He was crowned in 1025. Another source says he was born in 1005.

Henry, who became king in 1031 on the death of his father, was the third of the Capetian line. The whole of his twenty-nine years' reign was a constant struggle with his great nobles. Guerilla warfare was carried so far that the Church proclaimed a "Truce of God", by which no hostilities could take place from Thursday evening until Monday morning, or on feast days, or during Lent or Advent. King Henry married as his second wife and mother of his children Anne of Russia, daughter of the Grand Duke Jarolsav and descendant of Jaroslav the Great.