See also
| Husband: | Conrad III + of HOHENSTAUFEN (1093-1151) | |
| Wife: | Gertrude + of SULZBACH (1114-1146) | |
| Children: | Agnes + (1116-1151) | |
| Name: | Conrad III + of HOHENSTAUFEN | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | Frederick I + (1050-1105) | |
| Mother: | Agnes + of GERMANY (1072-1143) | |
| Birth | 1093 | Hohenstaufen, Swabia, Bavaria |
| Occupation | King of Germany | |
| Death | 15 Feb 1151 (age 57-58) | Bamberg, Oberfranken, Bavaria |
| Name: | Gertrude + of SULZBACH | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | Berenger II + (1080-1125) | |
| Mother: | Adelheid + of WOLFRATSHAUSEN (1084-1126) | |
| Birth | 1114 | Sulzbach, Oberpfalz, Bavaria |
| Death | 14 Apr 1146 (age 31-32) | |
| Name: | Agnes + | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Spouse: | Iziaslav II + (1096-1154) | |
| Birth | 1116 | Kiev, Ukraine |
| Occupation | Princess of Hohenstauffen | |
| Title | Princess of Hohenstauffen | |
| Death | 1151 (age 34-35) | |
Conrad III (1093 in Bamberg – 15 February 1152 in Bamberg) was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.
Conrad was appointed Duke of Franconia by his uncle, Henry V, in 1115. One year later he acted as regent for Germany, together with his elder brother, Frederick II of Swabia. At the death of Henry (1125), Conrad unsuccessfully supported Frederick for the kingship of Germany. Frederick was placed under a ban and Conrad was deprived of Franconia and the Kingdom of Burgundy, of which he was rector. With the support of the imperial cities, Swabia, and the Duchy of Austria, Conrad was elected antiking at Nuremberg in December 1127.
Conrad quickly crossed the Alps to be crowned King of Italy by Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan. Over the next two years, he failed to achieve anything in Italy, however, and returned to Germany in 1130, after Nuremberg and Speyer, two strong cities in his support, fell to Lothair in 1129. Conrad continued in his opposition, but he and Frederick were forced to acknowledged Lothair as emperor in 1135, during which time Conrad relinquished his tile as King of Italy.[1] After this they were pardoned and could take again possession of their lands.
Holy Roman Emperor
Coats of arms
Conrad III and his armies in Hungary. Image from the Chronicon Pictum.After Lothair's death (December 1137), Conrad was elected king at Coblenz on 7 March 1138, in the presence of the papal legate Theodwin. Conrad was crowned at Aachen six days later (13 March) and was acknowledged in Bamberg by several princes of southern Germany. As Henry the Proud, son-in-law and heir of Lothair and the most powerful prince in Germany, who had been passed over in the election, refused to do the same, Conrad deprived him of all his territories, giving the Duchy of Saxony to Albert the Bear and that of Bavaria to Leopold IV, Margrave of Austria. Henry, however, retained the loyalty of his subjects. The civil war that broke out is considered the first act of the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, which later extended southwards to Italy. After Henry's death (October 1139), the war was continued by his son Henry the Lion, supported by the Saxons, and by his brother Welf VI. Conrad, after a long siege, defeated the latter at Weinsberg in December 1140, and in May 1142 a peace agreement was reached in Frankfurt.
In the same year, Conrad entered Bohemia to reinstate his brother-in-law Vladislav II as prince. The attempt to do the same with another brother-in-law, the Polish prince Ladislaus the Exile, failed. Bavaria, Saxony, and the other regions of Germany were in revolt.
In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach the Second Crusade at Speyer, and he agreed to join Louis VII in a great expedition to the Holy Land. Before leaving, he had the nobles elect and crown his son Henry Berengar king. The succession secured in the event of his death, Conrad set out. His army of 20,000 men went overland, via Hungary, causing disruptions in the Byzantine territories through which they passed. They arrived at Constantinople by September 1147, ahead of the French army.
Rather than taking the coastal road around Anatolia through Christian-held territory, by which he sent most of his noncombatants, Conrad took his army across Anatolia. On 25 October 1147, they were defeated by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Dorylaeum. Conrad and most of the knights escaped, but most of the foot soldiers were killed or captured. The remaining 2,000 men of the German army limped on to Nicaea, where many of the survivors deserted and tried to return home. Conrad and his adherents had to be escorted to Lopadium by the French, where they joined the main French army of under Louis. Conrad fell seriously ill at Ephesus and was sent to recuperate in Constantinople, where his host the Emperor Manuel I acted as his personal physician. After recovering, Conrad sailed to Acre, and from there reached Jerusalem. He participated in the ill-fated Siege of Damascus and after that failure, grew disaffected with his allies. Another attempt to attack Ascalon failed when Conrad's allies did not appear as promised, and Conrad returned to Germany.
In 1150, Conrad and Henry Berengar defeated Welf VI and his son Welf VII at the Battle of Flochberg. Henry Berengar died later that year and the succession was thrown open. The Welfs and Hohenstaufen made peace in 1152 and the peaceful succession of one of Conrad's family was secured.
