history at 483 days (surpassing Demolition's 28-year-old record of 478 days with WWE's original World Tag Team Championship) and at that time, the longest reigning champions for any WWE championship over the prior two decades; since then, both accomplishments have been surpassed.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: After being drafted to the SmackDown brand in April 2017, the stable went on to capture the SmackDown Tag Team Championship a record seven times; while part of the brand, Kingston also won the WWE Championship in 2019. In October 2020, Kingston and Woods were drafted to the Raw brand as The New Day, while Big E remained on SmackDown, separating him from the group. The stable briefly reunited on September 13, 2021, after Big E cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on "Raw" to win the WWE Championship, thus transferring to Raw alongside Kingston and Woods. However, they separated again a month later after Kingston and Woods were drafted to SmackDown during the 2021 WWE Draft while Big E remained on Raw. Also in October 2021, Woods won the King of the Ring tournament. In January 2022, Big E would be moved to SmackDown, thus becoming a trio again with Woods and Kingston; however, an injury incurred in March has kept Big E out of action indefinitely. In December 2022, Kingston and Woods also began appearing on WWE's developmental brand NXT and won their first NXT Tag Team Championship, becoming the third WWE Tag Team Triple Crown Champions.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: The early months of the stable as stereotypical black gospel babyface characters were marked by largely negative reactions from fans and critics alike, but after transitioning their characters into heels fanatically obsessed with the "power of positivity" in April 2015, they began to receive acclaim for their entertainment value, as well as for their in-ring performances. In 2015, the trio were collectively named "WWE Wrestler of the Year" by "Rolling Stone", while also being recognized as the "Best Gimmick" of the year by the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter". Additionally, they became the first trio to win the "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" award for "Tag Team of the Year", doing so in 2015 and 2016 (the first two wins in a row in this category for two decades). Their new-found popularity resulted in the trio reverting to babyfaces in early 2016, which they have remained since. The three, who are close friends in real life, also appear or work together outside of wrestling, notably writing the 2016 book "The Book of Booty: Shake It. Love It. Never Be It", and hosting a weekly podcast, "Feel the Power" (named after one of their catchphrases), since 2019. In 2021, The New Day topped WWE's list of the "50 Greatest Tag Teams" in the promotion's history.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: After wrestling in WWE's developmental territories Deep South Wrestling (DSW), Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) and Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) since September 2006, Kofi Kingston made his WWE debut on "ECW" in January 2008. He subsequently came to have an extensive singles career, becoming a four-time Intercontinental Champion and a three-time United States Champion; he had also been part of several tag teams, including with CM Punk, Evan Bourne and R-Truth, all of whom he won tag team championships with. Big E began his career in FCW and then in NXT, where he became NXT Champion. On the December 17, 2012 episode of "Raw", he made his main roster debut aligning himself with Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee and later winning the Intercontinental Championship. Xavier Woods, who previously wrestled in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Consequences Creed, signed to WWE in 2010 and worked in FCW and NXT until the November 18, 2013 episode of "Raw", when he made his main roster debut.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: Woods, then in college, had first met Kingston in 2006 or 2007 when he had entered the DSW building to apply for a wrestling job, and Kingston was working in the ring at the exact same moment. Woods got the job, but DSW closed soon after; when Woods came to FCW two years later to similarly apply for another wrestling job, Kingston was, coincidentally, once again present and working in the ring.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: The stable originated from an idea backstage by Woods, who, pitched it to WWE Writer Michael Notarile, after not being given storylines or much time on-screen, worked on creating a "snarky, intelligent, running his mouth, just like total punk" heel character for himself. As his friend Big E was in a similar situation career-wise, Woods and Notarile decided to work together with Big E to form a team instead, spending several weeks taping promos and pitching ideas in order to create their new characters. The three men felt that something was still missing from the team, and they had the idea of including Kingston, who was also at a low point of his career; however, they had doubts that WWE would let Kingston, who had been a babyface his entire career, turn heel, and changed the characters so they would be babyfaces who, according to Woods, were "three guys, who came from kind of the same background, that just want more from life, more from their jobs, more from their friends, more from everything around them." In October 2020, the trio stated that they had considered adding a woman to the group, with Sasha Banks being their top pick. Big E also revealed that Alicia Fox and Damien Sandow were considered to be additions to the faction.