Conrad IV of Germany

Conrad of Swabia
King of Germany (formally King of the Romans)
Reign	May 1237 – 21 May 1254
Predecessor	Henry (VII)
Successor	William
King of Sicily
Reign	13 December 1250 – 21 May 1254
Predecessor	Frederick I
Successor	Conrad II
King of Jerusalem
Reign	25 April 1228 – 21 May 1254
Predecessor	Isabella II and Frederick I
Successor	Conrad III
Duke of Swabia
Reign	12 February 1235 – 21 May 1254
Predecessor	Henry
Successor	Conrad IV
Born	25 April 1228 Andria, Kingdom of Sicily
Died	21 May 1254 (aged 26) Lavello, Basilicata
Burial	Messina Cathedral
Spouse	Elisabeth of Bavaria
Issue	Conradin
House	Hohenstaufen
Father	Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Isabella II of Jerusalem
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Conrad (25 April 1228 – 21 May 1254) of Hohenstaufen was Duke of Swabia (1235–1246), King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II; 1228–1254), King of Germany (as Conrad IV; 1237–1254), King of Italy and of King of Sicily (as Conrad I; 1250–1254).

Biography

He was the second 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 while 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. He lived in Southern Italy until 1235, when he first visited the Kingdom of Germany. During this period his kingdom of Jerusalem, ruled by his father as regent through proxies, was racked by the civil War of the Lombards until Conrad declared his majority and his father's regency lost its validity.

When Emperor Frederick II deposed his eldest son, Conrad's rebellious half-brother King Henry (VII), Conrad succeeded him as Duke of Swabia in 1235. However, the emperor was not able to have him elected King of the Romans until the 1237 Imperial Diet in Vienna. This title, though not acknowledged by Pope Gregory IX, presumed his future as a Holy Roman Emperor. Prince-Archbishop Siegfried III of Mainz, in his capacitiy as German archchancellor, acted as regent for the minor until 1242, when Frederick chose Landgrave Henry Raspe of Thuringia, and King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia to assume this function. Conrad intervened directly in German politics from around 1240.

However, when Pope Innocent IV imposed a papal ban on Frederick in 1245 and declared Conrad deposed, Henry Raspe supported the pope and was in turn elected as anti-king of Germany on 22 May 1246. Henry Raspe defeated Conrad in the battle of Nidda in August 1246, but died several months later. He was succeeded as anti-king by William of Holland.

Also in 1246, Conrad married Elisabeth of Bavaria, a daughter of Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria. They had a son

• Conradin, in 1252.

In 1250 Conrad settled momentarily the situation in Germany by defeating William of Holland and his Rhenish allies.

When Frederick II died in the same year, he passed Sicily and Germany, as well as the title of Jerusalem, to Conrad, but the struggle with the pope continued. Having been defeated by William in 1251, Conrad decided to invade Italy, hoping to regain the rich dominions of his father, and where his brother Manfred acted as vicar. In January 1252 he invaded Apulia with a Venetian fleet and successfully managed to restrain Manfred and to exercise control of the country. In October 1253 his troops conquered Naples.

Conrad was however not able to subdue the pope's supporters, and the pope in turn offered Sicily to Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England (1253). Conrad was excommunicated in 1254 and died of malaria in the same year at Lavello in Basilicata.^[1] Manfred first, and later Conrad's son Conradin, continued the struggle with the Papacy, although unsuccessfully.

Conrad's widow Elisabeth remarried to Meinhard II, Count of Tirol, who in 1286 became Duke of Carinthia.

Conrad's death in 1254 began the Interregnum, during which no ruler managed to gain undisputed control of Germany and no one was crowned Emperor. The Interregnum ended in 1273, with the election of Rudolph of Habsburg as King of the Romans.^[2]

Ancestors

Ancestors of Conrad IV of Germany

16. Frederick II, Duke of Swabia               8. Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor                       17. Judith of Bavaria               4. Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor                             18. Renaud III, Count of Burgundy               9. Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy                       19. Agatha of Lorraine               2. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily and Jerusalem                                   20. Roger I, King of Sicily               10. Roger II, King of Sicily                       21. Adelaide del Vasto               5. Constance, Queen of Sicily                             22. Ithier, Count of Rethel               11. Beatrice of Rethel                       23. Beatrice of Namur               1. Conrad of Swabia, King of Germany, Sicily and Jerusalem                                         24. Gautier II, Count of Brienne               12. Erard II, Count of Brienne                       25. Adele of Soissons               6. John I, King of Jerusalem                             26. Amadeus II, Count of Montbéliard               13. Agnes of Montfaucon                       27. Beatrice of Grandson-Joinville               3. Isabella II, Queen of Jerusalem                                   28. William V, Marquess of Montferrat               14. Conrad I, King of Jerusalem                       29. Judith of Austria               7. Mary, Queen of Jerusalem                             30. Amalric I, King of Jerusalem               15. Isabella I, Queen of Jerusalem                       31. Maria Komnene

See also

• Kings of Germany family tree. He was related to every other king of Germany.

References

1. Conrad IV, Daniel R. Sodders, Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, Vol. I, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz, (Routledge, 2004), 510.
2. Judith Bennet and Clive Hollister, Medieval Europe, a Short History. p. 260.