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Holy Roman Empire Association - HREA

The Complete List of Holy Roman Emperors - HREA

The Complete List of Holy Roman Emperors - I

 The Holy Roman Emperor (German: Römisch-deutscher Kaiser, Latin: Romanorum Imperator) was the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. The position evolved into an elected monarchy, but the emperor elect (imperator electus)  was until the 15th century required to be crowned by the Pope before  assuming the imperial title. The title was held in conjunction with the  rule of the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy (Imperial  Northern Italy). In theory, the Holy Roman Emperor was primus inter pares (first among equals) among the other Roman Catholic monarchs; in  practice, a Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and  alliances made him. 

This list includes all Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, whether or not they styled themselves Holy Roman Emperor.  There are some gaps in the tally. For example, Henry the Fowler was  King of Germany but not Emperor; Emperor Henry II was numbered as his  successor as German King. The Guideschi follow the numeration for the  Duchy of Spoleto. At times, two people claimed the title. These are  denoted by the Rival next to their names. Most Holy Roman  Emperors were also Kings of Germany, and this is noted next to them  also. Interregnum means "between Kings". Traditional historiography  claims a continuity between the Carolingian Empire and the Holy Roman  Empire. This is rejected by some modern historians, who date the  foundation of the Holy Roman Empire to 962, whereas the Holy Roman  Empire Association holds the traditional historiography view. 

Emperor Charlemagne - Charles the Great- 800-814

Charlemagne (2 April 742/747/748 – 28 January 814), also known as Charles the Great (German: Karl der Große; Latin: Carolus or Karolus Magnus) or Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, the King of Italy from 774, and from 800 the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the Carolingian Empire.


The  oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, Charlemagne became  king in 768 following the death of his father. He was initially co-ruler  with his brother Carloman I.  Carloman's sudden death in 771 under unexplained circumstances left  Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. Charlemagne  continued his father's policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain.  He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, Christianizing them  upon penalty of death, at times leading to events such as the Massacre  of Verden. Charlemagne reached the height of his power in 800 when he  was crowned "emperor" by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Old St.  Peter's Basilica.


Called the "Father of Europe" (pater Europae),  Charlemagne united most of Western Europe for the first time since the  Roman Empire. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of  cultural and intellectual activity within the Catholic Church. Both the  French and German monarchies considered their kingdoms to be descendants  of Charlemagne's empire. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as  emperor for just over thirteen years. He was laid to rest in his  imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. His son Louis the  Pious succeeded him.

Louis the Pious I of France and of Germany - 814-833 - 834-840

Louis the Pious (778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor (as Louis I) with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. As the only surviving adult son of Charlemagne and Hildegard,  he became the sole ruler of the Franks after his father's death in 814,  a position which he held until his death, save for the period 833–34,  during which he was deposed.


During  his reign in Aquitaine, Louis was charged with the defence of the  Empire's southwestern frontier. He conquered Barcelona from the Muslims in 801 and asserted Frankish authority over Pamplona and the Basques south of the Pyrenees in 812. As emperor he included his adult sons,  Lothair, Pepin, and Louis, in the government and sought to establish a  suitable division of the realm among them. The first decade of his reign  was characterised by several tragedies and embarrassments, notably the  brutal treatment of his nephew Bernard of Italy, for which Louis atoned  in a public act of self-debasement.


In  the 830s his empire was torn by civil war between his sons, only  exacerbated by Louis's attempts to include his son Charles by his second  wife in the succession plans. Though his reign ended on a high note,  with order largely restored to his empire, it was followed by three  years of civil war. Louis is generally compared unfavourably to his  father, though the problems he faced were of a distinctly different  sort.

Lothar I - Holy Roman Emperor - 833-834 - 840-855

Lothair I or Lothar I (German: Lothar, French: Lothaire, Italian: Lotario, Dutch: Lotharius)  (795 – 29 September 855) was the Emperor of the Romans (817–855),  co-ruling with his father until 840, and the King of Bavaria (815–817),  Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (840–855). The territory of Lorraine (Lothringen in German) is named after him.


Lothair  was the eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious and his  wife Ermengarde of Hesbaye, daughter of Ingerman the duke of Hesbaye. On  several occasions, Lothair led his full-brothers Pippin I of Aquitaine and Louis the German in revolt against their father to protest against  attempts to make their half-brother Charles the Bald a co-heir to the  Frankish domains. 


Upon the father's death, Charles and Louis joined  forces against Lothair in a three-year civil war (840–843). The  struggles between the brothers led directly to the breakup of the Frankish Empire assembled by their grandfather Charlemagne, and laid the foundation for the development of modern France and Germany.

Louis the German - Louis II of Germany - 855-875

Louis the German (German: Ludwig der Deutsche; c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany (German: Ludwig II. von Deutschland), was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the Pious, emperor of Francia, and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye, he received the appellation Germanicus shortly after his death, when East Francia became known as the kingdom of Germany.


