Conrad I, King of the East Franks

CORRADO I, king of the EAST FRANKS. - He lived in the 9th-10th centuries. When the eastern line of the Carolingians became extinct with Ludovico il Fanciullo (911), the great men of Germany, in order to preserve the autonomy they had attained in the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, did not wish to offer the crown to the king of the West Franks, Carlo III, to whom Lorraine had already passed. The crown became elective; at the assembly of Forcheim, Bavarians, Swabians, Franconians, and Saxons elected king C., duke of Franconia, bound by ties of kinship to the extinct dynasty. He reigned from 911 to 918; but his friendly relations with the higher clergy harmed him in the eyes of the great lay lords, who made his reign troubled. The capital execution of the counts palatine Erchanger and Bertoldo precipitated events: when he died (23 Dec. 918), C. designated as his successor the duke of Saxony, Enrico I, his adversary.