The princes, in fact, under the influence of Adalbert archbishop of Mainz, the tenacious opponent of Henry V, did not want to give the throne to the one among them, who, as a relative of the deceased emperor and designated by him, before dying, as successor, he could revive the inheritance of the monarchy, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, whose mother Agnes was the sister of Henry V. They also feared his virile age, energy, power, founded on the Duchy of Swabia, on eastern Franconia, where his brother Corrado had had from Henry V (1115) the exercise of the ducal powers, on the possessions already of the Franconian emperors, especially in the region of the upper Rhine. The diet of Mainz preferred him the leader of the feudal revolution against the dynasty Franconian: Count Lothair of Supplimburg (30 August 1125). The Swabian reacted, especially since the marriage of Geltrude, daughter of Lothair, with the Guelph Henry the Superb, Duke of Bavaria (29 May 1127), intervened to upset the balance of the ducal forces to his detriment, as they prepared the union of Bavaria with Saxony, where, in the territory of Lüneburg, Henry already had the goods that had come to him from the Billungs through women. Thus began the famous duel between the Guelphs and Hohenstaufen, which until the middle of the century would again reduce Germany to a field of bloody struggles. For the Hohenstaufen the Danubian and Rhenish cities, such as Nuremberg, Ulm, Worms, Speyer also fought with skill, but the anti-episcopal character assumed by this municipal movement pushed the German episcopate on the side of Lothair. Corrado, Federico’s brother, he was elected king by the lords of Swabia and Franconia (18 December 1127); but the weight of the combined Saxon and Bavarian forces prevailed. Frederick was the first to surrender, and the Bamberg diet (March 1135) was able to proclaim a ten-year peace for all of Germany; in the autumn Corrado also folded. The two brothers, however, kept their dominions: Lothair, engaged outside Germany in the political-religious contrasts of Italy, could not push the fight against the power of the princes deeper. Moreover, he had not lacked the contrasts in his own duchy, however repressed with considerable energy and skill, as he showed by removing the Marca of the East (1131) from Albert the Bear of Ballenstedt, and then investing it with the Marca of the North (1134), for the help received in the countryside of Italy. In the east, the situation of the Slavic countries with respect to German influence had a significant improvement. Bohemia, despite an unfortunate campaign by Lothair at the beginning of his reign (1126), confirmed its dependence on the Empire; in Poland Duke Boleslaus III bent to recognize again the high German sovereignty, and the character of the empire as a fief to his conquests in Pomerania; both countries wanted Lothair to be the arbiter of the disputes that arose between them for the opposite side in the internal struggles of Hungary (1135). To the north-east, there was a resumption of German expansion and Christian propaganda in the lands of the Vendas, thanks to Lothair, who however acted as a territorial prince of Saxony, rather than as an emperor. The regions of the Vagrîs and the Abodites, after the death (1131) of the Danish prince Canute, who had had them as a fief from Lothair, they were divided between two vendi princes, Pissionilavo and Niclot, who paid homage to the sovereign who had come in arms beyond Elba, and were seen to be built, for by his order, a fortress (1134) on the banks of the Trave, Segeberg, garrisoned by the Saxons, in control of the Slavs and protection of the missionaries. In the north, the internal wars that stirred Denmark for the succession to the throne affected the German colonists of Roskilde, but the victor, Erico II, recognized himself as a vassal of Lothair (1135), who had already led an expedition to the Eider (1131), without however committing himself fully, for the usual needs of Italian politics. And in Italy, without worrying about the causes of the struggle that still harbored under the guise of peace in Germany, Lothair spent the last two years of his reign. The fire broke out again immediately after his death (4 December 1137).
As in the choice of Lothair, the princes were inspired by the only thought of preventing the reestablishment of a dynasty of kings, therefore they took care to discard the successor, whom Lothair had designated, and who was both the son-in-law of the deceased and the more powerful than their class. In fact, Henry the Superb now united to the Duchy of Bavaria that of Saxony, and the private patrimony that had come to him from Lothair; moreover, the Guelph family also had assets in Bavaria, and the recent agreement (1133) of the father-in-law with the pope had ensured him the substantial possessions of Matilda in Italy. The diet of Koblenz, to balance this force, which, even without a throne, seemed too threatening, was fixed (March 7, 1138) on one of the members of the enemy family of the Guelphs, Conrad of Hohenstaufen, who was immediately consecrated king in Aachen. Saxony and Bavaria revolted. Conrad III invested with the first the Margrave of the Northern March, Alberto the Bear, but he could not overcome the obstinate resistance of the Saxons; Bavaria was transferred to the king’s half-brother, Leopoldo di Babenberg, Margrave of Austria, who gained ground there. While the fight was raging, it would be played for the first time, according to a late tradition of the beginning of the century. XV, at the siege of the Guelph fortress of Weinsberg (1140), the war cry of the two factions, “Hye Welff!”, “Hye Giebelingen!”, Which would have given the name to the parties from which Germany and Italy were tormented for centuries. The fight did not stop even at the premature death of Henry the Superb (20 October 1139), and even the peace proclaimed on the Diet of Bamberg (May 1142) was in reality a mere truce. Henry the Lion, son of the Superb, was able to keep Saxony, while Bavaria remained in the Babenbergs of Austria, in the person of the brother of Margrave Leopoldo (who died on 14 October 1141), Enrico Jasomirgott, who also, by marrying the widow of the Superb, Geltrude, was to seal the conciliation with the enemy family. In reality, Henry the Lion and his uncle Guelph VI did not resign themselves to the loss of Bavaria. The uncertain situation of Germany did not prevent Conrad III from being absent from 1147 to 1149 to participate in the second crusade. He had just returned, when the war reared (1150): the emperor did not see the end of it since he died on February 15, 1152. The very serious crisis in which Germany was struggling had meanwhile had harmful repercussions on German influence in neighboring countries, where the intervention of the emperor, continually required as arbiter in the incessant internal wars, or was lacking, as in Denmark, with respect to which, in the absence of an action on the part of the central power, that of the Duke of Saxony was affirmed; or it was ineffective, as in Poland (1146). Only in Bohemia did it have concrete results (1142). NE. not the emperor, but the local lords saved the border from a dangerous Vend revolt. And in the West, the monarchy was powerless to stem the feudal disintegration of Burgundy and Lorraine. continually required as arbiter in the incessant internal wars, or lacking, as in Denmark, with respect to which, in the absence of an action by the central power, that of the Duke of Saxony was affirmed; or it was ineffective, as in Poland (1146). Only in Bohemia did it have concrete results (1142). NE. not the emperor, but the local lords saved the border from a dangerous Vend revolt. And in the West, the monarchy was powerless to stem the feudal disintegration of Burgundy and Lorraine. continually required as arbiter in the incessant internal wars, or lacking, as in Denmark, with respect to which, in the absence of an action by the central power, that of the Duke of Saxony was affirmed; or it was ineffective, as in Poland (1146). Only in Bohemia did it have concrete results (1142). NE. not the emperor, but the local lords saved the border from a dangerous Vend revolt. And in the West, the monarchy was powerless to stem the feudal disintegration of Burgundy and Lorraine. emperor, but the local lords saved the border from a dangerous Vend revolt. And in the West, the monarchy was powerless to stem the feudal disintegration of Burgundy and Lorraine. emperor, but the local lords saved the border from a dangerous Vend revolt. And in the West, the monarchy was powerless to stem the feudal disintegration of Burgundy and Lorraine.