After protracted clashes with his father and his brothers, Louis received the East Frankish kingdom in the Treaty of Verdun (843). His attempts to conquer his half-brother Charles the Bald's West Frankish kingdom in 858–59 were unsuccessful. The 860s were marked by a severe crisis, with the East Frankish rebellions of the sons, as well as struggles to maintain supremacy over his realm. In the Treaty of Meerssen he acquired Lotharingia for the East Frankish kingdom in 870. 


On the other hand, he tried and failed to claim both the title of Emperor and Italy. In the East, Louis was able to reach a longer-term peace agreement in 874 after decades of conflict with the Moravians. His rule shows a marked decline in creation of written administration and government documents, a trend that would continue into Ottonian times.

Charles the Bald - Charles II France - 875-877

Charles the Bald (French: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.  He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father.


The death of the Emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841. In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been governing until then, and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse, the Saône, and the Rhône, with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro. Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire, known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title and the Kingdom of Italy. He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia.

Charles III - Holy Roman Emperor - 881-887

Charles the Fat (13 June 839 – 13 January 888), also known as Charles III,  was the Carolingian Emperor from 881 to 888. The youngest son of Louis  the German and Hemma, Charles was a great-grandson of Charlemagne and  was the last Carolingian to rule over a united empire. Over  his lifetime, Charles became ruler of the various kingdoms of  Charlemagne's former Empire. Granted lordship over Alamannia in 876  following the division of East Francia, he succeeded to the Italian  throne upon the abdication of his older brother Carloman of Bavaria who  had been incapacitated by a stroke. Crowned Emperor in 881 by Pope John  VIII, his succession to the territories of his brother Louis the Younger  (Saxony and Bavaria) the following year reunited East Francia. Upon the  death of his cousin Carloman II in 884, he inherited all of West  Francia, reuniting the entire Carolingian Empire.


The reunited Empire would not last. During a coup led by his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in November 887, Charles was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, and Italy.  Forced into quiet retirement, he died of natural causes in January 888,  just a few weeks after his deposition. The Empire quickly fell apart  after his death, never to be restored, with the Empire splintering into  five separate successor kingdoms. Usually considered lethargic and inept – he is known to have had repeated  illnesses and is believed to have suffered from epilepsy – he twice  purchased peace with Viking raiders, including at the famous siege of Paris in 886. Nevertheless, contemporary opinion of him was not nearly so negative as modern historiographical opinion.

Guido of Spoleto - 891-894

Guy of Spoleto (died 12 December 894), sometimes known by the Italian version of his name, Guido, or by the German version, Wido, was the Margrave of Camerino from 880 (as Guy I or Guy II) and then Duke of Spoleto and Camerino (as Guy III)  from 883. He was crowned King of Italy in 889 and Holy Roman Emperor in  891. He died in 894 while fighting for control of the Italian  peninsula. Guy was married to Ageltrude, daughter of Adelchis of  Benevento, who bore him a son named Lambert. 


Guy was the second son of Guy I of Spoleto and Itta, daughter of Sico of Benevento. Guy I was the son of Lambert I of Nantes and his second wife, Adelaide of Lombardy, who was a daughter of Charlemagne's second eldest son, Pepin of Italy. In 842, the former Duchy of Spoleto, which had been donated to the Papacy by Charlemagne, was resurrected by the Franks to be held against Byzantine catapans to the south, as a Frankish border territory by a dependent margrave. 


Guy's power never extended over much beyond his hereditary lands, which offered a stark illustration of the fact that the imperial title, with its pretensions of universal rule, had by the end of the ninth century become merely a token of the pope's favour, to be fought over by various Italian nobles. He did not even firmly control the north of Italy, battling other claimants over the throne for much of his reign. He did try to maintain the Carolingian tradition and issue capitularies as former emperors had. In 891, he demanded the traditional service in the army of all arimanni, whether they owned land or not. 

Lambert of Spoleto - 894-896 and on restoration - 896-898

Lambert (Italian: Lamberto; c. 880 – 15 October 898) was the King of Italy from 891, Emperor, co-ruling with his father from 892, and Duke of Spoleto and Camerino (as Lambert II) from his father's death in 894. He was the son of Guy III of Spoleto and Ageltrude, born in San Rufino. He was the last ruler to issue a capitulary in the Carolingian tradition. 


