Conrad of Italy

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Conrad (12 February 1074 – 27 July 1101) was the second son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. As such he was King of Germany from 1087 to 1098 and also King of Italy from 1093 to 1098.

Conrad was born in Hersfeld Abbey in 1074 to Henry IV and Bertha of Turin. His elder brother Henry had been born and died in August 1071. As his father's heir, he was appointed duke of Lower Lotharingia and Margrave of Turin in 1076, at the age of two. In the same year he accompanied his father on his way to Canossa. Conrad was given to the care of Thedald, Archbishop of Milan and stayed in Italy. In 1087 he was elected King of Germany and was crowned on 30 May in Aachen, which officially made him his father's heir.

Under the influence of Countess Matilda of Tuscany, Conrad in 1093 joined the papal camp and thus turned against his father. In the same year, he was crowned King of Italy in Milan. In 1095, shortly after the Council of Piacenza, he swore an oath of loyalty to Pope Urban II in Cremona and also served as the Pope's "Strator", leading the Pope's horse as a symbolic gesture of humility. In turn, Urban promised Conrad the Imperial crown. In the same year, the Pope arranged a marriage of Conrad to Constance, daughter of Count Roger I of Sicily.

His father reacted at the diet of Mainz in April 1098 by deposing Conrad and designating his younger son Henry as succesor. After this, Conrad could hardly influence the political events in Italy and in 1101 he died at the age of 27 in Florence. He was buried in the cathedral Santa Reparata, which later was superseded by the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore.

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