The Salian dynasty [German: Salier] was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages of
four German Kings, also known as the Frankish dynasty after the family's
origin and role as dukes of Franconia. All of these kings were also crowned
Holy Roman Emperor: the term 'Salic dynasty' also applies to the Holy Roman
Empire of the time as a separate term. After the death of the last Saxon of the
Ottonian Dynasty in 1024, first the elected German King and then three years
later the elected position of Holy Roman Emperor both passed to the first monarch
of the Salian dynasty in the person of Conrad II, the only son of Count Henry
of Speyer and Adelheid of Alsace. He was elected German King in 1024 and crowned
emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on 26 March 1027.
The four Salian kings of the dynasty—Conrad II, Henry III, Henry IV,
and Henry V—ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 to 1125, and firmly
established their monarchy as a major European power. They achieved the
development of a permanent administrative system based on a class
of public officials answerable to the crown.
Origins Werner of Worms and his son Duke Conrad
the Red of Lorraine, who died in 955, founded the ancestral dynasty. Conrad
the Red married Liutgarde, a daughter of Emperor Otto I, their son Otto I, Duke
of Carinthia ruled Carinthia from 978 to 1004.
Duke Otto had three sons: Bruno, who became Pope Gregory V; Conrad; and
Henry, count of Speyer. Henry was the father of the first Salian Emperor
Conrad II. Pope Leo IX also had family ties to the
dynasty, since his grandfather Hugo III was the brother of Adelheid, the
grandmother of Henry III. Ruling in the Holy Roman Empire
After the death of the last Saxon Emperor Henry II the first Salian regent
Conrad II was elected by the majority of the Prince-electors and was crowned
German king in Mainz on 8 September 1024. Early in 1026 Conrad went to
Milan, where Ariberto, archbishop of Milan, crowned him king of Italy. When
Rudolph III, King of Burgundy died 1032, Conrad II also claimed this kingship on
the basis of an inheritance Henry II had extorted from the former in 1006.
Despite some opposition, the Burgundian and Provençal nobles paid homage to
Conrad in Zürich in 1034. This Kingdom of Burgundy would become known as the
Kingdom of Arles under Conrad's successors.
Already in 1028 Conrad II had his son Henry III elected and anointed king of
Germany. Henry's tenure led to an overstatement of previously unknown
sacral kingship. So during this reign Speyer Cathedral was expanded to be the
largest church in Western Christendom. Henry's conception of a legitimate power
of royal disposition in the duchies was successful against the dukes, and thus
secured royal control. However in Lorraine, this led to years of conflict,
from which Henry emerged as the winner. But also in southern Germany a powerful
opposition group was formed in the years 1052-1055. 1046 Henry ended the papal
schism, freed the Papacy from dependence on the Roman nobility, and laid the
basis for its universal applicability. His early death in 1056 was long
regarded as a disaster for the Empire. The early Salians owed much of their
success to their alliance with the Church, a policy begun by Otto I, which
gave them the material support they needed to subdue rebellious dukes. In
time, however, the Church came to regret this close relationship. The alliance
broke down in 1075 during what came to be known as the Investiture Controversy,
a struggle in which the reformist Pope, Gregory VII, demanded that Emperor Henry
IV renounce his rights over the Church in Germany. The pope also attacked the
concept of monarchy by divine right and gained the support of significant
elements of the German nobility interested in limiting imperial
absolutism. More important, the pope forbade ecclesiastical officials under
pain of excommunication to support Henry as they had so freely done in the past.
In the end, Henry IV journeyed to Canossa in northern Italy in 1077 to do
penance and to receive absolution from the pope. However, he resumed the
practice of lay investiture and arranged the election of an antipope in 1080.
The monarch's struggle with the papacy resulted in a war that ravaged through
the Holy Roman Empire from 1077 until the Concordat of Worms in 1122. The
reign of the last ruler of the Salian dynasty Henry V coincided with the final
phase of the great Investiture Controversy, which had pitted pope
against emperor. By the settlement of the Concordat of Worms, Henry V
surrendered to the demands of the second generation of Gregorian reformers. This
agreement stipulated that the pope would appoint high church officials but gave
the German king the right to veto the papal choices. Imperial control of Italy
was lost for a time, and the imperial crown became dependent on the political
support of competing aristocratic factions. Feudalism also became more
widespread as freemen sought protection by swearing allegiance to a lord. These
powerful local rulers, having thereby acquired extensive territories and large
military retinues, took over administration within their territories
and organized it around an increasing number of castles. The most powerful of
these local rulers came to be called princes rather than dukes.
According to the laws of the feudal system of the Holy Roman Empire, the
king had no claims on the vassals of the other princes, only on those living
within his family's territory. Lacking the support of the formerly independent
vassals and weakened by the increasing hostility of the Church, the monarchy
lost its pre-eminence. Thus the Investiture Contest strengthened local
power in the Holy Roman Empire - in contrast to the trend in France and
England, where centralized royal power grew. The Investiture Contest had an
additional effect. The long struggle between emperor and pope hurt the Holy
Roman Empire's intellectual life, in this period largely confined to
monasteries, and the empire no longer led or even kept pace with developments
occurring in France and Italy. For instance, no universities were founded
in the Holy Roman Empire until the fourteenth century.
The first Hohenstaufen king Conrad III was a grandson of the Salian Henry IV,
Holy Roman Emperor. Salian Kings and Emperors
Conrad II 1024-1039, emperor 1027 Henry III 1039-1056, emperor 1046
Henry IV 1056-1106 emperor 1084 Conrad
Henry V 1106-1125, emperor 1111 Their regnal dates as emperor take into
account elections and subsequent coronations.
See also Concordat of Worms
References This article incorporates public domain
material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.