 Lambert was preoccupied in thwarting the attempts of both Arnulf of Carinthia and Berengar of Friuli to take Italy for themselves during his reign. Early on, Adalbert II of Tuscany rallied to his cause, menacing Berengar in Pavia. By January 895, Lambert could take up residence in the royal capital. In that same year, his cousin Guy IV conquered the Principality of Benevento from the Byzantines. Despite the urging of Fulk of Rheims on his behalf, Lambert found himself abandoned by the Pope, who feared the increased power of the Spoletan house. In September, an embassy arrived in Regensburg beseeching Arnulf's aid. In October, Arnulf undertook his second campaign into Italy. He crossed the Alps quickly and took Pavia, but then he continued slowly. While Lambert refused to offer battle, Arnulf was garnering support among the nobility of Tuscany. Even Adalbert joined him. Finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude, Arnulf took the city by force on 21 February 896, freeing the pope. Arnulf was there crowned King and Emperor by Pope Formosus, who declared Lambert deposed. Arnulf marched on Spoleto, where Ageltrude had fled to Lambert, but Arnulf suffered a stroke and had to call off the campaign. That same year, Formosus died, leaving Lambert once again in power.

Arnulf of Carinthia - 896

Arnulf of Carinthia (c. 850 – December 8, 899) was the duke of Carinthia who removed his uncle, Emperor Charles the Fat from power. He was the disputed King of Italy from 894 and the disputed Holy Roman Emperor from February 22, 896 until his death at Regensburg, Bavaria.Arnulf was the illegitimate son of Charles the Fat’s eldest brother, Carloman, who was king of Bavaria. Arnulf inherited the march of Carinthia from his father but was excluded from the succession to the kingdom on Carloman’s death. Arnulf maintained and consolidated his frontiers, though in constant tension with the Moravian kingdom of Svatopluk. In November 887, at Frankfurt, the East Frankish magnates revolted against the incompetent emperor Charles the Fat, who since 885 had ruled the reunited Carolingian empire. Arnulf was elected king of the East Franks, and Charles yielded without a struggle. The West Franks, Burgundy, and Italy refused to recognize Arnulf, however, and elected new kings from their own nobility. The Carolingian empire thus finally disintegrated. 


Arnulf was crowned Emperor by Formosus, who declared Lambert deposed. After a two-week stay in the city, Arnulf marched south to settle accounts with his rival at Spoleto, but en route he was suddenly taken ill and had to return to Germany. Lambert remained emperor despite the pope’s action. The last three years of Arnulf’s life, during which his illness continued, saw Germany invaded by Moravians and Hungarians, Lotharingia in revolt against Zwentibold, Italy lost, and France free of Arnulf’s influence.

Louis III - Holy Roman Emperor - 901-905

Louis the Blind (c. 880 – 5 June 928) was king in Provence and Lower Burgundy from 890 to 928, and also king of Italy from 900 to 905, and also the emperor between 901 and 905, styled as Louis III. His father was king Boso, from the Bosonid family, and his mother was Ermengard, a Carolingian princess. In 905, he was blinded and lost Italy, retreating to his remaining domains in Provence and Lower Burgundy. In historiography, he is styled as King of Provence, or King of Burgundy. 


Born c. 880, Louis was the son of Boso, the usurper king of Provence, and Ermengard, a daughter of Emperor Louis II. Upon Boso's death on 11 January 887, Louis was still a child, and under guardianship of his mother. Instead of unilaterally proclaiming her son as the new king in regions previously held or claimed by his father, she decided to improve Louis′ claims, and thus approached her relative, the emperor Charles the Fat. In May, Ermengard traveled to Charles′ court with Louis, and received confirmation of family estates. Charles also adopted Louis, and put both mother and son under his protection.


In 899, Louis III was betrothed to Anna of Constantinople, the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise and his second wife, Zoe Zaoutzaina. The evidence for this is a letter by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos in which he testifies that Leo VI had united his daughter to a Frank prince, a cousin of Bertha, to whom came later a great misfortune. Louis lived out his days until his death in obscurity, and through his life he continued to style himself as Roman emperor. He was succeeded by his brother-in-law in 928.

Berengar of Friuli - 911-924

Berengar I (Latin: Berengarius, Perngarius; Italian Berengario; c. 845 – 7 April 924. was the king of Italy from 887 and emperor between 915 and his death in 924. He is usually known as Berengar of Friuli, since he ruled the March of Friuli from 874 until at least 890, but he had lost control of the region by 896.


Berengar rose to become one of the most influential laymen in the empire of Charles the Fat and he was elected to replace Charles in Italy after the latter's deposition in November 887. His long reign of 36 years saw him opposed by no fewer than seven other claimants to the Italian throne. His reign is usually characterised as troubled because of the many competitors for the crown and because of the arrival of Magyar raiders in Western Europe. His death was followed by an imperial interregnum that lasted 38 years until Otto I  was crowned emperor in 962.


His family was called the Unruochings after his grandfather, Unruoch II. Berengar was a son of Eberhard of Friuli and Gisela, daughter of Louis the Pious and his second wife Judith. He was thus of Carolingian extraction on his mother's side. He was born probably at Cividale. Sometime during his margraviate, he married Bertila, daughter of Suppo II, thus securing an alliance with the powerful Supponid family. She would later rule alongside him as a consors, a title specifically denoting her informal power and influence, as opposed to a mere coniunx, wife.

