to gain the support of the Saxons and the members of
the Lotharingian nobility who had not consented to his
election. Therefore, following the tradition of his Ot-
tonian predecessors, he devoted the next fi fteen months
to a royal iter (journey) that enabled him to meet and
negotiate with nobles from Lotharingia to Saxony as
well as those in Alemannia, Bavaria, Franconia, and
Swabia.
With his rule thus consolidated by late 1025, Conrad
embarked upon an expedition to Italy that lasted from
the spring of 1026 until early summer of 1027. There
he reestablished his authority over such rebellious cities
of northern Italy as Pavia and Ravenna and broke down
the opposition to royal rule within the Italian nobil-
ity through a combination of diplomacy and military
might. Crowned Roman emperor by Pope John XIX
(1024–1032) on Easter (March 26) of 1027 with King
Cnut of England and Denmark and King Rudolf III of
Burgundy in attendance, Conrad then headed south
into Apulia, where he reestablished nominal German
sovereignty over the Lombard princes and attempted to
secure the frontier with Byzantine southern Italy.
Back in Germany, Conrad pondered the future of the
dynasty. At Regensburg in June of 1027, he elevated his
son Henry as duke of Bavaria and, on Easter of 1028,
had him crowned king at Aachen with the consent of the
princes of the Reich. The death in 1033 of King Rudolf
III enabled the Salan monarch to expand his hegemony
by incorporating the kingdom of Burgundy into the
Reich. Around 1034, after his earlier bid for a marriage
alliance with Byzantium had failed, Conrad turned to
Denmark for a bride for his son; Henry III married King
Cnut’s (1017–1035) daughter Kunigunde in 1036. With
the deaths of the reigning dukes of Swabia and Carinthia
in 1038 and 1039 respectively, Conrad invested Henry
III with those duchies, thereby giving him a unique
position of power in the three southernmost duchies of
the German Reich.
Despite the extent of his power, Conrad II faced
several internal rebellions and signifi cant foreign chal-
lenges during his reign. Just two years after Conrad’s
election, a group of conspirators led by his rival Conrad
the Younger rebelled during the king’s fi rst expedition to
Italy. After an initial show of loyalty, the king’s stepson
Duke Ernst II of Swabia later joined this rebellion; he
persisted in his opposition to Conrad, despite brief re-
turns to grace and appointments to offi ce, until he was
killed in August of 1030.
In 1036 Conrad journeyed again to Lombardy to
settle widespread disputes between subvassals and their
lay and ecclesiastical overlords over the security of the
subvassals’ legal status and rights. After overcoming
the resistance of the Italian episcopate and their attempt
to introduce Count Odo of Champagne (995–1037) as
king, Conrad fi nally settled the dispute in favor of the
subvassals with his decree Constitutio de feudis of 1037,
which represented a major departure from the earlier,
proepiscopal policies of his Ottonian predecessors.
On his eastern frontiers, Conrad responded to the
repeated political challenges posed by Poland, Bohemia,
and Hungary through a combination of military might,
alliances with neighboring princes, territorial exchanges,
and diplomacy, designed essentially to maintain the
status quo rather than expand German hegemony.
Perhaps the most debated aspect today of Conrad’s
kingship is his ecclesiastical policy. Earlier scholar-
ship stressed the secularity of Conrad II’s reign and
the king’s calculated development and exploitation of
the Reichskirche (imperial church) to achieve secular
political aims. More recent studies, however, while
not ignoring Conrad’s political and economic reliance
on ecclesiastical and monastic structures, have offered
a more balanced assessment that highlights Conrad’s
personal association with leading monastic reformers
of his time, including Odilo of Cluny, William of Dijon,
and Poppo of Stablo; his efforts to further their reforms;
his swift change in policy after a unique case of simony
reported by Wipo; and his support of reformers such as
Bruno of Egisheim, the future Pope Leo IX. Finally, they
argue that, although Conrad undoubtedly saw himself
as the head of the imperial Church, this position of
leadership remained, in his mind, a religious as well as
a secular offi ce, an attitude certainly manifested by his
son Henry III.
Dying on June 4, 1039, Conrad II was laid to rest
by Empress Gisela and King Henry III in the cathedral
of Speyer.
See also Henry III; Leo IX, PopeFurther Reading
Boshof, Egon. Die Salier, 3rd ed. Stuttgart and Berlin: Kohlham-
mer, 1995, pp. 33–91.
Die Urkunden Conrads II., ed. Harry Bresslau and P. Kehr. Mu-
nich: Mortumenta Germaniae Historica, 1909; rpt. 1980.
Hoffmann, Hartmut. Monchskönig und “rex idiota”. Studien
zur Kirchenpolitik Heinrichs II. und Conrads II. Hannover:
Hahn, 1995.
Morrison, K. F. “The Deeds of Conrad II.” In Imperial Lives
and Letters of the Eleventh Century, ed. Theodor E. Mom-
msen and Karl F. Morrison. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1962.
Trillmich, Werner. Kaiser Conrad II. und seine Zeit, ed. Otto
Bardong. Bonn: Europa Union Verlag, 1991.
Wipo. Gesta Chuonradi, ed. Harry Bresslau. Hannover: Hahn,
1878; rpt. 1993.
W.L. NorthCONRAD OF MARBURG (ca. 1180–1233)
One of medieval Germany’s most fascinating personali-
ties was born about 1180, probably near Marburg, inCONRAD II