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How did Gregory VII use papal legates to oversee bishops?

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Gregory VII excommunicating Henry IV — St. Gregory VII Pope Gregory VII, after his expulsion from Rome, laying a ban of excommunication on the clergy “together with the raging king” (Henry IV of Germany), drawing from the 12th-century chronicle of Otto of Freising; in the library of the University of Jena, Germany.

St. Gregory VII utilized papal legates as a primary tool to enforce papal primacy and exert direct control over the ecclesiastical hierarchy.1

By positioning these legates to outrank every local authority, Gregory enabled them to intervene freely in the internal affairs of dioceses throughout Latin Christendom. This represented a significant departure from the traditional independence previously enjoyed by bishops in governing their own regions.1

To facilitate this oversight, Gregory sometimes appointed individuals to serve as both a "primate"—a dignity he promoted to supervise bishops—and as his standing legate. For example, he established the primacy of Lyon to subject prominent archbishops to closer papal supervision through his legate, Hugh of Die. These interventions were highly controversial and met with significant resistance, particularly among the highborn bishops in Germany and northern Italy, who viewed the systematic erosion of their traditional autonomy as an unwelcome intrusion.1