Henry I - the Folwer - King of Germany - 919-936

Henry the Fowler (German: Heinrich der Vogler or Heinrich der Finkler; Latin: Henricus Auceps; c. 876 – 2 July 936) was the duke of Saxony from 912 and the king of East Francia from 919 until his death in 936. As the first non-Frankish king of East Francia, he established the Ottonian dynasty of kings and emperors, and he is generally considered to be the founder of the medieval German state, known until then as East Francia. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet "the Fowler" because he was allegedly fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king.


He was born into the Liudolfing line of Saxon dukes. His father Otto I of Saxony died in 912 and was succeeded by Henry. The new duke launched a rebellion against the king of East Francia, Conrad I of Germany, over the rights to lands in the Duchy of Thuringia. They reconciled in 915 and on his deathbed in 918, Conrad recommended Henry as the next king, considering the duke the only one who could hold the kingdom together in the face of internal revolts and external Magyar raids. 


Henry was elected and crowned king in 919. He went on to defeat the rebellious dukes of Bavaria and Swabia, consolidating his rule. Henry planned an expedition to Rome to be crowned emperor by the pope, but the design was thwarted by his death. Henry prevented a collapse of royal power, as had happened in West Francia, and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. He was buried at Quedlinburg Abbey, established by his wife Matilda in his honour. 

Otto I the Great - Holy Roman Emperor - 962-973

Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), also known as Otto the Great, was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, reigning as German king from 936 until his death in 973. The oldest son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, Otto was "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy". Otto inherited the Duchy of Saxony and the kingship of the Germans upon his father's death in 936. He continued his father's work to unify all  German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king's powers at the expense of the aristocracy. Through strategic marriages and personal appointments, Otto installed members of his family to the kingdom's most important duchies. 


By 961, Otto had conquered the Kingdom of Italy and extended his realm's borders to the north, east, and south. In control of much of central and southern Europe, the patronage of Otto and his immediate successors caused a limited cultural renaissance of the arts and architecture. Following the example of Charlemagne's coronation as "Emperor of the Romans" in 800, Otto was crowned Emperor in 962 by Pope John XII in Rome.


Otto's  later years were marked by conflicts with the Papacy and struggles to  stabilize his rule over Italy. Reigning from Rome, Otto sought to improve relations with the Byzantine Empire, which opposed his claim to emperorship and his realm's further expansion to the south. To resolve this conflict, the Byzantine princess Theophanu married his son, Otto II, in April 972. Otto finally returned to Germany in August 972 and died of natural causes in 973. Otto II succeeded him as Emperor.


Otto II - Holy Roman Emperor - 973-983

Otto II (955 – December 7, 983), called the Red (Rufus), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy. Otto II was made joint-ruler of Germany in 961, at an early age, and his father named him co-Emperor in 967 to secure his succession to the throne. His father also arranged for Otto II to marry the Byzantine Princess Theophanu, who would be his wife until his death. When his father died after a 37-year reign, the eighteen-year old Otto II became absolute ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in a peaceful succession. Otto II spent his reign continuing his father's policy of strengthening Imperial rule in Germany and extending the borders of the Empire deeper into southern Italy. Otto II also continued the work of Otto I in subordinating the Catholic Church to Imperial control.


Otto II would focus his attention from 980 onward to annexing the whole of Italy into the Empire. His conquests brought him into conflict with the Byzantine Empire and with the Muslims of the Fatimid Caliphate, who both held territories in southern Italy. After initial successes in unifying the southern Lombard principalities under his authority and in conquering Byzantine-controlled territory, Otto II's campaigns in southern Italy ended in 982 following a disastrous defeat by the Muslims. While he was preparing to  counterattack Muslim forces, a major uprising by the Slavs broke out in 983, forcing the Empire to abandon its major territorial holdings east of the Elbe river. Otto II died suddenly in 983 at the age of 28 after a ten-year reign. He was succeeded as Emperor by his three-year old son Otto III, plunging the Empire into a political crisis.


Otto III - Holy Roman Emperor - 996-1002

Otto III (Jun/Jul 980 - January 23, 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his early death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was  the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of Germany in 983 at the age of three, shortly after his father's death in southern Italy while campaigning against the Byzantine Empire and the Emirate of Sicily. Though the nominal ruler of Germany, Otto III's minor status ensured his various regents held power over the Empire. His  cousin Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, initially claimed regency over the young king and attempted to seize the throne for himself in 984. When his rebellion failed to gain the support of Germany's aristocracy, Henry II was forced to abandon his claims to the throne and to allow Otto III's mother Theophanu to serve as regent until her death in 991. Otto III was then still a child, so his grandmother, the Dowager Empress Adelaide of Italy, served as regent until 994. In 996, Otto III marched to Italy to claim the titles King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor, which had been left unclaimed since the death of Otto II in 983. Otto III also sought to reestablish Imperial control over the city of Rome,  which had revolted under the leadership of Crescentius II, and through it the papacy. Crowned as Emperor, Otto III put down the Roman rebellion and installed his cousin as Pope Gregory V, the first Pope of German descent. Returning to Rome in 1001, Otto III faced a rebellion by the Roman  aristocracy, which forced him to flee the city. While marching to reclaim the city in 1002, however, Otto III suffered a sudden fever and died in a castle near Civita Castellana at the age of 21. With no clear heir to succeed him, his early death threw the Empire into political crisis. 

