Conrad III (
1093 –
15 February 1152) 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
Nuremburg 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
Nürnberg 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. After this they were pardoned and could take again possession of their lands.
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 III, 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
1146, 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 went overland, via
Hungary, causing disruptions in the
Byzantine territories through which they passed. They arrived at
Constantinople by December 1146, 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 mounted knights escaped, but most of the foot soldiers were killed or captured. The remnants 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 the 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 the Emperor Manuel. Gertrude was the mother of Conrad's children and the link which cemented his alliance with Byzantium.
