Coup of Kaiserswerth

Kidnapping of Henry IV by Archbishop Anno of Cologne, history painting by Anton von Werner (1868)

The Coup of Kaiserswerth (German: Staatsstreich von Kaiserswerth) in 1062 was a thitherto unprecedented action of several secular and ecclesiastical Princes of the Holy Roman Empire under the leadership of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne against Empress Agnes, ruling on behalf of her under-age son, King Henry IV, and against her chosen sub-regent, Bishop Henry II of Augsburg. By kidnapping the young king and enforcing the handover of the Imperial Regalia, the group gained control of the reins of power in the Empire.