Henry II - Holy Roman Emperor - 1014-1024

Henry II (6 May 972 – 13 July 1024), also known as Saint Henry, Obl. S. B. ("Oblate of Saint Benedict"), was Holy Roman Emperor ("Romanorum Imperator") from 1014 until his death in 1024 and the last member of the Ottonian dynasty of Emperors as he had no children. The Duke of Bavaria from 995, Henry became King of Germany ("Rex Romanorum") following the sudden death of his second cousin, Emperor Otto III in 1002, was crowned King of Italy ("Rex Italiae") in 1004, and was crowned by the Pope as Emperor in 1014. The son of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria and his wife Gisela of Burgundy, Emperor Henry II was a great-grandson of German King Henry I and a member of the Bavarian branch of the Ottonian dynasty. 


The rule of Henry II is seen as a period of centralized authority throughout the Empire. He consolidated his power by cultivating personal and political ties with the Catholic Church. He greatly expanded the Ottonian dynasty's custom of employing clergy as counter-weights against secular nobles. Through donations to the Church and the establishment of new dioceses, Henry strengthened imperial rule across the Empire and increased control over ecclesiastical affairs. He stressed service to the Church and promoted monastic reform. For his personal holiness and efforts to support the Church, Pope Bl. Eugene III canonized him in 1146, making Henry II the only German monarch to be a saint. Henry II married Cunigunde of Luxembourg, who later became his queen and empress. As the union produced no children, after Henry's death the German nobles elected Conrad II, a great-great-grandson of Emperor Otto I, to succeed him. Conrad was the first of the Salian dynasty of  Emperors.

Conrad II - Holy Roman Emperor - 1027-1039

Conrad II (c. 990 – 4 June 1039), also known as Conrad the Elder, was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The founder of the Salian dynasty of emperors, Conrad also served as King of Germany from 1024, King of Italy from 1026, and King of Burgundy from 1033. The son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of  Worms as an infant when his father died. Conrad extended his power beyond his inherited lands, receiving the favor of the princes of the Kingdom of Germany. When the Saxon-based Ottonian dynasty of emperors died off with the childless Emperor Henry II, Conrad was elected to succeed him as King in 1024 at the age of 34. Conrad founded his own dynasty of rulers, known as the Salian dynasty, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for over a century.


Conrad continued the policies and achievements of the Ottonian Henry II  regarding the Catholic Church and the affairs of Italy. Conrad continued to build the Church as a center for imperial power, preferring to appoint church bishops over secular lords to important posts across the Empire. Like Henry II before him, Conrad also continued a policy of benign neglect over Italy, especially for the city of Rome. His reign marked a high point of the medieval imperial rule and a relatively peaceful period for the Empire. Following the death of the childish King Rudolph III of Burgundy in 1032, Conrad claimed dominion over the Kingdom of Arles 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).

Henry III - Holy Roman Emperor - 1046-1056

Henry III (German: Heinrich III, 28 October 1016 – 5 October 1056), called the Black (German: Heinrich der Schwarze) or the Pious, was Holy Roman Emperor from 1046 until his death in 1056. A member of the Salian dynasty, he was the eldest son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia.


Henry was raised by his father, who made him Duke of Bavaria in 1026, appointed him co-ruler in 1028 and bestowed him with the duchy of Swabia and the Kingdom of Burgundy ten years later in 1038. The emperor's death the following year ended a remarkably smooth and harmonious transition process towards Henry's sovereign rule, that was rather uncharacteristic for the Ottonian and Salian monarchs. Henry succeeded Conrad II as Duke of Carinthia and King of Italy and continued to pursue his father's political course on the basis of virtus et probitas (courage and honesty), which led to an unprecedented sacral exaltation of the kingship. In 1046 Henry ended the papal schism, was crowned Emperor by Pope Clement II, freed the Vatican from dependence on the Roman nobility and laid the foundation for its empire-wide authority. 


In the duchies, Henry enforced the sovereign royal right of disposition, thereby ensuring tighter control. In Lorraine, this led to years of conflict from which he emerged victorious. Another sphere of defiance formed in southern Germany from 1052 to 1055. Henry III died in 1056, aged only 39. Modern historians identify the final years of his reign as the beginning of a crisis in the Salian monarchy.

