Ep. 44: Welf vs Staufer - Lothar III (1125-1137) - A Saxon Emperor

The election of Lothar III in 1125 was a humiliation for the House of Hohenstaufen — nephews of the last emperor, passed over in favour of their greatest rival. But Frederick and Konrad of Hohenstaufen are not the type to quietly accept defeat. What follows is nearly a decade of civil war, a daring Italian adventure, and one of the most ambitious power grabs in medieval German history.

In this episode, we follow the turbulent early reign of Lothar III as he struggles to assert royal authority over a realm fractured by 50 years of civil war. His problems begin almost immediately — a failed military campaign in Bohemia, a bruising dispute over the archbishopric of Magdeburg, and the near-impossible task of reclaiming the Salian crown lands now firmly in Hohenstaufen hands.

Meanwhile, the brothers Frederick and Konrad launch a full-scale rebellion. They elect an anti-king, hold Germany's first recorded tournament outside the walls of Würzburg, and — in a bold strategic gamble — take the fight to Italy, where Konrad is crowned king of Italy by the Archbishop of Milan and marches on Rome in a bid to outrank Lothar altogether.

We also look at one of the most consequential but least celebrated developments of this period: the beginning of the great eastward expansion of German settlement beyond the Elbe — the policy that would eventually give rise to Brandenburg, Prussia, and reshape the ethnic map of central Europe for centuries.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Lothar III's difficult early reign and his struggles with the Hohenstaufen inheritance dispute
• The Hohenstaufen civil war: sieges, tournaments, and the election of an anti-king
• Konrad of Hohenstaufen's Italian campaign and his coronation as king of Italy in Milan
• The Welf alliance and how Henry the Proud became the most powerful lord in Germany
• Lothar's policy of eastern colonisation and the origins of the Margraviate of Brandenburg
• The final submission of the Hohenstaufen brothers in 1134

Keywords: Holy Roman Empire, Hohenstaufen, Lothar III, medieval German history, Konrad of Hohenstaufen, Frederick of Swabia, Welf dynasty, eastern colonisation, Ostsiedlung, Brandenburg, History of the Germans podcast, medieval civil war, king of Italy, anti-king

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs