Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor
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Lothair III | |
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King of Germany and Italy | |
Reign | 1125–1137 |
Coronation | 13 September 1125, Aachen (Germany) |
Predecessor | Henry V |
Successor | Conrad III |
Born | before 9 June 1075 Lutterloh, Duchy of Saxony |
Died | 4 December 1137 Breitenwang, Tyrol, Duchy of Bavaria | (aged 62)
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Issue | Gertrude, Duchess of Bavaria |
House | Supplinburg |
Father | Gebhard of Supplinburg |
Mother | Hedwig of Formbach |
Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II
Rise to power
In 1013, a certain Saxon nobleman named Liutger was mentioned as a count in or of the
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.[7] In 1107 he married Richenza, daughter of Count Henry of Northeim and Gertrude of Brunswick, heiress of the Brunonids.[8][9]
Lothair's land purchases, inheritance and marriage alliances among the Saxon nobles, resulted in the acquisition of the domains of the
Reign
Upon Emperor Henry V's death in 1125, Archchancellor
Duke Vladislaus I of Bohemia died in 1125. The succession was disputed among his surviving brother Soběslav I and his Moravian cousin Otto the Black, who was supported by Vladislaus' widow Richeza of Berg. In late 1125 Lothair joined Otto's side, who had advanced large sums of money.[17]
A military campaign against Soběslav was launched and in February 1126 Lothair's force entered Bohemian territory and was promptly defeated at the
Dispute with the Staufers
Having both Saxon and Bavarian ancestry, the Supplinburg dynasty was a political opponent of the
After Lothair's 1127 campaign against the Staufers had collapsed at the gates of Nuremberg, the Swabians and the Franconians declared Frederick's younger brother Conrad
Lastly Lothair, in order to prevent the loss of Burgundy to a power hostile to the empire, appointed his loyal ally Conrad I, Duke of Zähringen as Rector of the Principatus Burgundiaey.[22]
Domestic policies in the Northeast
Emperor Lothar's policies and actions in the northern and eastern estates of the kingdom would have the longest-lasting impacts. As a Saxon by birth, he was certainly more focused on that region than previous and future monarchs. He already pursued active territorial policies before his royal tenure as early as 1111, when he installed count Adolf of Schauenburg in Holstein and Stormarn. In an act of royal consolidation policy Lothair established the Landgraviate of Thuringia, that encompassed the remaining and predominantly non-contiguous estates of the ill-fated former
In 1134 Lothar appointed the Ascanian
Relations with the Papacy
The
Both popes offered Lothair the imperial crown. The king was occupied with the Staufer resistance and once again it was Bernard of Clairvaux who convinced the sovereign to favor pope Innocent II.[27] In March 1131 these three met in Liège, where Lothair performed the ceremonial strator service (stirrup holder) for the pope and promised help in the conflict against Anacletus and Roger II of Sicily.[28] His request for investiture restoration was rejected, but all rights and privileges as laid out in the Concordat of Worms were confirmed.[14][failed verification] Innocent II crowned Lothair King of the Romans again on 29 March 1131.[29]
Lothair was accompanied by a modest troop contingent as most men were garrisoned in Germany to counter Staufer aggression. He carefully avoided hostilities but attempted to besiege Milan, which, however, failed.
Campaign against Sicily
In the northern empire Lothair finally succeeded and defeated the Staufers in 1135 thanks to the help of Henry the Proud, who had been the Duke of Bavaria since the death of his father, Henry the Black.[31] At the Reichstag in Bamberg in 1135 the brothers were pardoned and restored to their office and estates. Anti-king Conrad renounced his royal title,[32] The Staufers promised to take part in the Emperor's second Italian campaign, before a ten-year constitutio pacis was declared.[17] Lothair, now uncontested ruler, set out in 1136 with a sizeable army. The campaign proved to be successful and indeed, Roger II of Sicily soon sought peace. In 1136 the campaign against Roger began at the insistence of Innocent II and Byzantine Emperor
The imperial troops, however, were adamant against campaigning during the hot summer and revolted. The emperor, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, instead captured
When Lothair and Innocent II argued over feudal sovereignty of the Duchy of Puglia and tensions among his troops arose, he abandoned the campaign and returned home.
