Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor

Conrad II ( – 4 June 1039), also known as and , was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms of Germany (from 1024), Italy (from 1026) and Burgundy (from 1033).

The son of Franconian count Henry of Speyer (also Henry of Worms) and Adelaide of Metz of the ''Matfriding dynasty'', that had ruled the Duchy of Lorraine from 959 until 972, Conrad inherited the titles of count of Speyer and Worms during childhood after his father had died around the year 990. He extended his influence beyond his inherited lands, as he came into favor of the princes of the kingdom. When the imperial dynastic line was left without a successor after Emperor Henry II's death in 1024, on 4 September an assembly of the imperial princes appointed the 34-year-old Conrad king (''Rex romanorum'').

Conrad II Ottonian adopted many aspects of his Ottonian predecessor Henry II regarding the role and organisation of the Church as well as general rulership practices, which in turn had been associated with Charlemagne. While the emperor was not anti-monastic, he immediately abandoned the favoritism that had been shown to men of the Church under Henry II. In Italy, he initially relied on the bishops (mostly of German origin) to maintain imperial power. Beginning with his second Italian expedition in 1036, he changed his strategy and managed to win the support of the ''valvassores'' (lesser nobles) and the military elite, who challenged the power of the bishops. His reign marked a high point of medieval imperial rule during a relatively peaceful period for the empire. Upon the death of the childless King Rudolph III of Burgundy in 1032, Conrad claimed dominion over the Kingdom of Burgundy, conquered it with German and Italian troops, and incorporated it into the empire. The three kingdoms (Germany, Italy and Burgundy) formed the basis of the empire as the "royal triad" (''regna tria'').

Early life

Family background

The origins of the Salian dynasty can be traced back to Count Werner V of Worms, a Frankish nobleman from the Duchy of Franconia to the east of the Rhine. His son, Conrad the Red, succeeded him as Count in 941. King Otto I (the future Holy Roman Emperor) elevated him to Duke of Lorraine in 944. He subsequently married Liutgarde, one of Otto's daughters, in 947 and rose to become one of the king's closest allies. The relationship, however, deteriorated, when Otto refused to honor a peace treaty Conrad, as Otto's representative, had negotiated with Berengar II of Italy. Conrad also resented the growing influence of Otto's brother Henry I of Bavaria, whom he regarded a threat to his position. In 953 Conrad joined the king's son Liudolf in rebellion against Otto. The rebellion was crushed and Conrad was stripped of his ducal title. Conrad and Otto eventually reconciled. Conrad fought alongside Otto and fell in the decisive Battle of Lechfeld in 955 that put an end to the Hungarian invasions into Europe. Conrad was succeeded as Count of Worms in 956 by his son Otto of Worms, who was also the grandson of Otto I. In between 965 and 970 Otto of Worms' first son and Conrad II's father Henry of Speyer was born, of whom only very little is known. He died at the age of 20 between 985 and 990. Conrad II's mother was Adelaide of Metz. After Henry's death, Adelaide married a Frankish nobleman and the relationship with Conrad declined.

In 978 Emperor Otto II appointed his nephew Otto of Worms as Duke of Carinthia. He succeeded the rebellious Duke Henry I of Carinthia, who had been deposed after the War of the Three Henries. Upon receiving the ducal title, however, Otto lost his countship at Worms, which was given to Bishop Hildebald, emperor Otto II's imperial chancellor. When Otto II died suddenly in 983, his infant son Otto III succeeded him, with his mother Theophanu serving as regent. Theophanu sought to reconcile the imperial house with Henry I, restoring him as Duke of Carinthia in 985, with Otto of Worms allowed to regain his ancestral position as Count of Worms. However, Otto was allowed to style himself "Duke of Worms" and his original territory was expanded according to his rank. Otto of Worms loyally served the new Emperor and received the March of Verona in 955, as the actual Duchy of Carinthia was given to Henry IV of Bavaria. In 996, Otto III invested Otto of Worms' son Bruno as Pope Gregory V. When Emperor Otto III died in 1002, both Otto of Worms, Conrad's grandfather, and Henry IV became eligible for Kingship of Germany. In a compromise, Otto withdrew and in return received the Duchy of Carinthia from the newly elected king Henry IV, who ruled as ''Henry II of Germany''. As a result, Otto of Worms renounced his fiefs at Worms to Bishop Burchard of Worms, a long-time political rival.

After the early death of his uncle Conrad I, Duke of Carinthia, Conrad's infant son, Conrad II, Duke of Carinthia the Younger, was named Count of Worms by Emperor Henry II while the Duchy of Carinthia passed to Adalbero of Eppenstein due to Conrad the Younger's infancy. Conrad the Younger was taken care of by his cousin Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor the Elder.

Adulthood

In 1016 Conrad married the twice widowed duchess Gisela of Swabia, daughter of Duke Herman II of Swabia who, in 1002, had unsuccessfully claimed the German throne upon Emperor Otto III's death, and had lost the election to Emperor Henry II. Gisela had first been married to Count Bruno I of Brunswick the same year. Following Bruno's death around 1010, Gisela had married Ernest I of the House of Babenberg. Through this marriage, Ernest I inherited the Duchy of Swabia upon the death of Gisela's brother Duke Herman III of Swabia in 1012. The marriage produced two sons: Ernest II and Herman. After the death of Ernest I in 1015, Emperor Henry II named Ernest II as Duke of Swabia. As Gisela's new husband, Conrad hoped to serve as regent for his minor stepson in the administration of the duchy, seeing it as an opportunity to increase his own rank and subsequently make a claim for his own duchy. Emperor Henry II blocked this attempt by placing the guardianship of Ernest II, and regency over Swabia, in the hands of Archbishop Poppo of Trier in 1016. This action further strained the already rough relationship between the imperial House of Otto and the Salian family.

Conrad II's hopes to obtain his own duchy failed, but the marriage to Gisela brought him wealth. Her mother, Gerberga of Burgundy, was the daughter of reigning Burgundian king Conrad and granddaughter of the late Frankish king Louis IV. Gisela also claimed descent from Charlemagne through both her mother and father. The marriage was opposed by many because of the familial relationship shared by Gisela and Conrad. Both were descendants of King Henry I—Conrad in the fifth generation and Gisela in the fourth. According to canon law, marriage was forbidden among relatives from the first to the seventh generation. Though Conrad's marriage differed little from the usual practice of the time, strict canonists frowned upon the marriage and Emperor Henry II relied on this violation of canon law when he forced Conrad into temporary exile. During this exile, Gisela bore Conrad a son, the future emperor Henry III, on 28 October 1017. Conrad and Emperor Henry II eventually reconciled and he returned to Germany.

Reign as king

Royal election

Emperor Henry II died childless in 1024, bringing an end to the Ottonian dynasty that had ruled Germany since 919. Without a clear successor to the German throne, Henry's widow Cunigunde of Luxembourg ruled as regent while the German dukes gathered to elect a new king. Cunigunde was assisted by her brothers Bishop Dietrich I of Metz and Duke Henry V of Bavaria. Archbishop Aribo of Mainz, the primate of Germany, also assisted Cunigunde.

On 4 September 1024, the German princes gathered at Kamba, a historical name for an area on the east banks of the Rhine opposite the modern German town of Oppenheim. Now the location of ''Kamba'' is marked with a small equestrian statue of Conrad II. The chronicler and Conrad's chaplain, Wipo of Burgundy, attended the meeting and documented the event. Archbishop Aribo presided over the assembly. Conrad presented himself as a candidate for election, as did his younger cousin Conrad. Both were descendants of Emperor Otto I by their common grandfather Otto of Worms, son of Liutgarde, one of Otto's daughters. Although further members of the Ottonian dynasty existed, none were seriously considered eligible. The Duchy of Saxony adopted a neutral strategy while the Duchy of Lorraine favored the younger Conrad. A majority of the assembled princes favored the elder Conrad, as the father of a seven-year-old son implied a more stable dynastic future for the kingdom. As president of the assembly, Archbishop Aribo cast the first vote and supported the elder Conrad. He was joined by the other clerics in support of him. The secular dukes then cast their votes for the elder Conrad as well. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne, Duke Gothelo I of Lower Lorraine and Duke Frederick II of Upper Lorraine did not support him.

