The New International Encyclopædia/Conrad III.

​CONRAD III. (1093–1152). King of the Germans from 1138 to 1152. He was the son of Frederick of Swabia, and the founder of the Hohenstaufen (q.v.) dynasty. Conrad, with his elder brother, Frederick, supported Henry V. against his enemies, and in return that monarch granted Conrad the investiture of the Duchy of Franconia. He subsequently contested the crown of Italy with the Emperor Lothair of Saxony, but without success. On the death of Lothair the princes of Germany, fearing the increasing preponderance of the Guelph party, and attracted by Conrad’s brilliant courage and noble character, offered him the crown, and he was accordingly elected at Aix-la-Chapelle, March 7, 1138. He was immediately involved in a quarrel with Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, and this was the origin of the conflict that raged for centuries between the Welfs or Guelphs, the partisans of Duke Henry, and the Waiblings or Ghibellines, the supporters of the Franconian house. (See Guelphs And Ghibellines.) In 1147 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux commenced to preach a new crusade, and Conrad set out for Palestine at the head of a large army (see Crusades), in company with his old enemy, Welf of Bavaria. He died February 15, 1152. Consult: Bernhardi, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches unter Konrad III. (Leipzig, 1883); Jaffé, Geschichte des deutschen Reiches unter Konrad III. (Hanover, 1845).