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| 1125–37 |
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| Lothair II. Elected with the support of the clergy, he remained loyal to the Church, was the first German king to ask for papal approval of his election, and did not exercise his rights under the Concordat of Worms for some years. Bitter civil war against the Hohenstaufens (1125–35); vigorous policy of German expansion among the Wends and Scandinavians; renewal of Wendish conversions (1127). | 1 |
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| 1133 |
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| Influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux, Lothair decided in favor of Pope Innocent II (against Anacletus II) and went to Italy to settle the papal schism; he was crowned, had the Concordat of Worms confirmed, and received the lands of Matilda as fiefs. | 2 |
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| 1135 |
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| The “year of pacification” in Germany—general peace proclaimed. Lothair apparently planned to create a vast dynastic holding for his son-in-law, the Welf Henry the Proud, to include Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony, the allodial lands and fiefs of Matilda of Tuscany, and to secure for him the imperial crown. Lothair died suddenly on his return from an expedition against King Roger II of Sicily, and in the election (1138) the clergy, led by Adalbert of Trier, had the Waiblinger Conrad of Hohenstaufen chosen. Conrad almost at once put Henry the Proud under the ban, gave Saxony to Albert the Bear, Bavaria to Leopold of Austria, his half-brother, and reopened the civil war. | 3 |
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| 1138–1268 |
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| The house of Hohenstaufen (from Staufen, their Swabian castle). The first German dynasty to be conscious of the full historical implications of the imperial tradition and the significance of Roman law for imperial pretensions. Their consequent devotion to a policy of centralization and to the aggrandizement of the lay imperial power in the face of the new spiritual supremacy and political aspirations of the papacy precipitated a second great struggle between the popes and the emperors, centered in Italy but turning on a sharp conflict between rival spiritual and political concepts. | 4 |
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| 1138–52 |
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| Conrad III, a gallant, knightly, attractive, popular hero, but no statesman. The Welf Henry the Lion (son and successor of Henry the Proud) acknowledged Conrad's title, but regained Saxony by force and was granted it by the peace (1142); the struggle of Welf and Waiblinger reduced Germany to chaos, and Conrad left on the Second Crusade. On his return, Conrad found Germany in worse confusion. | 5 |
| The most significant development of the reign was the renewal of expansion against the Slavs and Scandinavians (chiefly on the initiative of Albert the Bear and Henry the Lion): a regularly authorized German crusade against the Slavs (1147); colonization of eastern Holstein; foundation of Lübeck (1143); conversion of Brandenburg and Pomerania; Albert the Bear began to style himself as the margrave of Brandenburg; Henry the Lion began the creation of a principality east of the Elbe. Conrad took no share in these developments; he was the only king since Henry the Fowler not to attain the imperial title. On Conrad's death, anarchy was so prevalent in Germany that even the magnates favored a strong ruler, and Conrad's candidate, Frederick, duke of Swabia, was unanimously elected. | 6 |
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| 1152–90 |
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| Frederick I (Barbarossa, or Red Beard), a handsome man, the embodiment of the ideal medieval German king. A close student of history and surrounded with Roman legists, he regarded himself as heir to the tradition of Constantine, Justinian, and Charlemagne (whom he had canonized by his antipope) and aimed at restoring the glories of the Roman Empire. He began the style “Holy Roman Empire.” | 7 |
| Policy of consolidation and expansion of royal lands. Burgundian lands regained by marriage (1156) with Beatrice, heiress of the county of Burgundy; purchase of lands from the Welfs in Swabia and Italy; exploitation of regalian rights. | 8 |
| Conciliation of the magnates. Henry the Lion, recognized as virtually independent beyond the Elbe; confirmed in Saxony; regranted Bavaria (1156). Austria made an independent duchy (1156), granted to Henry of Austria in return for Bavaria. Alliance with the episcopate: free exercise of rights under the Concordat of Worms; reforming bishops replaced with hard-headed appointees of the old school, loyal to the crown. Administration delegated to the ministeriales. Successful maintenance of public order; Frederick won the title pacificus. | 9 |
| Expeditions to Italy (See 1154–59), seq.): 1154–55, 1158–62, 1163–64, 1166–68, 1174–77, 1184–86. | 10 |
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| 1156–80 |
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| Henry the Lion's “principality” beyond the Elbe: military progress against the Slavs and colonization (Hollanders, Danes, Flemings); Bremen taken from the archbishop (1156), Lübeck from Adolf of Holstein (1158); commercial relations with Denmark, Sweden, Norway; alliance with Waldemar II of Denmark; reduction of Slavic pirates; colonization of Mecklenburg, extension of Christianity; war with Albert the Bear; refusal of aid to Frederick in Italy (1176); confiscation of Henry's holdings, and exile (1180); dismemberment of Saxony. | 11 |
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| 1156 |
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| Diet of Regensburg. Emergence of the prince electors as a substantive body in the German state. | 12 |
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| 1157 |
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| Diet of Besançon. Emissaries from Rome, France, England, the Spanish princes, Apulia, Tuscany, Venice, and the Lombard towns did honor to Frederick. Frederick saved the life of the papal legate Cardinal Roland, whose statement of papal claims enraged the German nobles (translation of beneficia as “fiefs”). Boleslav, king of Poland, granted the style of “king” (1157). | 13 |
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| 1176 |
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| Legnano. Decisive defeat of Frederick by the Lombard League, the first major defeat of feudal cavalry by infantry, herald of the new role of the bourgeoisie. | 14 |
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| 1183 |
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| Final Peace of Constance between Frederick, the pope, and the Lombard towns: restoration of all imperial confiscations during the papal schism confirmed, recognition of general imperial suzerainty in Italy; the Lombard towns virtually autonomous city-states under a loose administration by imperial legates and vicars. Frederick retained the Matildan lands without a specific definition of their status. Henceforth there was no shadow of unity in the empire, as Germany and Italy followed a divergent development. | 15 |
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| 1186 |
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| Marriage of the future Henry VI to Constance (daughter of Roger II of Sicily), heiress of King William II; possibly arranged in the hope of permanent peace with the empire. The net results of the marriage were the transfer of the center of gravity in the struggle between the popes and the emperors to Sicily, the continued destruction of German unity, and the ruin of the house of Hohenstaufen. The pope refused imperial coronation to Henry. | 16 |
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