Emperor Henry II, returning to Magdeburg in…

Emperor Henry II, returning to Magdeburg in Germany from southern Italy to celebrate Easter, had fallen ill in Bamberg.

After celebrating Easter, the emperor, suffering from a chronic, painful urinary infection, had retired to his imperial palace in Göttingen, where he dies on July 13, 1024 at the age of fifty-two.

Henry II had been working with the pope to call a Church Council to confirm his new system of imperial-ecclesiastical affairs: his death leaves this work unfinished.

Empress Cunigunde of Luxembourg arranges for her husband to be interred at the Bamberg Cathedral.

Leaving the Empire without significant problems, Henry II has also left the Empire without an heir.

Some speculate that both he and Cunigunde had taken mutual vows of chastity, because there was no royal issue, but this has no basis in fact.

In any case, their childless marriage brings to an end the Saxon dynasty of the Ottonians.

In relation to the other members of his dynasty, Henry II is the great-grandson of Henry I, great-nephew of Otto I, first cousin, once removed, of Otto II, and a second cousin to Otto III.