Plectrude, moving quickly, seizes twenty-six-year-old Charles, her husband's eldest surviving son, borne by his mistress, Alpaida (or Chalpaida), and imprisons him in Cologne, the city which is destined to be her capital.

This prevents an uprising on his behalf in Austrasia, where he had gained favor primarily for his military prowess and ability to keep the Austrasians well supplied with booty from his conquests, but not in Neustria.

Chilperic II was supposed to be a mere tool in the hands of Ragenfrid, the mayor of the palace of Neustria, acclaimed in 714 in opposition to Theudoald, Pepin of Heristal's designated heir.

Chilperic is his own man, however: both a fighter and a leader, always at the forefront in battle at the head of his troops.

He and Ragenfrid together lead an army in 716 into Austrasia, now being warred over by Plectrude, on behalf of her grandson Theudoald, and Charles.

The Neustrians ally with another invading force under Radbod, King of the Frisians, and meet Charles in battle near Cologne, held by Plectrude.

Chilperic is victorious and Charles flees to the mountains of the Eifel.

The king and his mayor then turn to besiege their other rival in the city.

Plectrude acknowledges Chilperic as king, gives over the Austrasian treasury, and abandons her son's claim to the mayoralty.

Charles takes Cologne and disperses Plectrude’s adherents.

He allows both Plectrude and Theudoald to live, and treats them with kindness—unusual for these Dark Ages, when mercy to a former jailer, or a potential rival, is rare.

On this success, he proclaims one Clotaire IV king of Austrasia in opposition to Chilperic II.

Early medieval Cologne is part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire.

Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period; under Charles I, bishop Hildebold is in 795 promoted to archbishop.

Godrey becomes margrave of Lower Lotharingia.

Both Frederick and Godfrey in 965 will be recognized as dukes after Bruno's death.

The two duchies will only be reunited between 1033 and 1044 under Gothelo I, Duke of Lotharingia.

The position of Archbishop Bruno in Cologne is little short of royal.

Indeed, Otto I has delegated to Bruno and his successors as archbishop a number of normally royal privileges—the right to build fortifications and set up markets, to strike coins and collect (and keep) such taxes as the special ones on Jews in return for royal protection, those on market trading and tolls from traffic along the Rhine.

Bruno's successors as archbishops will not be dukes as well, but they will nevertheless be the secular as well as the ecclesiastical rulers of Cologne until the battle of Worringen three centuries later.

Bruno's court in Cologne is the main intellectual and artistic center of its period in Germany—far more so than that of his brother Otto, which is far more peripatetic and militarily oriented.

Ratherius and Liutprand of Cremona, among others, spend time at the court.

Many of the next generation of German ecclesiastical leaders are educated at Bruno's court, like Everaclus of Liège, Gerard bishop of Toul, Wikfrid, bishop of Verdun, and Theoderic, bishop of Metz.

Bruno's effect on medieval Cologne is immense.

Apart from building a palace, he has extended the cathedral to the point where it is regarded as rivaling St. Peter's in Rome (this cathedral will burn down in 1248 and be replaced by the current one).

He has brought the area between the old Roman walls and the Rhine within the city fortifications; and built new churches to Saint Martin of Tours within this area and to Saint Andrew just outside the northern city wall and a Benedictine monastery dedicated to St. Pantaleon to the southwest of the city.

Large-scale sculpture is an important development in Ottonian art.

Stone sculpture continues to be rare, but wooden crucifixes such as the over-life-size Gero Crucifix and wooden reliquaries covered with gold leaf begin a return to sculpture in the round.

The more expressionistic Ottonian style is exemplified by the Cologne Cathedral’s Gero Crucifix executed between 970 and 976.

Today the oldest large cross north of the Alps, it shows an evolving technical virtuosity that conveys spiritual intensity, emotionalism, and naturalism.

Lower Lorraine, following the death of Duke Richar, son of Duke Godfrey, had been directly ruled by the Emperor until 977, when Otto II enfeoffs Charles, the exiled younger brother of King Lothair of France.

Duke Conrad I of Carinthia had been a candidate in the royal German election of 1002, together with his father, Otto of Worms, aka Otto I, Duke of Carinthia.

In that year or thereabouts, Conrad had married Matilda, daughter of Herman II, Duke of Swabia.

They have two sons: Conrad, later duke also, and Bruno, Bishop of Würzburg.

Conrad dies young in 1011 and is buried in the cathedral at Worms.

The German king Henry II in 1011/12 enfeoffs Adalbero with the Carinthian duchy, including the rule over the March of Verona.

Adalbero, the son of Count Markward of Eppenstein, margrave of Styria, where he succeeded his father about 1000, is married to Beatrix, probably a daughter of Duke Hermann II of Swabia from the Conradine dynasty and sister-in-law of the future Salian Emperor Conrad II.

The Salian Conrad II the Younger, son of his predecessor Conrad I, is a minor when his father dies and therefore is not taken into account; he will eventually become a bitter rival of Adalbero.

A synagogue is built in 1012 in Cologne, where the Jewish presence is documented in the year 321 CE.

The first documentary reference to the Jews after 331 occurs during the time of Archbishop Heribert of Cologne (999-1021), the wise friend of Emperor Otto III.

Winheim and Gelenius, basing themselves on the Annual Chronicles of Cologne during the fourteenth and fifteenth century, report that in 1426 the synagogue was turned into a church.

They then remark that this synagogue had been in existence four hundred and fourteen years.

That would place its origin in the time of Heribert.