Conrad I of Germany

Because the dukes of the East Frankish Kingdom have wearied of being ruled by a foreign king, they elect a German to serve as their king once the Carolingian line expires.

The election of Conrad I (r. 911-18), Duke of Franconia, as the first German king has been marked by some historians as the beginning of German history.

Conrad's successor, Henry I (r. 919- 36), Duke of Saxony, is powerful enough to designate his son Otto I (r. 936-73) as his successor.

Otto is so able a ruler that he will come to be known as Otto the Great.

He overpowers other territorial dukes who rebel against his rule and reverses the particularist trend for a time, but he fails to establish the principle of hereditary succession, and the German dukes continue to elect one of their number as king.

However, through military successes and alliances with the church, which have extensive properties and military forces of its own, Otto expands the crown lands, thus laying the foundation of monarchical power.

Hatto I, Archbishop of Mainz, and Solomon III, Bishop of Constance, the most influential of Louis's councilors, assure that the royal court decides in favor of the Conradines against the Babenbergers in the matter of the Duchy of Franconia.

They appoint Louis's nephew, Conrad, as duke.

Hatto I has assisted the Franconian family of the Conradines in its feud with the Babenbergs for supremacy in Franconia; after the battle of Fritzlar in 906 between the Babenbergs and Conradines, he arranges for the capture and execution of Adalbert, count of Babenberg, breaking his promise of safe conduct.

Louis, only seventeen or eighteen years old, dies in a state of despair at Frankfurt am Main on September 20 or 24, 911.

He is buried in the monastery of Saint Emmeram in Regensburg, where his father Arnulf of Carinthia lies.

His death brings an end to the eastern (German) branch of the Carolingian dynasty.

The vacuum left in the Carolingian East will eventually be filled by the family of Henry the Fowler, a cousin, and heralds the beginning of the Ottonian dynasty.

Firstly, however, the dukes of East Francia assemble to elect Conrad of Franconia king, as opposed to the reigning king of West Francia, Charles the Simple.

The magnates of Lotharingia elect Charles.

Hatto has retained his influence during the entire reign of Louis the Child and on the king's death in 911 had been prominent in securing the election of Conrad, duke of Franconia, to the vacant throne.

When trouble arises between Conrad and Henry the Fowler, duke of Saxony, afterwards King Henry I, the attitude of Conrad is ascribed by the Saxons to the influence of Hatto, who wishes to prevent Henry from securing authority in Thuringia, where the see of Mainz has extensive possessions.

He ihad been accused of complicity in a plot to murder Henry, who in return had ravaged the archiepiscopal lands in Saxony and Thuringia.

Hatto dies on May 15, 913, one legend saying he was struck by lightning, and another that he was thrown alive by the devil into the crater of Mount Etna.

His memory will be long regarded in Saxony with great abhorrence, and stories of cruelty and treachery will cling to his name.

Solomon III, bishop of Constance, is a warlike prelate, originally an ally of both King Louis the Child and Count Palatine Erchanger in the wars for the Swabian dukeship against the Burchards.

He had been influential in the execution of Burchard I in 911, but had left his alliance with Erchanger when the latter allied with King Conrad I.

Erchanger had even imprisoned Solomon in 914.

Conrad, however, supports the bishop and frees him.

Burchard II, who has allied himself with king Conrad I, defeats his rivals for the rule of Alamannia in a battle at Wahlwies in the Hegau in 915.

Conrad will later have Erchanger beheaded.