Death
On the return trip, he 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
Issue
The Süpplingenburg dynasty was only short-lived. By his wife, Richenza of Northeim, Lothair had only one surviving child, a daughter Gertrude, born 18 April 1115. To secure Welf support for his election as king, Lothair married Gertrude to Henry X, Duke of Bavaria, on 29 May 1127.[39] Their only son was Henry the Lion.[39]
After Lothair's death in 1137, the Hohenstaufen Conrad was elected King as Conrad III. Henry the Proud, Lothair’s son-in-law and heir, refused to acknowledge the new king. In response, Conrad III deprived him of all his territories.
Ancestry
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See also
Notes
- Lothair II of Lotharingia, most of whose kingdom became a part of Germany.[1] Other sources number him "Lothair III" because he was the third Lothair to rule Italy after King Lothair II of Italy[2] (both "Lothair II" are numbered after Emperor Lothair I). Lothair occasionally called himself "the third" in his diplomas (Lotharius tertius), and was the first German ruler to abandon any distinction in numbering between his rule as king and his rule as emperor, a practice continued by his successor.[3]
References
- ^ Detwiler, Donald S. Germany: A Short History (1999), p. 263
- , Rome, 78–81.
- ^ John B. Freed (2016), Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth, Yale University Press, p. 56; see, e.g., this diploma of 20 November 1125.
- ISBN 978-3-8370-3874-3.
- ^ a b Wilhelm Bernhardi (1879). Lothar von Supplinburg. Leipzig 1879. Duncker & Humblot. pp. 14–.
- ISBN 978-3-205-77647-5.
- ^ Pavlac, pg. 470
- ^ Fuhrmann 1995, p. 99.
- ^ Philipp Jaffé (1843). Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches unter Lothar dem Sachsen: Eine ... gekrönte Preisschrift. Veit. pp. 4–.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-8324-8385-2.
- ^ Comyn, pg. 181
- ^ Martina Halm. "Studien zum Hof Heinrichs V." (PDF). Uni Bonn. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
- ^ Comyn, pg. 189
- ^ a b c d Bryce, pg. xxxix
- ^ Bryce, pg. 238
- ^ Jürgen Dendorfer (January 2005). "Fidi milites? Die Staufer und Kaiser Heinrich V." Academia. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-8460-0849-2.
- ^ Joanna Sobiesiak. "The battle of Chlumec and its political implications for the relations between Lothair III and prince Sobieslav I". Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ISBN 978-90-04-16657-8.
- ^ a b c Comyn, pg. 191
- ISBN 978-3-406-70452-9.
- ^ Werner Meyer. "ODas grosse Burgenbuch der Schweiz". NLA. Retrieved February 17, 2020.
- ISBN 978-3-631-61024-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-6784-4.
- ISBN 978-3-89794-163-2.
- ISBN 978-0-86012-086-5.
- ^ a b c Comyn, pg. 192
- ^ Bryce, pg. 166
- ^ Mann, Horace (1914). Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages, Vol. IX: 1130-1159, pg. 23
- ^ Sismondi, J. C. L., History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages, pg. 51
- ^ a b Comyn, pg. 193
- ^ Charles Frederick Partington, The British Cyclopædia of Biography (1837), pg. 974
- ISBN 978-1-135-94880-1.
- ISBN 978-0-521-65573-6.
- ^ a b Comyn, pg. 194
- ^ Philip Grierson, Mark A. S. Blackburn and Lucia Travaini, Medieval European Coinage. Vol. 14: Italy (III) (South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia) (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 125–26. There are two types of coins, as the traditional date for "renovating" the coinage (29 September, Michaelmas) fell during the occupation.
- ^ J. L. Bada, B. Herrmann, I. L. Payan and E. H. Man (1989), "Amino acid racemization in bone and the boiling of the German Emperor Lothar I", Applied Geochemistry 4: 325–27.
- ^ Bryce, pg. xl
- ^ a b Comyn, pg. 190
Sources
- Hampe, Karl (1973). Germany under the Salian and Hohenstaufen Emperors. ISBN 0631141804.
- Bryce, James(1913). The Holy Roman Empire. London: MacMillan.
- Fuhrmann, Horst (1995). Germany in the High Middle Ages: C.1050-1200. Translated by Reuter, Timothy. Cambridge University Press.
- Comyn, Robert (1851). History of the Western Empire from its Restoration by Charlemagne to the Accession of Charles V. Vol. 1.
- Pavlac, Brian A. (2001). "Lothar III (1075–1137)". In Jeep, John M. (ed.). Medieval Germany. Routledge. pp. 470–71.
External links
- King Lothar's seal in high quality resolution taken from the collections of the Lichtbildarchiv älterer Originalurkunden