‘Which of the Charleses or Louis gained such glory; which of the Ottos obtained so special a blessing?’ This was the praise with which the returning emperor was greeted by an anonymous south German poet. The emperor had a divinely ordained mission to reform the Church and bring peace to his troubled kingdom. As he approached Germany in June 1084, Henry had written to Bishop Theoderic of Verdun of the possibility of ending the civil war. ‘Concerning the Saxons, the archbishop of Salzburg, Count Adalbert and the others who wish to return to us, our reply to you is that we readily acquiesce in your advice, so that there may be true peace in our times, assuming that they remain faithful when they return to us.’ These princes had presumably been in communication with Theoderic of Verdun with a view to negotiating with the emperor. By January 1085 their initiative had so far succeeded that Henry's representatives were holding talks with the Saxon rebels and their ally, Gebhard of Salzburg, who was in exile in Saxony.

The anti-Henrician party in south-western Germany, however, had not abandoned the armed struggle. At the beginning of 1084 Augsburg was captured by Welf IV, the deposed duke of Bavaria. The Henrician Bishop Siegfried II of Augsburg was expelled and his rival, Wigold, installed in his place.