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the July 21, 2014 episode of "Raw", after Big E and Kingston, who had started pairing up in tag team matches earlier the same month, suffered another loss in what had been ongoing losing streaks for both, Woods came down to address the two and he declared that they could not "get ahead by kissing babies and shaking hands", and that it would be "their time to shine". The duo then joined Woods and on the following day on "Main Event", Woods managed Big E and Kingston to a decisive victory over Slater-Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil). However, the group disappeared from television soon after due to WWE creative being unconvinced by their gimmick; they continued to make appearances together at house shows in two-on-two tag team matches, regularly switching the two competing members while the third one acted as manager.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: From the November 3 episode of "Raw", WWE began airing vignettes for Big E, Kingston and Woods, with the stable now being billed as The New Day, displaying a heroic black gospel gimmick. The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of "SmackDown" in a winning effort against Curtis Axel, Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. On the December 1 episode of "Raw", Kingston and Woods competed in a tag team turmoil match to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship, eliminating Gold and Stardust, before being eliminated by Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. At the pre-show on December 14, Big E and Kingston defeated Gold and Stardust.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the January 5, 2015 episode of "Raw", while Big E was on his way to a victory against Adam Rose, the team of Kidd and Cesaro, masquerading as Rosebuds, interfered by laying out Woods on the outside and performing their finisher on Big E in the ring. At the Royal Rumble, The New Day's winning streak came to an end when Tyson Kidd and Cesaro defeated Big E and Kingston. A fatal four-way match for the WWE Tag Team Championship took place on the WrestleMania 31 pre-show on March 29, including The New Day, but they failed to win the championship.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the March 30 episode of "Raw", they were involved in an eight-man tag team match alongside The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara) against Kidd, Cesaro and The Ascension. During the match, the live audience responded negatively to The New Day with loud "New Day sucks!" chants which carried over into the following weeks. When asked about the crowd's disapproval of them in a backstage interview on the April 6 episode of "Raw", The New Day claimed that they were hurt and responded in a more aggressive tone, yet maintained their upbeat nature. During their following match against The Lucha Dragons, Kingston attempted a cheap shot from the outside, even though he was not actually involved in the bout, turning all three men into heels in the process. On the April 20 episode of "Raw", The New Day defeated The Lucha Dragons via countout to become the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship after Woods held onto Sin Cara's feet to prevent him from re-entering the ring.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: At Extreme Rules on April 26, The New Day defeated Kidd and Cesaro to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship; Big E and Kingston were the participants in the match, but WWE also recognized Woods as champion under the Freebird Rule, in which any two members of a stable can compete for the titles. At Payback on May 17, Big E and Kingston defeated Kidd and Cesaro in a two-out-of-three falls match to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship after Woods pinned Cesaro, despite not being a legal participant in the match. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, all three New Day members competed in the first-ever tag team Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Tag Team Championship, where they lastly eliminated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) to retain their titles. However, at Money in the Bank on June 14, Big E and Woods lost the championships to The Prime Time Players. Big E and Kingston then lost their rematch at Battleground on July 19. The New Day would regain the championship after they defeated Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando), The Lucha Dragons and The Prime Time Players in a fatal four-way match at SummerSlam on August 23. Despite being heels, the trio received heavy positive reactions from audiences who began to chant "New Day rocks!". The following night on "Raw", they were attacked by the returning Dudley Boyz, with Woods being put through a table. This started a feud between the two teams, setting up a title match at Night of Champions on September 20, where Big E and Kingston lost by disqualification, though, by rule, they retained their titles. They lost via disqualification to retain their championships again in a rematch against The Dudley Boyz at WWE Live from Madison Square Garden, but defeated them via pinfall at Hell in a Cell on October 25 to retain the titles, thus ending their feud. The New Day led their own team at Survivor Series including Sheamus and King Barrett, but left the match prematurely to tend to Big E after his elimination, leading to their team's eventual loss. At on December 13, they retained the WWE Tag Team Championship against The Lucha Dragons and The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso) in a triple threat ladder match. The New Day then successfully defended their titles against The Lucha Dragons on the special December 22 episode of "Super SmackDown Live!" and against The Usos on January 24, 2016, at the Royal Rumble event.