Upon Emperor Henry V's death in 1125, Archchancellor
Adalbert summoned the
royal electoral assembly in Mainz. On August 24 the electors declined the candidacy of the primary contender Duke
Frederick of Hohenstaufen, who destroyed his chances due to his appalling overconfidence (
ambicone cecatus) and his refusal to accept free princely elections (
libera electio).
Adalbert of Mainz considered Lothair to be a suitable candidate. Although the most powerful territorial prince in Saxony, he was of advanced age (slightly over fifty years of age) and had no male heir, not the ideal prerequisites for a long dynastic line of kings. He was elected
King of Germany and asserted himself against
Leopold III of Austria and
Charles the Good. His election was notable in that it marked a departure from the concept of hereditary succession as the electors preferred a sovereign with moderate powers after the Salian era of
oppressio. Somewhat naive concerning the complex power struggle between the papacy and the empire, Lothair also consented to several symbolic acts that were subsequently interpreted by the
Roman Curia as signaling acceptance of papal confirmation of his position. Duke
Vladislaus I of
Bohemia died in 1125. The succession was disputed among his surviving brother
Soběslav I and his
Moravian cousin
Otto the Black, who was supported by Vladislaus' widow
Richeza of Berg. In late 1125 Lothair joined Otto's side, who had advanced large sums of money. A military campaign against Soběslav was launched and in February 1126 Lothair's force entered Bohemian territory and was promptly defeated at the
Battle of Chlumec. Soběslav captured high-ranking nobles, like
Albert the Bear and
Louis I of Thuringia. However, Soběslav immediately went to meet Lothair at his camp and formally requested and received the
fief of Bohemia. Peace was restored, prisoners set free and although the winner of the battle had submitted himself to the losing side, he secured full legitimacy and lasting prestige.
Dispute with the Staufers Having both Saxon and Bavarian ancestry, the Supplinburg dynasty was a political opponent of the
Salian dynasty and the
House of Hohenstaufen. Disputes arose with Duke Frederick II when he refused to hand over property to Lothair, which the king considered to be royal property, the Staufer on the other hand argued, that it belonged to the Salian heritage. The contentious assets had long been administered together with other Salian domestic estates, their origin was hard to determine and difficult to separate. Lothair advocated the principle that all of the assets in question had now become imperial properties due to the extinction of the Salian dynasty. The first armed engagements between Lothair and the Staufer took place as early as 1125 and increased in the years that followed. Lothair, with the approval obtained at a meeting of the princes in Regensburg, attempted to seize the crown lands, which provoked a Staufer reaction. Lothair then isolated Frederick II as he placed him under
Imperial ban and withdrew the Franconian ducal fief from Conrad. After Lothair's 1127 campaign against the Staufers had collapsed at the gates of Nuremberg, the Swabians and the Franconians declared Frederick's younger brother Conrad
anti-king Conrad III. Looking for support of his kingship, in 1128 Conrad went to Italy, where he was crowned
King of Italy by
Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan. Lastly Lothair, in order to prevent the loss of Burgundy to a power hostile to the empire, appointed his loyal ally
Conrad I, Duke of Zähringen as Rector of the
Principatus Burgundiaey.