Conrad was crowned king of Germany by Archbishop Aribo in Mainz Cathedral on 8 September 1024 at the age of 34. To mark his election, Conrad commissioned the construction of Speyer Cathedral, near his ancestral home of Worms. Construction began in 1030. Archbishop Aribo, as archbishop of Mainz, was already the chancellor of Germany. Conrad wanted to reward the archbishop for his electoral support, so he made Aribo chancellor of Italy as well, making Aribo the second most powerful man in the Holy Roman Empire as the imperial chancellor.

Aribo refused to crown Conrad's wife Gisela as queen as their marriage violated canon law. Conrad refused to accept Archbishop Aribo's position. Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne saw the situation as an opportunity to restore his relationship with the king, after refusing to support Conrad's election, and he crowned Gisela queen on 21 September 1024. The political reorientation of Pilgrim also weakened the opposition towards the new king.

Early reign

Conrad inherited a kingdom troubled by problems. The dukes of Saxony and Lorraine and his cousin Conrad of Carinthia opposed his rule. In order to strengthen his position, Conrad and Gisela embarked on a royal tour. At Augsburg Conrad received the support of Bishop Bruno and at Strasbourg he acquired the support of Bishop Werner. Both men were brothers of former emperor Henry II and Conrad appointed them to high office at his court. After visiting Cologne Conrad stopped at Aachen, where he, as a successor of the empire's founder Charlemagne, announced that he would continue the tradition of claiming East Francia. The princes of the Duchy of Lorraine rejected his claim, though. Conrad then moved north to Saxony, visiting abbesses Adelaide I of Quedlinburg and Sophia I of Gandersheim, daughters of Emperor Otto II. They supported Conrad, which helped to rally the Saxon nobility behind him. During Christmas at Minden, the Saxon nobles, led by Duke Bernard II, officially recognized him as sovereign. He in turn had vowed to respect and honor the ancient Saxon customs and laws. Conrad and Gisela would remain in Saxony until March 1025, when they moved on to the Duchy of Swabia, celebrating Easter at Augsburg and then proceeded on to the Duchy of Bavaria, spending the feast of Pentecost at Regensburg. The royal couple finally visited Zürich, where after ten months they ended their tour. Conrad then entered Burgundy in order to renew the royal claim, that, in 1016, Emperor Henry II had forced the childless Burgundian King Rudolph III to name him as his heir.

Conrad needed to address the longstanding " Gandersheim Conflict", as he had assumed the German throne. The decade-old unsettled dispute on who controlled Gandersheim Abbey and its estates dated back to the reign of Emperor Otto III. Both the Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Hildesheim claimed authority over the Abbey, including the right to invest and anoint the abbey's nuns. Though Otto III had once eased tensions among the warring parties by declaring that both bishops would be entitled to anoint the Abbess and her sisters, the conflict still lingered. Archbishop Aribo of Mainz, the new Primate of Germany, counted on Conrad, who was indebted to Aribo for his support during the royal election. In January 1027, the king summoned a synod at Frankfurt to end the dispute, but a conclusion could not be reached. He called another synod in September 1028, which also failed. Only a third synod in 1030 solved the conflict when Bishop Gotthard of Hildesheim renounced his claims in favor of Aribo.

During his royal tour at Augsburg, Conrad and his younger cousin Conrad the Younger engaged in an argument, that, although not entirely clear, was related to the younger Conrad's demands of yet-unpaid compensation that Conrad II had promised him for withdrawing from the 1024 election. The lack of conflict between them after September 1027 suggests that they reconciled by then.

Unrest in Italy

In Bavaria, Conrad came into contact with members of the Italian ruling elite for the first time. In June 1025, bishops from Northern Italy, led by Archbishop Aribert of Milan, crossed the Alps in order to pay homage to Conrad. In exchange for certain administrative privileges, Aribert agreed to crown Conrad King. However, the situation in Italy had become increasingly unstable after the death of Henry II. Amidst occasional riots many Italian aristocrats demanded the secession of the Kingdom of Italy from the Holy Roman Empire. The local aristocrats and merchants increasingly considered the idea of Frankish ultramontan protection against Saracen and Byzantine threats to be obsolete. The Italian throne was now viewed as vacant and not Conrad's as a matter of right. The Lombard cities wanted to elect a king from the ranks of their own magnates, and when this motion failed, they tried to invite a prince from Aquitaine or other French realms. They offered the Italian crown to the Capetian king Robert II of France and his son Hugh Magnus. After the offer was rejected, they approached Duke William V of Aquitaine, who, initially intrigued by the offer, rejected as well.