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: At Fastlane on February 21, The New Day began mocking The League of Nations (Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Rusev and King Barrett), calling them the "League of Booty". They then continued to mock The League of Nations in various segments and skits while simultaneously feuding with other teams and turning into fan favorites in the process. The New Day then retained their titles at Roadblock against Sheamus and Barrett on March 12 and the following night on "Raw" against Del Rio and Rusev, but were attacked by the entire League of Nations afterwards. This led to a non-title six-man tag team match between the two stables at WrestleMania 32 on April 3, where The New Day lost, but Big E and Kingston retained their championships once again against Sheamus and Barrett the following night on "Raw". At Payback on May 1, the final match of the tournament to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship between Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady and The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) ended in a no contest after Amore suffered a legitimate concussion during the match. As a result, The New Day faced The Vaudevillains for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules on May 22, where they successfully retained their championship after Kingston interfered. On the May 30 episode of "Raw", The New Day defeated The Vaudevillains in a non-title match via disqualification after they were attacked by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, sparking a feud between them. At Money in the Bank on June 19, The New Day defeated Gallows and Anderson, The Vaudevillains and Enzo and Cass in a fatal-four-way match to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship and, as of that victory, they hold the record for the longest combined reign as a tag team. On the June 20 episode of "Raw", The New Day confronted returning The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman) and interrupted Wyatt's promo, thus starting a feud between the two teams that would lead to a non-title six-man tag team match at Battleground on July 24, where they would lose.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: During the 2016 WWE draft, The New Day were drafted to the Raw brand, making the WWE Tag Team Championship exclusive to the brand. In parallel to a lengthy feud with Gallows and Anderson over the titles, The New Day became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in the title's history, breaking the old record of 331 days previously set by Paul London and Brian Kendrick and, after the creation of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship for the SmackDown brand, became the last people to have held their championship as the sole tag team title in WWE and the first to hold it under its new name of Raw Tag Team Championship. The New Day would continue to successfully retain their championships against Gallows and Anderson in the following months, such as SummerSlam on August 21, Clash of Champions on September 25 and the following night on "Raw", ending their feud in the process.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: After their feud with Gallows and Anderson, The New Day began feuding with Cesaro and Sheamus and at Hell in a Cell on October 30, The New Day were defeated by Cesaro and Sheamus via disqualification, but they retained the titles as a result. On the October 31 episode of "Raw", The New Day revealed that they were made captain of Team Raw for the 10-on-10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series. At the event on November 20, they made the first elimination, but were then eliminated themselves by The Usos. However, Team Raw still won the match thanks to Cesaro and Sheamus. On the two following "Raw" episodes, The New Day successfully retained their titles against Cesaro and Sheamus and then Gallows and Anderson, respectively.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the December 12 episode of "Raw", after successfully defending their titles in two successive triple threat tag team matches – first against Cesaro and Sheamus and Gallows and Anderson, and then against the team of Chris Jericho and WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens, and the team of Seth Rollins and United States Champion Roman Reigns – The New Day broke Demolition's 28-year-old record to have the longest single-run with any tag team championship in WWE history. Demolition held this record with WWE's original World Tag Team Championship and still hold the specific record for that (defunct) version of the titles. At on December 18, The New Day's reign ended at 483 days after they lost the championships to Cesaro and Sheamus. On the December 26 episode of "Raw", The New Day received a rematch, but failed to reclaim the championships.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: The New Day would go on to host WrestleMania 33, and the following night on "Raw", lost to the debuting team The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder). After the match, Kingston was attacked by The Revival, resulting in a legitimate ankle injury.