Conrad of Franconia
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Conrad I (or Konrad), duke of Franconia, was king of the East Franconian Kingdom from 911 to 918, the first and only king of the Conradine (Franconian) dynasty.
Conrad was born about 890, son of Conrad, Duke of the Franks and Glismut, daughter of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia. The Conradines, counts in the Lahn region, and the Babenbergs, counts in the Main area, competed vigorously for predominance in Franconia. In 906, they battled each other near Fritzlar. Conrad the Elder was killed, as were two of the three Babenberg brothers; the third was executed shortly thereafter, despite a promise of safe conduct by archbishop Hatto I. of Mainz, the Kingdom's chancellor. Conrad the Younger became Duke of Franconia after this.
Conrad married the Swabian Countess Kunigunde Alaholfing, mother of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria, in 913, and had two children with her (Kunigunde of Germany and Hermann Duke of Franconia, both born in 913).
Conrad was elected King of the East Frankish Kingdom on November 10, 911, at Forchheim after the death of his uncle, the last East Frankish Carolingian, Louis the Child.
His reign was a constant and generally unsuccessful struggle to uphold the power of the kingship against the growing power of the dukes of Saxony, Bavaria and Swabia. His military campaigns were failures, and his attempt to mobilize the bishops to his cause at the synod of Hohenaltheim (916) was not enough to compensate. Conrad died on December 23, 918.
On his deathbed, he persuaded his brother Eberhard to offer the crown to Henry the Fowler (Henry I), duke of Saxony and one of his principal opponents, since he considered Henry to be the only prince capable of holding the Kingdom together in the face of internal rivalries among the dukes and the continuous raids of the Hungarians. Eberhard and the other Frankish nobles accepted Conrad's advice and Henry was elected king at the Reichstag of 919 in Fritzlar.
Conrad's brother Eberhard of Franconia became duke after Conrad's death. He was killed in 939 at the Battle of Andernach during his rebellion against Emperor Otto I, and the duchy of Franconia became a direct Imperial possession from 939 to 1024.
| Preceded by: Louis IV | King of Germany | Succeeded by: Henry I |
nl:Koenraad I van Frankenland pl:Konrad I (król niemiecki) sv:Konrad I