Conrad I ( – 8 January 1152) was

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

of Zähringen from 1122 until his death and from 1127 also Rector of Burgundy. He spent most of his life stemming the growing power of the

House of Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

and to this end, allied himself with the

House of Guelph The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconian family from the Meus ...

Life

Conrad I was a son of Duke Berthold II and his wife,

Agnes of Rheinfelden Agnes of Rheinfelden (*; † 19 December 1111) was the daughter of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, and the wife of Berthold II of Zähringen, Duke of Swabia. Life Agnes was the daughter of Rudolf von Rheinfelden, duke of Swabia, and anti-king of Germa ...

. In 1120, Conrad I and his elder brother Berthold III granted city rights to

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

. In 1122, Conrad I succeeded Berthold III as Duke of Zähringen. In 1127, he came into conflict with Count Reginald III of Burgundy, because both men claimed the inheritance of Conrad's murdered nephew William III. In this situation, he benefitted from the situation Emperor Lothar III found himself in. Lothar urgently needed support against his Hohenstaufen rivals, and he supported Conrad's claim. He rejected Reginald's claim, with the dubious argument that Reginald had failed to comply with his duty to attend the emperor's court. Conrad received the title rector of Burgundy, which denoted, as least theoretically, a kind of representative of the emperor in the

Kingdom of Burgundy Kingdom of Burgundy was a name given to various states located in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The historical Burgundy correlates with the border area of France, Italy and Switzerland and includes the major modern cities of Geneva and ...

. In 1138, King Conrad III of Germany grabbed power and the power conflict between the Guelphs and the Hohenstaufen relaxed. Until the late 1150s, the dukes of Zähringen were among the Hohenstaufen's most loyal supporters. Conrad I died in 1152 in Constance and was buried in the family vault in the Abbey of Saint Peter in the Black Forest.

Marriage and issue

Conrad was married to Clementia of Namur, daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Namur and had at least five children: * Berthold IV, duke of Zähringen * Adalbert I, founder of the line

Dukes of Teck Duke of Teck is a title which was created twice in Germanic lands. It was first borne from 1187 to 1439 by the head of a cadet line of the German ducal House of Zähringen, known as the "first House of Teck". The ''caput'' of his territory was Te ...

Clementia In Roman mythology, Clementia was the goddess of clemency, leniency, mercy, forgiveness, penance, redemption, absolution, acquittal and salvation. She was defined as a celebrated virtue of Julius Caesar, who was famed for his forbearance, ...

, married

Henry the Lion Henry the Lion (german: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129/1131 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the Welf dynasty who ruled as the duke of Saxony and Bavaria from 1142 and 1156, respectively, until 1180. Henry was one of the most powerful German p ...

* Rudolf, Archbishop of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

* Hugh, Duke of Ullenburg

Notes

References

Sources

* * * Eberhard Holz and Wolfgang Huschner (eds.): ''Deutsche Fürsten des Mittelalters'',

Edition Leipzig Edition Leipzig was a publisher in the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR), which, for the most part, placed books on Western markets as an export publisher. This was intended to serve representative purposes as well as to procure foreign curr ...

, Leipzig, 1995, * {{DEFAULTSORT:Conrad 01 Zahringen Dukes of Zähringen 1090s births Year of birth unknown 1152 deaths Wendish Crusade