Holy Roman Empress Agnes - Regent - 1056-1068

Agnes of Poitou (c. 1025 – 14 December 1077) was the queen of Germany from 1043 and empress of the Holy Roman Empire from 1046 until 1056 as the wife of Emperor Henry III. From 1056 to 1061, she ruled the Holy Roman Empire as regent during the minority of their son Henry IV. After the death of her husband, she proved an inexperienced regent unable to effectively assert her power and secure loyal allies. In Germany, she is still remembered as a sympathetichistorical figure, even if a flawed politician.Agnes was the daughter of the Ramnulfid Duke William V of Aquitaine (d. 1030) and Agnes of Burgundy and as such a member of the Ramnulfid family.


Agnes married King Henry III of Germany in November 1043 at the Imperial Palace Ingelheim. She was his second wife after Gunhilda of Denmark, who had died, possibly from malaria, in 1038. This marriage helped to solidify the Empire's relationships with the princely houses in the west. King Henry was able to improve his position versus the French royal dynasty and to exert his influence in the Duchy of Burgundy. Agnes, like her husband, was of profound piety; her family had founded Cluny Abbey and Abbot Hugh the Great was godfather of her son Henry IV. 


After her husband's death on 5 October 1056, Empress Agnes served as regent on behalf of her young son Henry IV. Henry III had secured the election of his son as King of the Romans on his deathbed. Aided by Abbott Hugh of Cluny and Pope Victor II, also bishop of Eichstätt, Agnes tried to continue her husband's politics and to strengthen the rule of the Salian dynasty. 

Henry IV - Holy Roman Emperor - 1084-1105

Henry IV (German: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the Salian dynasty—and Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the "liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065. 


At the age of six, Henry became sole monarch of the empire. Pope Victor II convinced the German aristocrats to swear fealty to their young king and enthroned him in Aachen. Although Empress Agnes had been planning to enter a nunnery, she was appointed her son's guardian. She was responsible for her son's education along with a royal ministerialis (unfree liegeman), Cuno. She secured the most powerful aristocrats' support through lavish grants. Agnes was reconciled with Godfrey the Bearded and made her late husband's other opponent, Conrad of the Ezzonid family, duke of Carinthia.


He fell unexpectedly ill and died in Liège on 7 August. On his deathbed, he asked his son to pardon his supporters and to have him buried next to his ancestors in Speyer Cathedral.

Henry V - Holy Roman Emperor - 1111-1125

Henry V (German: Heinrich V.; probably 11 August 1081 or 1086 – 23 May 1125) was King of Germany (from 1099 to 1125) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 1111 to 1125), as the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. He was made co-ruler by his father, Henry IV, in 1098. In Emperor Henry IV's conflicts with the imperial princes and the struggle against the reform papacy during the Investiture Controversy, young Henry V allied himself with the opponents of his father. He forced Henry IV to abdicate on 31 December 1105 and ruled for five years in compliance with the imperial princes. He tried, unsuccessfully, to withdraw the regalia from the bishops. Then in order to at least preserve the previous right to invest, he captured Pope Paschal II and forced him to perform his imperial coronation in 1111. Once crowned emperor, Henry departed from joint rule with the princes and resorted to earlier Salian autocratic rule. After he had failed to increase control over the church, the princes in Saxony and on the Middle and Lower Rhine, in 1121 the imperial princes forced Henry V to consent with the papacy. He surrendered to the demands of the second generation of Gregorian reformers, and in 1122 he and Pope Callixtus II ended the Investiture Controversy in the Concordat of Worms.  Henry V was probably born on 11 August in 1081 or 1086. However, only the date of his accolade (Schwertleite) at Easter 1101 can be confirmed. This ceremony usually took place at the age of 15. 


During his last years Henry was occupied with a campaign in Flanders and the succession of the margraviate of Meissen, two disputes in which his opponents were aided by Lothair of Saxony. On 23 May 1125, Henry died of disease in Utrecht.

Lothar III or II - Holy Roman Emperor - 1133-1137

Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg (c. June 1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 before being crowned emperor in Rome. The son of the Saxon count Gebhard of Supplinburg, his reign was troubled by the constant intriguing of the Hohenstaufens, Duke Frederick II of Swabia and Duke Conrad of Franconia. He died while returning from a successful campaign against the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.


Little is known of Lothair's youth. His name first appears in the contemporary records in 1088. His father Gebhard of Supplinburg joined the Saxon rebellion against the ruling Salian dynasty and died on 9 June 1075 in the Battle of Langensalza, fighting troops loyal to emperor Henry IV. Shortly after Gebhard's death Lothair was born at Unterlüß. In 1107 he married Richenza, daughter of Count Henry of Northeim and Gertrude of Brunswick, heiress of the Brunonids.


On the return trip, Lothair gave his son-in-law Henry of Bavaria the Margraviate of Tuscany and the Duchy of Saxony. He also gave him the imperial insignia, which depending on the point of view was interpreted as designation for the new king or not. On December 3, 1137, Lothair died on the return journey at Breitenwang. 

