Bamberg Bayern Germany

Henry II, a sincerely religious ruler, encourages monastic reform, founding and richly endowing the bishopric of Bamberg in 1007 and personally appointing most of the German princes.

Pope Benedict VIII visits him in at Bamberg 1020 and consecrates his new cathedral here.

After settling some controversies with the bishops of Mainz and Würzburg, the pope persuades the emperor to return to Italy for a third (and final) campaign to counter the growing power of the Constantinople in the south, where the Lombard princes have made submission to the Greeks.

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.

Conrad II had had to enforce his royal prerogatives in the Duchy of Carinthia just as he did in the Duchy of Swabia.

Duke Adalbero of Carinthia had been appointed as duke in 1012 under Emperor Henry II and had remained loyal to imperial authority, supporting Conrad's election as German king in 1024.

At a synod in Frankfurt in September 1027 at which Conrad had attempted to resolve the decades' long Gandersheim Conflict, Adalbero had accompanied the Emperor and acted as his sword-bearer during the proceeding, indicating Conrad's trust in him.

However, from 1028 on, Adalbero has governed his Duchy as an independent state.

In particular, he has attempted to conduct peaceful relations with the King Stephen I of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Under Emperor Henry II, who was the brother-in-law to Stephen, relations between the Empire and Hungary had been friendly.

Upon Henry's death in 1024, Conrad had adopted a more aggressive policy, prompting border raids into the Empire from Hungary.

The raids particularly have affected Adalbero's domain of Carinthia, which shares a long border with eastern border with Hungary.

Conrad summons Adalbero to court at Bamberg on May 18, 1034, to answer an indictment of treason for his actions regarding Hungary.

In the presence of the German dukes, Conrad demands that Adalbero be stripped of all his title and lands.

The dukes, however, hesitate and demand that Conrad's son Henry, the Germany's co-King and Conrad's designated successor, join the assembly before a decision is made.

Henry likewise refuses to depose Adalbero, citing an earlier agreement with Adelbero to be his ally in negotiating a settlement between him and his father.

Only by resorting to exhortations, pleas, and threats to Henry is Conrad able to persuade him to support deposing Adalbero.

Henry's support is soon followed by that of the other dukes.

Conrad then orders Adalbero removed as Duke and sentences him and his son to exile.

After attacking Conrad's allies in Carinthia, Adalbero flees to his mother's estates in Ebersberg in the Duchy of Bavaria, where he will remain until his death in 1039.

Conrad, Lothair’s rival, acknowledges the latter’s suzerainty in 1135.

The fall of Edessa in 1144 had shocked Christendom, causing Pope Eugenius III and St. Bernard of Clairvaux to preach a Second Crusade to reinforce Outremer.

Bernard passes from Toulouse into Germany, and the reported miracles that multiply almost at his every step undoubtedly contribute to the success of his mission.

Conrad III of Germany and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa receive the cross from the hand of Bernard.

Philip’s entry into Cologne in 1207 had practically brought the German civil war to a close.

Philip had been loosed from the papal ban a month or two later, and in March 1208 it seems probable that a treaty had been concluded by which a nephew of the pope was to marry one of Philip's daughters and to receive the disputed dukedom of Tuscany.

Philip is preparing to crush the last flicker of the rebellion in Brunswick-Lüneburg when on June 21, 1208, he is murdered at Bamberg by Otto VIII of Wittelsbach, count palatine in Bavaria.

Otto, already known for his unstable character, had fallen into a rage when he learned of the dissolution of his betrothal to Gertrude of Silesia by her father, Duke Henry I the Bearded of Lower Silesia.

Henry, apparently informed of the Wittelsbach's cruel tendencies, had in an act of concern for his young daughter decided to terminate the marriage agreement.

Otto proceeded to blame Philip, without grounds, for another spurned marriage alliance (the first being to Philip's own daughter, Beatrice) and had sworn revenge on the German King, culminating in the murder at Bamberg.

Bamberg Cathedral, on which reconstruction begins in about 1237, copies the French Gothic style towers of Laon Cathedral.

Gothic statuary, influenced by that of Reims, achieved its fullest plastic expression at Bamberg, where the anonymous sculptor of a group of the “Visitation” in the interior of the cathedral, inspired by the figures at Reims, is also responsible for the Bamberg Horseman, executed in about 1240.

The first truly monumental equestrian statue of the epoch, the regal, life-size horseman (whose identity remains unknown) impressively embodies the age’s chivalrous ideal of rulership.

…Bamberg, …

Albert is defeated at Pillenreuther Weiher on March 11, 1450.

The Margrave War ends with the signing of a peace treaty in Bamberg on June 22, 1450.

Albert has to return all captured lands to the city of Nuremberg.