Salian dynasty
Salians Salier Reges salici | |
---|---|
Roman Catholicism | |
Dissolution | 1125 |
The Salian dynasty or Salic dynasty (
After the death of the last
Origins and name
Modern historians suppose that the Salians descended from the
Wipo of Burgundy, the biographer of the first Salian monarch, Emperor Conrad II, described Conrad's father and uncle as "distinguished noble lords from Rhenish Franconia" around 1044, but without calling them Salians. Wipo added that Conrad's mother, Adelaide of Metz, was "supposedly descended from the ancient royal house of Troy". The statement made a connection between Conrad and the royal Merovingians who had claimed a Trojan ancestry for themselves.[3]
Historian Stefan Weinfurter proposes that the putative relationship between the Salians and the Merovingians gave rise to the family name, because the Salian Franks had been the most renowned Frankish group. Their memory was preserved through a Frankish law code, known as the Salic law.[3] Peter H. Wilson states the Salians received their name due to their origins amongst the Franks living along the Rhine in western Franconia, a region “distinguished through its use of Salic law”.[4] A less likely etymology links the appellation to the old German word sal ("lordship"), proposing that the name can be traced to the Salian monarchs' well-documented inclination towards hierarchical structures.[3]
The term reges salici (or Salian kings) was most probably coined early in the 12th century.[5] A list of monarchs and archbishops from Mainz, which was completed around 1139–40, is the first extant document to contain it. Bishop Otto of Freising, a maternal descendant of the Salian monarchs, also used the term in his Chronicle or History of the Two Cities in the middle of the 12th century.[6] In a narrow sense, only the four German monarchs who ruled from 1024 to 1125 could be called Salians, but the same appellation has already been expanded to their ancestors by modern historians.[5] An earlier name of the family, appearing in 982, was the Wormsers, due to their main holdings being in the Diocese of Worms.[4]
All male members of the family who were destined to a secular career were named Conrad or Henry. Emperor Conrad II's grandfather, Otto of Worms, established this tradition in the late 10th century. He named his eldest son, Henry of Worms, after his maternal great-grandfather, King Henry the Fowler; and he gave the name of his father, Conrad the Red, to one of his younger sons, Conrad of Carinthia. Conrad the Red was most probably named for King Conrad I of Germany.[7]
Early Salians
Early Salians | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Werner
Count Werner, who held estates in the Nahegau, Speyergau and Wormsgau early in the 10th century, is the Salian monarchs' first certainly identified ancestor. His family links to the Widonids cannot be securely established, but his patrimonial lands and his close relationship with the Hornbach Abbey provide indirect evidence of his Widonid ancestry. He married a kinswoman, most probably a sister, of King Conrad I of Germany. This marriage alliance with the Conradines introduced Conrad as a leading name in his family.[8]
Conrad the Red
Werner's son, Conrad the Red, inherited his father Franconian estates. His family links with the Conradines facilitated his acquisition of large portions of their domains after King
The marriage forged a link between the royal
Otto of Worms
Conrad the Red's son, Otto of Worms, found favour with his maternal grandfather, King Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor from 962. Still a minor, Otto of Worms was mentioned as a count in the
Otto I's son and successor, Emperor
He could also preserve the title of duke, thus becoming the first duke to bear the title without ruling a duchy in Germany. Otto was the cousin of Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, thus he had a strong claim to the throne after the Emperor's death, but he concluded an agreement with the Ottonian candidate, Henry of Bavaria in 1002. Henry restored Carinthia to Otto in 1002 and he ruled the duchy until his death in 1004.[11][12]
Dukes and bishops
Salian dukes and bishops | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Henry of Worms
Henry was Otto of Worms's eldest son. His wife, Adelaide, was born into a prominent Lotharingian family, being the daughter of Richard, Count of Metz. Their son, Conrad, would be the first Salian monarch, but Henry could not transfer his seniority rights to his son, because he predeceased his father most probably in 990 or 991.[13][14]
Conrad of Carinthia
After Henry of Worms' premature death, his seniority rights shifted to his younger brother, Conrad, enabling him to inherit the major part of the patrimonial lands from his father.[15] Conrad married Matilda, a daughter of Herman II, Duke of Swabia, most probably in 1002. Two years later, he succeeded his father as Duke of Carinthia—the duchy passed from father to son for the first time on this occasion. His rule in Carinthia is poorly documented and he died in 1011.[16]
Pope Gregory V
Bruno—the future Pope Gregory V—was a younger son of Otto of Worms.[14] His father's cousin, Otto III, placed him on the papal throne in 996, ignoring the provisions of his own Diploma Ottonianum on papal elections. Bruno, who was the first German pope, assumed his papal name in memory of Pope Gregory the Great. He crowned Otto III emperor on the Feast of the Ascension in the same year. The Roman aristocrat Crescentius the Younger expelled him from Rome, but the Emperor crushed the revolt and restored the papal throne to Gregory V. The Pope died at the age of twenty-six or twenty-seven in 999.[17][18]
William of Strasbourg
William was Otto of Worms' youngest son. After serving in the royal court as archchaplain to Queen
Conrad the Younger
Conrad, the elder son of Duke Conrad I of Carinthia and Matilda of Swabia, was born between 1002 and 1005. He was underage when his father died in 1011. He inherited his father's patrimonial lands, but Emperor Henry II made Adalbero of Eppelstein the new duke of Carinthia.[20][21] After Emperor Henry II died in 1024, both Conrad and his cousin, Conrad the Elder, laid claim to the throne and Conrad the Elder was elected the new monarch.[22]