Conrad III - King - 1138-1152

Conrad III (German: Konrad; Italian: Corrado; 1093 or 1094 – 15 February 1152) of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III, and from 1138 until his death in 1152 King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Duke Frederick I of Swabia and Agnes, a daughter of Emperor Henry IV. His reign saw the start of the conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. He was involved in the failed Second Crusade with Louis VII, where he would fight and lose at Doryleum and would later fall ill and return to Constantinople. After recuperating, he went to Jerusalem but would experience a string of failed sieges. Later returning from the Crusade, he was entangled in some conflicts with Welf VI's claim to the Duchy of Bavaria. On his deathbed, he designated his nephew Frederick Barbarossa as his successor instead of his son, Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia. 


The origin of the House of Hohenstaufen in the Duchy of Swabia has not been conclusively established. As the name came from the Hohenstaufen Castle (built in 1105) Conrad's great-grandfather Frederick of Staufen was a count in the Riesgau and in 1053 became Swabian Count palatine. His son Frederick of Buren probably resided near present-day Wäschenbeuren and about 1050 married Countess Hildegard of Egisheim-Dagsburg from Alsace. Conrad left no male heirs by his first wife, Gertrude von Komburg. In 1136, he married Gertrude of Sulzbach, who was a daughter of Berengar II of Sulzbach, and whose sister Bertha was married to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I. Gertrude was the mother of Conrad's children and the link which cemented his alliance with Byzantium.

Frederick I Barbarossa - Holy Roman Emperor - 1155-1190

Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (German: Friedrich I; Italian: Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 1152. He was crowned King of Italy on 24 April 1155 in Pavia and emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155 in Rome. Two years later, the term sacrum ("holy") first appeared in a document in connection with his empire. He was later formally crowned King of Burgundy, at Arles on 30 June 1178. His nickname of Barbarossa (meaning "Red Beard" in Italian) "was first used by the Florentines only in 1298 to differentiate the emperor from his grandson, Frederick II ... and was never employed in medieval Germany" (the colour red was "also associated in the Middle Ages with malice and a hot temper"; in reality, Frederick's hair was "blond", although his beard was described by a contemporary as "reddish"). In German, he was known as Kaiser Rotbart, which in English means "Emperor Redbeard". The prevalence of the Italian nickname, even in later German usage, reflects the centrality of the Italian campaigns under his reign, and "remains to this day one of the [most] powerful historical monikers.


Frederick was by inheritance Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as Frederick III) before his imperial election in 1152. He was the son of Duke Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, from the rival House of Welf. Frederick, therefore, descended from the two leading families in Germany, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's prince-electors. Barbarossa died on the 10 of June 1190, he drowned near Silifke Castle in the Saleph River.

Henry VI - Holy Roman Emperor - 1191-1197

Henry VI (German: Heinrich VI.; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Constance I. 


Henry was the second son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. Well educated in the Latin language, as well as Roman and canon law, Henry was also a patron of poets and a skilled poet himself. In 1186 he married Constance of Sicily. Henry, stuck in the Hohenstaufen conflict with the House of Welf until 1194, had to enforce the inheritance claims by his wife against her nephew Count Tancred of Lecce. Henry's attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Sicily failed at the siege of Naples in 1191 due to an epidemic, with Empress Constance captured. Based on an enormous ransom for the release and submission of King Richard I of England, he conquered Sicily in 1194; however, the intended unification with the Holy Roman Empire ultimately failed due to the opposition of the Papacy. In Sicily, Henry had a reputation for ruthless suppression of political opponents. To this day, he is sometimes given the epithet "the Cruel" (il crudele) by Italian historiographers.


Henry died of malaria at Messina on the 28 September 1197. His death plunged the Empire into the chaos of the German throne dispute for the next 17 years. 

Philip of Swabia - King - 1198-1208

Philip of Swabia (February/March 1177 – 21 June 1208), styled Philip II in his charters, was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Germany from 1198 until his assassination.


The death of Philip's older brother Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1197 meant that the Hohenstaufen rule (which reached as far as the Kingdom of Sicily) collapsed in imperial Italy and created a power vacuum to the north of the Alps. 


Reservations about the kingship of Henry's underage son, Frederick, led to two royal elections in 1198, which resulted in the German throne dispute: the two elected kings, Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick, claimed the throne for themselves. Both opponents tried in the following years through European and papal support, with the help of money and gifts, through demonstrative public appearances and rituals, to decide the conflict for oneself by raising ranks or by military and diplomatic measures. 


Philip was able to increasingly assert his kingship against Otto in the north part of the Alps. However, at the height of his power, he was assassinated in 1208. This ended the dispute for the throne; his opponent Otto quickly found recognition. Philip was the first German king to be murdered during his reign. In posterity, Philip is one of the little-noticed Hohenstaufen rulers. 