Conrad was never crowned emperor and continued to style himself "King of the Romans" until his death. On his deathbed, in the presence of only two witnesses, his nephew Frederick Barbarossa and the Bishop of Bamberg, he allegedly designated Frederick his successor, rather than his own surviving six-year-old son Frederick. Frederick Barbarossa, who had accompanied his uncle on the unfortunate crusade, forcefully pursued his advantage and was duly elected king in Cologne a few weeks later. The young son of the late king was given the Duchy of Swabia.
Conrad left no children by his first wife, Gertrude von Komburg. In 1136, he married Gertrude von Sulzbach, daughter of Berengar II of Sulzbach, and whose sister Bertha was married to Emperor Manuel. Gertrude was the mother of Conrad's children and the link which cemented his alliance with Byzantium.
1114 – 14 April 1146 in Hersfeld) was German Queen (Queen of the Romans). She was the second wife of Conrad III of Germany.
She was a daughter of Berengar II, Count of Sulzbach (c. 1080 - 3 December, 1125) and his second wife Adelheid of Wolfratshausen. In 1111, Berengar was among the nobles attending the coronation of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. He is mentioned among the sureties of documents related to the coronation. In 1120, Berengar is recorded granting a donation to the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. He is mentioned as the founder of Berchtesgaden and Baumburg. He was also a co-founder of Kastl Abbey. He was one of the rulers who signed the Concordat of Worms (23 September 1122). In August, 1125, Berengar is mentioned in documents of Lothair III, King of the Romans. The death of Berengar is mentioned four months later. [1]
The identity of her mother is mentioned in the "Kastler Reimchronik", Vers 525. Adelheid is mentioned in various other documents of the 12th century as "Countess of Sulzbach", without mentioning her husband. "De Fundatoribus Monasterii Diessenses" contains a rather confused genealogy concerning her two most prominent daughters. Otto II, Count of Wolfratshausen, father of Adelheid, is given as father to Richenza, "Empress" and "Maria, Empress of the Greeks". Richenza was the empress of Lothair III. The author of the text had apparently confused her with Gertrude von Sulzbach, wife of Conrad III of Germany. Maria is probably a confusion for "Irene" the baptismal name of Bertha of Sulzbach, wife of Manuel I Komnenos. Both were actually granddaughters of Otto, children of Berengar and Adelheid. Bertha was a sister of Gertrude. [2]
The known siblings of Gertrude include (1)Gebhard III, Count of Sulzbach, (2)Adelheid, Abbess of Niedernburg at Passau (3)Bertha of Sulzbach, Byzantine Empress (4)Luitgarde, wife first of Godfrey II of Leuven and secondly of Hugo XII, Count of Dagsburg and Metz., (5)Matilda of Sulzbach, wife of Engelbert III of Istria. [3]
Berengar II was a son of Gebhard II, Count of Sulzbach and Irmgard of Rott. [4] Irmgard was a daughter of Kuno I of Rott, founder of Rott Abbey, and his wife Uta. There is a theory identifying her mother as a daughter of Frederick III, Count of Diessen. However this is not confirmed by primary sources. Irmgard is mentioned as the founder of Berchtesgaden monastery. There is mention of her marrying twice but the identity of her second husband is disputed. The most likely candidate is Kuno, Count of Horburg. [5]
Gebhard II is considered a namesake son of Gebhard I, Count of Sulzbach. Gebhard I is the first person known to have used this title. On 28 November 1043, Gebhard was granted property by charter of Henry III, King of Germany. There his mother is mentioned as "Adalheit". The "Genealogischen Tafeln zur mitteleuropäischen Geschichte" (1965-1967) by W. Wegener identifies her as Adelaide of Susa. The father therefore being Herman IV, Duke of Swabia. This theory has gained some acceptance. However Charles Cawley notes that this would place his birth c. 1037-1038. In order for Gebhard to have grandchildren by the 1080s, "this would require a succession of teenage bridegrooms which seems improbable." Wegener theorises the wife of Gebhard I to have been a daughter of Berengar, Count of Nordgau. He suggests that Sulzbach was part of her dowry. Cawley considers the theory to stand only on "the transmission of the name Berengar into her husband's family." Otherwise no connection between the families is known to exist. [6]
[edit] MarriageGertrude married Conrad in 1136. The marriage between the Hohenstaufens and the Sulzbach's led to close relations between the two families; in 1167, Gebhard III left Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (Gertrude's nephew by marriage) as his sole heir.
Gertrude became ill after the birth of her son Friedrich, and died at the age of thirty-six years in Bad Hersfeld. She is buried in the church of the former Cistercian Ebrach Abbey.
[edit] IssueFrom her marriage with Conrad III, Gertrude had two sons:
Henry Berengar (Heinrich Berengar) (d. 1150), who in March 1147 was proclaimed co-King by his father, being crowned on 30 March 1147 in Aachen
Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia m. 1166 Gertrude of Saxony (d. 1196), daughter of Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony.