Conrad, of the Conradine dynasty, had succeeded…

1116 CE

Conrad, of the Conradine dynasty, had succeeded sometime around 906 in establishing his ducal hegemony over Franconia, one of the five original "younger" stem duchies that had grown up in the Holy Roman Empire in the late ninth and early tenth centuries.

The tribal nature of region consisted in that it contained the Frankish territories east of the Rhine.

At the failure of the direct Carolingian male line in 911, Conrad had been acclaimed King of the Germans, largely because of his weak position in his own duchy.

Like Alamannia, Franconia was not as united as Saxony or Bavaria and the position of duke has often been disputed between the chief families.

Franconia in the High Middle Ages has come to be divided into two distinct regions, though these regions are not coherent territories with distinct governments.

Rather, they are culturally different regions that have come to be dominated by different political and religious forces and thus have come under the de facto "rule" of different bodies.

Rhenish Franconia (Rheinfranken), the western half of Franconia, immediately east of the Rhine, is the heartland of the Salian dynasty, which has provided four emperors in the eleventh and twelfth centuries: Conrad II, Henry III, Henry IV, and Henry V.

Rhenish Franconia contains the ancient cities of Mainz, Speyer, and Worms, the latter two being countships within the hands of the descendants of Conrad the Red (the Salians).

These counts are sometimes referred to informally, on account of the great power in the region, as dukes of Franconia.

Rhenish Franconia is actually governed, however, as a constellation of small states, like the free cities (Frankfurt and Worms), the bishoprics (Mainz, Speyer, and Worms), and the Landgraviate of Hesse.

Alongside these powerful entities are many smaller, petty states.

The Salian Franconian territories had in 1093 been granted as a fief to the Count Palatine of Aachen, a territory that will evolve into the important German principality of the Rhenish Palatinate.

Rhenish Franconia has in this way been divided and extinguished.

Emperor Henry had in 1115 awarded the territory of Eastern Franconia (Ostfranken) to his nephew Conrad of Hohenstaufen, the product of his daughter of Agnes and Frederick, Duke of Swabia.

Conrad, using the title "Duke of Franconia” in 1116, acts as regent for Germany, together with his elder brother, Frederick II of Swabia.

Franconia will remain a Hohenstaufen power base until 1168, when the Bishop of Würzburg will be formally ceded the ducal rights in Eastern Franconia.

The name "Franconia" will fall out of usage, but the bishop will revive it in his own favor in 1442 and hold it until the reforms of Napoleon Bonaparte abolish it.

It should be noted that the Bishop of Würzburg during this time is the Duke in Franconia—Herzog in Franken—rather than the Duke of Franconia—Herzog von Franken.