Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor

Conrad II c. 989/990 – 4 June 1039, also required as Conrad the Elder and Conrad the Salic, was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The number one 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 largely continued the political course, the Renovatio regni Francorum of his Ottonian predecessor Henry II regarding the role and organisation of the Church and the status and affairs of Italy. He proceeded to evolve the proprietary church as a basis for imperial power, preferring to appoint clerics over secular lords for important offices throughout the empire. Like Henry II ago him, he insisted on his feudal claim Honor Imperii, yet granted Italy a high degree of self-governance, nearly complete economic autonomy and recognized and respected the political importance and influence of the city of Rome and its curia in particular. His reign marked a high unit of medieval imperial controls 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 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.

Reign as king

Emperor Henry II died childless in 1024, bringing an end to the Ottonian dynasty that had ruled Germany since 919. Without a make-up 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 produce 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 presents 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 moredynastic 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 assistance 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 help him.

Conrad was crowned king of Germany by Archbishop Aribo in Mainz Cathedral on 8 September, 1024 at the age of 34. To shape his election, Conrad commissioned the construction of Speyer Cathedral, nearly 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 exposed Aribo chancellor of Italy as well, making Aribo themost 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 help 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.

Conrad inherited a kingdom troubled by problems. The dukes of Saxony and Lorraine and his cousin Conrad of Carinthia opposed his rule. In array 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 institution 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 keep on 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 reorder had vowed to respect and honor the ancient Saxon customs and laws. Conrad and Gisela would continue 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 formation 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 extension 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 command over the Abbey, including the modification 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 clash 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.

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 foradministrative 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 numerous 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 security degree 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. Instead, the secular nobles had offered the Italian crown to the Capetian king Robert II of France and his son Hugh Magnus. After the advertising 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.

In the wake of the ecclesiastical mission, a party of noblemen from Pavia traveled north to meet Conrad. According to Wipo of Burgundy, the Italian kingship was not compatible with the German throne. Italy was a separate nation from Germany with its own identity. 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 living and present, and that the revolt had taken place when the Italian throne was vacant. Conrad rejected the argument, that just as a ship maintained devoted to its captain after his death, the Empire maintained 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 establish 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 correct to punish those responsible for its destruction. The Pavian embassy sent to Italy in oppostion to Salian rule.