Otto IV of Brunswick - Holy Roman Emperor - 1209-1215

Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218. Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 1196. With Richard's support, he was elected King of Germany by one faction in a disputed election in 1198, sparking ten years of civil war. The death of his rival, Philip of Swabia, in 1208 left him sole king of Germany. In 1209, Otto marched to Italy to be crowned emperor by Pope Innocent III. In 1210, he sought to unite the Kingdom of Sicily with the Empire, breaking with Innocent, who excommunicated him. He allied with England against France and participated in the alliance's defeat at Bouvines in 1214. He was abandoned by most of his supporters in 1215 and lived the rest of his life in retirement on his estates near Brunswick. He was the only German king of the Welf dynasty. 


Otto was the third son of Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Duke of Saxony, by his wife Matilda of England. His exact birthplace is not given by any original source. He grew up in England in the care of his maternal grandfather, King Henry II of England. Otto was fluent in French as well as German. He became the foster son of his maternal uncle King Richard I of England. In 1190, after he left England to join the Third Crusade, Richard appointed Otto as Earl of York. This grant's authenticity (or authority) was doubted by the vassals of Yorkshire, who prevented Otto from taking possession of his earldom. Still, he probably visited Yorkshire in 1191, and he continued to claim the revenues of the earldom after becoming king of Germany, although he never secured them. Neither did he succeed in getting the 25,000 silver marks willed to him by his uncle in 1199.

Frederick II - Holy Roman Emperor - 1211-1250

Frederick II (Italian: Federico, Sicilian: Fidiricu, German: Friedrich, Latin: Fridericus; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI of the Hohenstaufen dynasty (the second son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa) and Queen Constance I of Sicily of the Hauteville dynasty. Frederick was one of the most powerful figures of the Middle Ages and ruled a vast area, beginning with Sicily and stretching through Italy all the way north to Germany. Viewing himself as a direct successor to the Roman emperors of antiquity, he was Emperor of the Romans from his papal coronation in 1220 until his death; he was also a claimant to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, and of Burgundy. At the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as co-ruler with his mother, Constance, Queen of Sicily, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage and his connection with the Sixth Crusade. Frequently at war with the papacy, which was hemmed in between Frederick's lands in northern Italy and his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south, he was "excommunicated four times between 1227 and his own death in 1250", and was often vilified in pro-papal chronicles of the time and after. Pope Innocent IV went so far as to declare him preambulus Antichristi (forerunner of the Antichrist). Though still in a strong position at his death in 1250, Frederick's line did not long survive, and the House of Hohenstaufen came to an end. His complex political and cultural legacy has attracted fierce debates and fascination until this day. 

William of Holland - 1247-1256 - Rival

William II (February 1227 – 28 January 1256) was the Count of Holland and Zeeland from 1234 until his death. He was elected anti-king of Germany in 1248 and ruled as sole king from 1254 onwards. William was the eldest son and heir of Count Floris IV of Holland and Matilda of Brabant. When his father was killed at a tournament at Corbie, William was only seven years old. His paternal uncles William and Otto, bishop of Utrecht, were his guardians until 1239. With the help of his maternal uncle Duke Henry II of Brabant and the Cologne archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden, William was elected king of Germany after Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV. He succeeded Landgrave Henry Raspe of Thuringia who had died within a year after his election as anti-king in 1246. 


William married Elisabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg, daughter of Otto the Child, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, in 1252. They had a son, Floris V (1254 – 1296). 


In battle near Hoogwoud on 28 January 1256, William tried to traverse a frozen lake by himself, because he was lost, but his horse fell through the ice. In this vulnerable position, William was killed by the Frisians, who secretly buried him under the floor of a house. His body was recovered 26 years later by his son Floris V, who took terrible vengeance on the West-Frisians. William was then buried in Middelburg. Contemporary sources, including the chronicle of Melis Stoke, portray William as an Arthurian hero. A golden statue of William can be found on the Binnenhof in The Hague, the inner court of the parliamentary complex of the Netherlands. 

Conrad IV - 1250-1254

Conrad (25 April 1228 – 21 May 1254), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was the only son of Emperor Frederick II from his second marriage with Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem. He inherited the title of King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II) upon the death of his mother in childbed. 


Appointed Duke of Swabia in 1235, his father had him elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) and crowned King of Italy (as Conrad IV) in 1237. After the emperor was deposed and died in 1250, he ruled as King of Sicily (Conrad I) until his death. 


He was the second child, but only surviving son of Emperor Frederick II and Isabella II (Yolanda), the queen regnant of Jerusalem. Born in Andria, in the South Italian Kingdom of Sicily, his mother died shortly after giving birth to him and he succeeded her as monarch of the Crusader state of Jerusalem. By his father, Conrad was the grandson of the Hohenstaufen emperor Henry VI and great-grandson of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. 


In 1235, Conrad was betrothed to a daughter of Duke Otto II of Bavaria. She died before the marriage could take place, but Conrad later married her sister. 


Conrad's death in 1254 began the Interregnum, during which no single ruler managed to gain undisputed control of Germany. 

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