Conrad II

On March 26, 1027, King Conrad was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope John XIX. The coronation ceremony was attended by not only King Knut of Denmark, who allied with Conrad, and King Rudolf of Burgundy, but also seventy German and Italian prelates and many princes.

character life

Conrad II was the son of Henry, Count of Speyer. He was related to the Saxon dynasty in maternal terms.

He was raised by Bishop Worms. When Holy Roman Emperor Henry II died childless in 1024, he was elected king and was crowned in Mainz on September 8 of that year.

Conrad II continued the Saxon policy of suppressing German princes. He won the support of the small marquis in his struggle with the vassals and helped them not be bullied by the big feudal lords. In 1037, Conrad II promulgated the so-called "Fief Law" in Italy, stipulating that the fiefs of aristocrats should be hereditary to prevent large lords from arbitrarily annexing the territories of small lords. These positive measures ensured the strengthening of royal power. Conrad II also used the traditional practice of having the emperor appoint bishops and abbors (the so-called power of bishop appointment) to consolidate the royal family's effective control over the church.

In 1028, Conrad II took advantage of the turmoil in Poland to seize Oberluzice from Polish King Meshko II.

In 1032, when King Rudolf III of Arles died without heirs, he bequeathed his kingdom (including the two separate kingdoms of Burgundy formed earlier, which were later ruled by Rudolf II of Upper Burgundy due to his political deal with Hugh, the ruler of Provence, in 933) to Conrad II. By 1034, Conrad II had overcome all his opponents and became the master of the land. The kingdom was quite large, including almost all of today's southeastern France, as well as the two main feudal possessions of France in western Switzerland, Franchconte and Dauphine. However, it did not include the smaller Duchy of Burgundy (ruled by a branch of the French House of Capet). Conrad II gave it to his son Henry (later Henry III) as a fief.

In 1039, Conrad II died in Utrecht (in present-day Holland).