CONRAD II, EMPEROR, known as the SALIC. — With the extinction of the Saxon dynasty upon the death of Henry II in 1024, the choice fell upon the Rhenish-Franconian count C., who, born around 990 and a great-grandson of Otto the Great through his mother, thus became the founder of the Salic dynasty. Disorders broke out in Lorraine and Italy; while the succession to the kingdom of Burgundy embroiled C. in conflict with other princes, both German and French, the collapse of the great Polish kingdom at the death of Bolesław opened wide opportunities for action in the eastern lands; C. established agreements with the Bohemians and the Russians of Kiev. Once affairs in Germany were settled, he accepted the invitation of Aribert, archbishop of Milan, and descended into Italy in the spring of 1026. Pavia remained hostile, owing to the disputes that had arisen under Henry II, and the coronation took place in Milan, and the following year in Rome, at the hands of John XIX on 26 March 1027. After an ineffective descent into the Mezzogiorno, where Norman infiltration was beginning, C. returned to Germany and in 1035 was able to secure Burgundy for the empire, against the ambitions of Odo of Champagne. In 1037 he returned to Italy: this time the archbishop Aribert was hostile and the Pisans were favorable.
Unlike Henry II, no scruple prevented him in ecclesiastical matters from acting in the interests of politics without regard for ecclesiastical prescriptions, and he favored the machinations of simony that, for more unscrupulous men, would have been intolerable, even allowing the tiara to fall into the hands of a scion of the Tusculan family, Benedict IX (v.), to serve his own ends. Yet he knew how to draw new strength to the service of the Crown, relying, against the high nobility, on the lesser nobility and, above all, on the ministeriales, whom he employed in military enterprises and in offices. The most notable act of this new expedition to Italy was the Constitutio de feudis of 1037, which ensured the heritability of fiefs. When the siege of Milan failed, and a nearly fruitless attempt to assert authority in Campania was renewed, he recrossed the Alps and died at Utrecht on 4 June 1039.