/
Lotharingia following the
Treaty of Verdun The duchy evolved during the decline of the
Carolingian Empire, when it was a part of the core Frankish realm of
Austrasia (i.e. "Eastern Francia"), and got its form when the northwestern parts of Austrasia became a new realm called
Lotharingia. Unlike the other stem duchies, Franconia did not evolve into a stable political entity, though the local
Salian counts held large estates in the western parts (
Rhenish Franconia). In 906 the
Conradine relative Count
Conrad the Younger in the
Lahngau is mentioned as a
dux Franconiae. Upon the extinction of the East Frankish Carolingians in 911, he was elected the first
German king and was succeeded as Franconian duke by his younger brother
Eberhard. However, the Conradines did not prevail against the rising Saxon
Ottonians: In 919 Duke
Henry of Saxony succeeded Conrad as German king. Henry's son King
Otto I seized the Franconian stem duchy after an unsuccessful revolt of Duke Eberhard was shattered at the 939
Battle of Andernach. King Otto did not appoint a new duke of Franconia, and the duchy was fragmented into several counties and bishoprics, which reported to the German kings directly. The Salian counts in Rhenish Franconia were sometimes mentioned as Franconian dukes and they became Germany's royal and imperial dynasty in 1024. In 1093 their Franconian territories were granted as a fief to the
palatine count of
Aachen, which would evolve into the important German principality of
Electoral Palatinate (
Kurpfalz). With the advancement of Count
Conrad the Red, Rhenish Franconia became the heartland of the Salian dynasty, which provided four emperors in the 11th and 12th centuries:
Conrad II,
Henry III,
Henry IV, and
Henry V. It contained the cities of
Mainz,
Speyer and Worms, the latter two being the administrative centres of countships within the hands of the Salian descendants of Conrad the Red. These counts were sometimes referred to as the Dukes of Franconia. Emperor Conrad II was last to bear the ducal title. When he died in 1039, Rhenish Franconia was governed as a constellation of small states, including the cities of
Frankfurt, Speyer and Worms; the
Prince-bishoprics of
Mainz,
Speyer, and
Worms; and the
Landgraviate of Hesse (then part of
Thuringia). Alongside these powerful entities were many smaller, petty states. In 1093, Emperor Henry IV gave the Salian territories in Rhenish Franconia as a
fief to
Henry of Laach, the
count palatine of
Lower Lorraine at
Aachen. His lands would evolve into the important principality of
Electoral Palatinate. While Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa in 1168 granted the ducal title to the
prince-bishops of Würzburg in Eastern Franconia, Rhenish Franconia was divided and extinguished. Its territories became part of the Imperial
Upper Rhenish Circle in 1500. As of the 13th century, the following states, among others, had formed in the territory of the former Duchy: ==Dukes==