When the news of Henry's death spread, the citizens of Pavia revolted and destroyed the local imperial palace of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, built during the 5th century. Though Pavia was no longer the seat of imperial administration in Italy since the Ottonian dynasty, the palace had been perceived as a symbol of imperial authority in Italy and its mere presence within the city walls had been deemed intolerable. Pavia, had—thanks to its strategic location on the trade routes from Italy to Burgundy and France—become an important commercial center. The local merchants and aristocrats demanded the greatest possible autonomy from imperial control. Schutz notes that Pavia disliked the financial burden they had to bear whenever the monarches came to the citadel. The bishops protested the separatist movement though, as they fared better under imperial protection than under local princes.

In the wake of the ecclesiastical mission, a party of noblemen from Pavia traveled north to meet Conrad and asked for severance from the Empire. The emissaries justified the actions of their fellow citizens by claiming that Pavia had always been loyal to the Italian king, as long as the king was alive and present, and that the revolt had taken place when the Italian throne was vacant. Conrad rejected the argument, that just as a ship remains devoted to its captain after his death, the Empire remains imperial property after the death of an emperor. The kingdom of Italy, according to Conrad, belonged to the empire as a matter of legal right. In his ''Constitutio de feudis'' ("Edict on the Benefices of the Italian Kingdom") of 1038 he would determine his regulations of the feudal contracts in Italy. Conrad also declared that the Ostrogothic palace was property of the Empire and therefore the king had the right to punish those responsible for its destruction. The Pavian embassy returned to Italy in opposition to Salian rule.

In February 1026, Conrad assembled a large army of armored knights for an expedition into Italy, including troops commanded by both Archbishop Aribo of Mainz and Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne. Conrad's army moved south and a contingent besieged Pavia and blocked all trade in the area, as he continued his campaign. By March 1026, Conrad arrived in Milan and was crowned with the Iron Crown of the Lombards by Archbishop Aribert of Milan as King of the Lombards. From Milan, Conrad traveled to Vercelli, where he celebrated Easter with the aged Bishop Leo of Vercelli, who had been a chief advisor to the late Emperor Otto III. When Leo died a few days later, Archbishop Aribert became the chief supporter of the Salian dynasty in Italy. With Conrad's assistance, Aribert rose to the highest ranking religious office in Italy and oversaw the expansion of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan. In June 1026, Conrad led his army to Ravenna, but quartering his soldiers among the Ravennese population caused tensions in the city. Conrad then marched north to mitigate the risk the summer heat might pose to his army. In autumn Conrad left his summer camp in the Po Valley and marched to the Burgundian border. Conrad then celebrated Christmas at Ivrea. By the end of winter, the Italian aristocrats voluntarily ended their opposition to Conrad's reign. Pavia, however, remained in revolt until early 1027 when Abbot Odilo of Cluny brokered a peace deal between the city and Conrad.

Reign as emperor

Imperial coronation

On 26 March 1027, Pope John XIX crowned Conrad and his wife Gisela as emperor and empress, respectively, in Old Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. The event lasted seven days and was attended by Conrad's son and heir Henry; Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark and Norway; Rudolph III of Burgundy and around 70 senior clerics, including the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, Trier, Magdeburg, Salzburg, Milan and Ravenna. Rudolph of Burgundy's attendance suggested surprisingly good relations between Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire. During the festivities a power struggle between the archbishops of Milan and Ravenna ensued and was settled in favor of Milan. Subsequently, Conrad left Rome and toured south to receive homage from the Southern Italian principalities of Capua and Salerno and the Duchy of Benevento.

After his coronation, Conrad issued decrees reorganising the monasteries and dioceses of Italy, with the explicit objective of bringing the Patriarchate of Venice under imperial control (see the ''Schism of the Three Chapters''). On 6 April 1027, at a synod held in the Lateran Basilica with Pope John XIX, the emperor addressed the matter by declaring the Patriarchate of Aquileia superior to the Patriarchate of Grado

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases