Emperor Frederick II had deposed his eldest…
1252 CE
Archbishop Siegfried II of Mainz had acted as German regent until 1242, when Frederick had chosen Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia, and King Wenceslaus of Bohemia to assume this function; Conrad had from around 1240 begun intervening directly in German politics.
Henry Raspe has supported Pope Innocent IV in 1245 when he imposed a papal ban on Frederick and declared Conrad deposed; the pope in turn had arranged to have Raspe elected on May 22, 1246, as counter-king of Germany.
Raspe had defeated Conrad in the battle of Nidda in August 1246, but died several months later.
In 1246 also, Conrad had married Elisabeth of Bavaria, a daughter of Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria.
Conrad had settled, if momentarily, the situation in Germany in 1250 by defeating William of Holland and his Rhenish allies.
Conrad received Sicily and Germany, as well as the title of Jerusalem, from Frederick on his father's death in the same year, but the struggle with the pope had continued.
Now known as King Conrad IV, he had decided after his defeat by William in 1251 to invade Italy in the hope to regain the rich reign of his father, and where his brother Manfred acts as vicar.
Elisabeth bears Conrad a son, Conradin, in 1252.
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