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On April 11, 2017, The New Day were moved to the SmackDown brand as part of Superstar Shake-up; however, they did not appear for several weeks due to Kingston's ankle injury. After appearing on "Talking Smack" on May 23, the trio fully returned on May 30, setting their sights on The Usos' SmackDown Tag Team Championship. In the two teams' first encounter at Money in the Bank, Big E and Kingston won the match by countout, but not the title. In a rematch at Battleground, Kingston and Woods captured the titles; this marked the first time that Woods took an active part in winning a championship and his first championship-winning pinfall in WWE. They lost the title back to The Usos on the SummerSlam 2017 pre-show, regained it on the September 12 episode of "SmackDown Live" in a Sin City Street Fight, and lost it again in a highly acclaimed Hell in a Cell match at the pay-per-view of the same name.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: In the build-up to Survivor Series, The New Day helped the rest of the SmackDown roster attack the Raw roster. They also engaged in a rivalry with The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) of the "Raw" brand, and on the November 6 episode of "Raw", The New Day alone invaded "Raw" for the second time, ultimately costing Rollins and Ambrose the Raw Tag Team Championship to Cesaro and Sheamus. At Survivor Series, however, The New Day lost to The Shield in an interbrand six-man tag team match. At Fastlane, The New Day faced The Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but the match ended in a no contest after interference from The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan). At WrestleMania 34, all three teams competed in a triple threat tag team match for the titles, which The Bludgeon Brothers won.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: After failing to win the title at SummerSlam, when they defeated the champions by disqualification, The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers in a No Disqualification match two days later on "SmackDown" to capture the titles for a third time. They held the titles until October 16, 2018, when they were defeated by Cesaro and Sheamus on "SmackDown 1000" after Big Show attacked Kingston outside the ring. They would fail to regain the titles at Crown Jewel event. Two weeks later, they made up part of Team SmackDown in a 5-on-5 tag-team elimination match at Survivor Series, in which they defeated Team Raw. At TLC, The New Day would again fail to win the championship from The Bar, in a triple-threat tag team match also involving The Usos. On the January 1, 2019 episode of SmackDown Live, the entire New Day announced their entry into the Men's Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble event on January 27; all three were unsuccessful.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the February 12 episode of "SmackDown Live", one member of The New Day was scheduled to replace Mustafa Ali in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay-per-view after Ali suffered an injury, and Kingston was selected as his replacement. Kingston then participated in a Gauntlet match to determine the last entrant in the Chamber match, where he started off with WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. Kingston lasted over an hour all while eliminating Bryan, Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe, before being eliminated by A.J. Styles. At the pay-per-view, Kingston was the third entrant in the match, and went on to eliminate Randy Orton and make it to the final two, before being eliminated by Daniel Bryan. After pinning Daniel Bryan in a six-man tag team match, Kingston was granted a WWE Championship match at Fastlane, but was replaced during his contract signing by a returning Kevin Owens per the order of Mr. McMahon. On March 10 at Fastlane, Kingston was apparently added into the title match by McMahon, but after entering the ring, it was instead announced that he would face The Bar in a handicap match, which Kingston subsequently lost. On the "SmackDown Live" following Fastlane, Kingston was faced with yet another challenge set forth by McMahon. This time, to face Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, Kingston would have to defeat Sheamus, Cesaro, Rowan, Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton one after the other in a gauntlet match the following week. Kingston would succeed in the gauntlet match before McMahon told him that he had one more opponent in Daniel Bryan, to whom he would ultimately lose. On the March 26 episode of "SmackDown", McMahon announced that Big E and Xavier Woods of The New Day would compete in a tag team gauntlet match, and if they defeated every team, Kingston would go on to WrestleMania to face Bryan for the WWE Championship. Big E and Woods would go on to defeat Gallows and Anderson, Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev, The Bar, The Usos (who forfeited), and the team of Daniel Bryan and Rowan. Mr. McMahon would confirm at the end of the show that Kingston would indeed face Bryan at WrestleMania for the title.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: At WrestleMania, Kingston won the match to become the WWE Champion for the first time in his career. In doing so, he became the first African-born WWE Champion. On the April 16 episode of SmackDown, Kevin Owens became an "honorary member" of the stable in the absence of an injured Big E, and fought alongside Kingston and Woods to defeat Cesaro, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. However, the following week, Owens attacked both Kingston and Woods after the former's match with Shinsuke Nakamura. On April 30, Kingston then challenged Owens to a match at Money in the Bank with his title on the line where Kofi emerged as victorious. At Extreme Rules, Kingston retained the WWE Championship against Samoa Joe, while Big E and Woods won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship by defeating former champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan, and Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker), making The New Day record-tying four-time SmackDown Tag Team Champions (technically also making Kingston a double champion during this time due to the Freebird Rule). They lost the titles to The Revival at Clash of Champions, and Kingston lost the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar during "SmackDown's 20th Anniversary" on October 4.