How did Henry IV capture Rome in 1084?

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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.

Henry IV captured Rome in March 1084 after the Romans, including many cardinals and other clergy, opened the city gates to him and his army. This action was a response to the perceived inflexibility of St. Gregory VII, which had caused many in the city to desert the papal cause.12

Following the capture of the city, Henry IV had his nominee, Guibert of Ravenna, enthroned as the antipope Clement III, who subsequently crowned Henry as emperor on March 31, 1084. Gregory VII initially sought refuge in the Castel Sant’Angelo before eventually fleeing the city with his Norman liberators.12