Conrad III of Germany (1093-15 February 1152) was King of the Romans from 1138 to 1152, succeeding Lothair III of Germany and preceding Frederick Barbarossa.
Biography[]
Conrad was born in 1093, son of Duke Frederick I of Swabia and Agnes of Germany. He was from the House of Hohenstaufen, and he was made a Duke of Franconia by his maternal uncle Henry V of Germany in 1116 as Henry prepared to campaign in Italy, and in 1125 he failed in his attempt to secure the German throne for his brother, Frederick II of Swabia. However, in December 1127 he succeeded in being elected anti-king of Germany at Nuremberg, and he was crowned King of Italy in 1128. In 1130, he returned to Germany after Nuremberg and Speyer fell to Lothair III of Germany, and in 1135 he was forced to recognize Lothair as king and abdicate as King of Italy. On 7 March 1138, he was crowned King of the Romans at Koblenz after Lothair's death, and he decided to take part in the Second Crusade in 1146. Conrad led an army of 20,000 troops overland through Hungary, and they arrived at Constantinople in September 1147, ahead of France's army. Rather than take the coastal road of Anatolia, Conrad decided to march through the countryside, allowing for Mesud I of Rum to ambush his army at Dorylaeum and massacre it down to just 2,000 men. Conrad's small army took part in the siege of Damascus in 1148, and he returned to Germany after a failed attack on Ascalon. Conrad died in 1152, and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa succeeded him.