Conrad II
Conrad II founded the Salian dynasty and made the German crown hereditary in it for a century. Born around 990, he was a minor Franconian count descended from Otto the Great through the female line, with a modest inheritance and a disputed one at that. His father died young and he was raised by the Bishop of Worms. Henry II died childless in 1024, ending the Ottonian line, and the princes assembled at Kamba on the Rhine. The two leading candidates were Conrad and his cousin, also named Conrad. The elder was chosen, and the account by his chaplain Wipo is the earliest detailed description of a German royal election. He was crowned at Mainz within days and travelled the kingdom taking submissions. His central principle was that the state outlasts its officeholder. Wipo records him telling the citizens of Pavia, who had destroyed the royal palace on hearing of Henry's death and argued they had wronged no king, that though the king had died the kingdom remained, as a ship remains when its steersman falls. He made the fiefs of lesser vassals in Italy hereditary by the Constitutio de feudis in 1037, over the objections of the great magnates, which bound a whole class of small landholders to the crown. He acquired the Kingdom of Burgundy by inheritance in 1033, giving the empire its third crown and the Alpine passes. He began Speyer cathedral, where he is buried. He died in 1039, and his son Henry III succeeded without dispute.
- Lived: 990 CE – 1039 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