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the November 8 episode of "SmackDown", The New Day (represented by Big E and Kingston, as Woods was inactive due to injury) regained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship from The Revival, becoming record five-time champions. At , Big E and Kingston successfully defended the titles against The Revival in a ladder match. At Super ShowDown on February 27, 2020, The New Day lost the titles to John Morrison and The Miz, ending their reign at 111 days. At WrestleMania 36, Kingston, who represented The New Day, failed to win the titles back from Morrison, who represented himself and Miz, in a triple threat ladder match, also involving Jimmy Uso, who represented The Usos. A rematch took place on the April 17 episode of "SmackDown", where Big E, who represented The New Day, won the titles back from Miz, who represented himself and Morrison, in a triple threat match, also involving Jey Uso, who represented The Usos, and this makes The New Day six-time SmackDown Tag Team Champions. At The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, The New Day would lose the championships to Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a Tables match after Cesaro and Nakamura put Kingston through two tables. On the July 24 episode of SmackDown, Kingston revealed that he would be out of action for 6 weeks due to a back injury and gave Big E the blessing to go on a solo run. Big E would then embark on his singles run as he entered a feud with Sheamus defeating him at Payback and on the October 9 episode of SmackDown in a Falls Count Anywhere match.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: On the October 9 episode of "SmackDown", both Kingston and Woods returned from injury and defeated Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura, winning their seventh SmackDown Tag Team Championship; immediately after the match, the trio were given the announcement that Kingston and Woods were being drafted to Raw as part of the 2020 Draft, while Big E remained on SmackDown, splitting the group across brands for the first time; it also marked the first time that members of The New Day would hold tag titles without all three members being champions, as Big E was not considered champion. Although this originally led to reports in the media that Big E had split from the group, the three, in addition to continuing their New Day "Feel the Power" podcast, also claimed that Big E would continue to be part of The New Day, albeit separately from them on SmackDown, with WWE later stating on Twitter that there was "no break-up".


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: Upon Kingston and Woods's Raw debut on the October 12 episode of "Raw", WWE official Adam Pearce had them trade titles with Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford), who had just been drafted to SmackDown, in order to keep both championships on their respective brands. This made Kingston and Woods three-time Raw Tag Team Champions, marking their first time holding the title without Big E, and their first time winning it since their record 483-day reign in 2015–2016. The New Day had their final match as a trio on the October 16 episode of "SmackDown", defeating Cesaro, Nakamura, and Sheamus. The New Day appeared one further time as a trio at Survivor Series on November 22 to promote their appearance in the video game "Gears 5". At the event, the trio made their entrance dressed as their respective characters in the game. After the entrance and a brief in-ring promo, Big E departed backstage while Kingston and Woods faced SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits in a non-title brand supremacy match. New Day lost the match but showed mutual respect to The Street Profits. On December 20, at , Kingston and Woods lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin).


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: They regained the championship on the March 15, 2021 episode of "Raw", tying Cesaro and Sheamus for the most reigns as a team at four, while individually, Kingston tied Seth Rollins for the most reigns at six. They were then scheduled to defend the titles against AJ Styles and Omos at WrestleMania 37, in which they lost, ending their reign at 26 days. On September 13, 2021, during "Raw", Big E cashed in his Money in the Bank contract (which he had won in July) on WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, who had just successfully retained his title against Randy Orton, to win the WWE Championship for the first time, resulting in Big E being transferred to Raw full time and reuniting New Day as a trio for the first time since 2020. At Extreme Rules, The New Day would defeat the team of Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles and Omos.


title: The New Day (professional wrestling)

text: As a part of the 2021 Draft, Big E was drafted to the Raw brand while Kingston and Woods were drafted to the SmackDown brand, thus splitting them again. In October, Woods and Kingston both entered the King of the Ring tournament, though Kingston was eliminated in the first round. At Crown Jewel, Woods defeated Finn Bálor in the final to win the tournament; his first individual accolade in WWE. With that victory, his ring name was changed to King Woods.