Imperial Salians
Conrad II
Conrad the Elder was the sole son of Henry of Worms. After his father's premature death, he was placed under the guardianship of Bishop Burchard of Worms. He married Gisela of Swabia in 1016.[23] Both her father Herman II, Duke of Swabia and her mother Gerberga of Burgundy descended from Charlemagne. She was twice widowed. Gisela's first husband Brun I, Count of Brunswick had been a candidate to the imperial throne along with her father and the winning Henry II. Her second husband Ernest succeeded her childless brother Herman III as duke of Swabia.[24]
Conrad the Elder was elected king of Germany against his cousin Conrad the Younger on 4th September 1024. Four days later, he was crowned in the
After crushing a revolt by his stepson Ernest II, Duke of Swabia and Conrad the Younger in Germany, Conrad marched to Italy. He was crowned king of the Lombards in Milan by Archbishop Aribert probably on 25th March 1026. Resistance against his rule was quickly crushed. He reached Rome where he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XIX on 26th March 1027.[27][28]
Imperial Salians | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Salian monarchy
After the death of the last Saxon Emperor
Already in 1028 Conrad II had his son
The early Salians owed much of their success to their alliance with the Church, a policy begun by Otto I, which gave them the material support they needed to subdue rebellious dukes.[1] In time, however, the Church came to regret this close relationship.[1] The alliance broke down in 1075 during what came to be known as the Investiture Controversy (or Investiture Dispute), a struggle in which the reformist Pope, Gregory VII, demanded that Emperor Henry IV renounce his rights over the Church in Germany.[1] The pope also attacked the concept of monarchy by divine right and gained the support of significant elements of the German nobility interested in limiting imperial absolutism.[1]
More importantly, the pope forbade ecclesiastical officials under pain of excommunication from supporting Henry as they had so freely done in the past.[1] In the end, Henry IV journeyed to Canossa in northern Italy in 1077 to do penance and to receive absolution from the pope.[1] However, he resumed the practice of lay investiture (appointment of religious officials by civil authorities) and arranged the election of an antipope (Antipope Clement III) in 1080.[1]
The monarch's struggle with the papacy resulted in a war that ravaged through the Holy Roman Empire from 1077 until the
Imperial control of Italy was lost for a time, and the imperial crown became dependent on the political support of competing aristocratic factions.[1] Feudalism became more widespread as freemen sought protection by swearing allegiance to a lord.[1] These powerful local rulers, having thereby acquired extensive territories and large military retinues, took over administration within their territories and organized it around an increasing number of castles.[1] The most powerful of these local rulers came to be called princes rather than dukes.[1]
According to the laws of the feudal system of the Holy Roman Empire, the king had no claims on the vassals of other princes, only on those living within his family's territory.[1] Lacking the support of the formerly independent vassals and weakened by the increasing hostility of the Church, the monarchy lost its pre-eminence.[1] Thus the Investiture Contest strengthened local power in the Holy Roman Empire – in contrast to the trend in France and England, where centralized royal power grew.[1] The Investiture Contest had an additional effect.[1] The long struggle between emperor and pope hurt the Holy Roman Empire's intellectual life, in this period largely confined to monasteries, and the empire no longer led or even kept pace with developments occurring in France and Italy.[1] For instance, no universities were founded in the Holy Roman Empire until the fourteenth century.[1]
The first
Salian Kings and Emperors
- Conrad II 1024–1039, crowned emperor on 26 March 1027
- Henry III 1039–1056, crowned emperor on 25 December 1046
- Henry IV 1056–1106, crowned emperor on 31 March 1084
- Conrad (III) 1087–1098, nominal king under his father Henry IV
- Henry V 1106–1125, crowned emperor on 13 April 1111
Their regnal dates as emperor take into account elections and subsequent coronations.
See also
- The Salian Law
Footnotes
- ^ .
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, pp. 7–9.
- ^ a b c Weinfurter 1999, pp. 5–6.
- ^ a b Wilson 2016, p. 247.
- ^ a b Weinfurter 1999, p. 5.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, p. 15.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, p. 323.
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, p. 9.
- ^ a b Weinfurter 1999, pp. 6, 9.
- ^ a b Wolfram 2006, pp. 18, 361 (note 22).
- ^ a b c Weinfurter 1999, pp. 11, 14, 184, 190 (notes 10 and 12).
- ^ a b c Wolfram 2006, pp. 18–19, 23, 361 (note 20).
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, p. 14.
- ^ a b Wolfram 2006, p. 18.
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, pp. 14, 20.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, pp. 23–25, 363 (note 59).
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, p. 190 (note 1).
- ^ Schutz 2010, pp. 84, 88.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, pp. 18, 272–273.
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, p. 20.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, pp. 25, 363 (note 59).
- ^ Schutz 2010, p. 115.
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, pp. 14–17.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, pp. 31–33.
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, pp. 18–22.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Weinfurter 1999, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Wolfram 2006, pp. 97–102.
General references
- ISBN 978-1-4438-1966-4.
- Weinfurter, Stefan (1999) [1992]. The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition. Translated by Kaiser, Denise A. ISBN 0-8122-3508-8.
- ISBN 978-1-8461-4318-2.
- ISBN 0-271-02738-X.
Further reading
- Lenelotte Möller, Hans Ammerich: Die Salier. 1024–1125. Wiesbaden 2015