Domestic policies in the Northeast Emperor Lothair's policies and actions in the northern and eastern estates of the kingdom would have the longest-lasting impacts. As a Saxon by birth, he was certainly more focused on that region than previous and future monarchs. He already pursued active territorial policies before his royal tenure as early as 1111, when he installed count
Adolf of
Schauenburg in
Holstein and
Stormarn. In an act of royal consolidation policy Lothair established the Landgraviate of Thuringia, that encompassed the remaining and predominantly non-contiguous estates of the ill-fated former
Merovingian Duchy of Thuringia. The brutal conquest of the old Thuringii kingdom under king
Chlothar I had left the area devastated. Subsequently the Franks desired to rule the acquisition, which proved to be only partly successful, as a long process of depopulation and recurring population replacement by Franconians, Bavarians and Christianized Slavs followed. The 1129 appointment of
Herman of Winzenburg to the
comital office was a failure, as he allegedly was deposed a year later on charges of
breach of the peace. The sources, however provide conflicting dates. The 1131 investiture of
Louis marked the beginning of smooth
Ludowingian rule for more than a century. In 1134 Lothair appointed the Ascanian
Albert the Bear as
Margrave of Brandenburg and in 1136
Conrad the Great of Wettin, already margrave of Meissen, for the office of the Margraviate of Lusatia, thereby uniting the two
marches. In addition, he petitioned the pope to grant more executive rights for the Archbishoprics of
Bremen and
Magdeburg. King
Eric II of Denmark was made an imperial prince of the emperor in 1135, and member of the Reichstag. Lothair's diplomatic missions to the warring parties of
Poland and
Bohemia/
Hungary were successful and resulted in overdue tribute payment by the Polish Duke
Bolesław III Wrymouth for the 1121 established
Duchy of Pomerania, which in addition to the island of
Rügen was eventually secured as a
fief of the Empire.
Relations with the Papacy The
1130 papal election had resulted in another schism. A minority of the cardinals elected
Innocent II before a majority of the cardinals appointed
Anacletus II in a tumultuous process. Both popes claimed to have been legally elected and in a first collision Anacletus prevailed. Innocent had to leave Rome and fled to France. Nonetheless, Anacletus could only secure the support of Roger II of Sicily, Innocent was, with the help of
Bernard of Clairvaux, able to secure the support of King Louis VI of France and King Henry I of England. Both popes offered Lothair the imperial crown. The king was occupied with the Staufer resistance and once again it was Bernard of Clairvaux who convinced the sovereign to favor pope Innocent II. In March 1131 these three met in
Liège, where Lothair performed the ceremonial
strator service (stirrup holder) for the pope and promised help in the conflict against Anacletus and
Roger II of Sicily. His request for investiture restoration was rejected, but all rights and privileges as laid out in the
Concordat of Worms were confirmed. Lothair was accompanied by a modest troop contingent as most men were garrisoned in Germany to counter Staufer aggression. He carefully avoided hostilities but attempted to besiege Milan, which, however, failed. Eventually he arrived in Rome. As Anacletus controlled
St. Peter, Lothair's imperial coronation took place in the
Lateran Basilica on 4 June 1133. At the Reichstag in
Bamberg in 1135 the brothers were pardoned and restored to their office and estates. Anti-king Conrad renounced his royal title, the Staufers promised to take part in the Emperor's second Italian campaign, before a ten-year
constitutio pacis was declared. Two columns, one led by Lothair, the other by his son-in-law
Henry the Proud arrived in Italy. The imperial troops, however, were adamant against campaigning during the hot summer and revolted. The emperor, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, instead captured
Capua and Apulia from Roger and bestowed them on Roger's enemies. Innocent, however, protested, claiming that Apulia fell under papal reign. Emperor and Pope eventually jointly bequeathed the duchy to
Rainulf of Alife.
Death On the return trip, he gave his son-in-law Henry of Bavaria the Margraviate of Tuscany and the Duchy of Saxony. He also gave him the imperial insignia, which depending on the point of view was interpreted as designation for the new king or not. On December 3, 1137, Lothair died on the return journey at
Breitenwang. His
body was boiled to prevent putrefaction, and his bones were transferred to the Collegiate Church of Saints Peter and Paul at
Königslutter, which he had chosen as his burial site and for which he had laid the cornerstone in 1135. A month later, Pope Anaclet II's death also ended the papal schism. When his grave was opened in 1620, a sword and an imperial orb were found among other things. With the imperial cathedral Lothar has created an outstanding architectural monument. His reign was more than just an episode between Salians and Staufer and considered an era of self-confident rule over the empire, even if his political vision of the establishment of a Welf kingdom on March 7, 1138, in
Koblenz was destroyed by the “coup d'état” of the Staufers. ==Issue==