See Widukind, “Res gestae Saxonicae,” in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Band iii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826–1892); W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit (Leipzig, 1881); R. Köpke and E. Dümmler, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Kaiser Otto I. (Leipzig, 1876); K. Köstler, Die Ungarnschlacht auf dem Lechfelde (Augsburg, 1884).
CONRAD OF MARBURG (c. 1180–1233), German inquisitor, was born probably at Marburg, and received a good education, possibly at the university of Bologna. It is not certain that he belonged to any of the religious orders, although he has been claimed both by the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Early in the 13th century he appears to have won some celebrity as a preacher, and in 1214 was commissioned by Pope Innocent III. to arouse interest in the proposed crusade. After continuing this work for two or three years Conrad vanishes from history until 1226, when he is found occupying a position of influence at the court of Louis IV., landgrave of Thuringia. He became confessor to the landgrave’s wife St Elizabeth of Hungary (q.v.), and exercised the landgrave’s rights of clerical patronage during his absence on crusade. In 1227 he was employed by Pope Gregory IX. to extirpate heresy in Germany, to denounce the marriage of the clergy, and to visit the monasteries. He carried on the crusade against heretics with great zeal in Hesse and Thuringia, but especially in the district around the mouth of the Weser inhabited by a people called the Stedinger. In 1233 he accused Henry II., count of Sayn, of heresy, a charge which was indignantly repudiated. An assembly at Mainz of bishops and princes declared Henry innocent, but Conrad demanded that this sentence should be reversed. This was his last work, for as he rode from Mainz he was murdered near Marburg on the 30th of July 1233. He left an Epistola ad papam de miraculis Sanctae Elisabethae, which was first published at Cologne in 1653. Conrad is chiefly known to English readers through Charles Kingsley’s Saint’s Tragedy, in which he is a prominent character.
See E. L. T. Henke, Konrad von Marburg (Marburg, 1861), B. Kaltner, Konrad von Marburg und die Inquisition in Deutschland (Prague, 1882); A. Hausrath, Der Ketzermeister Konrad von Marburg (Leipzig, 1883); J. Beck, Konrad von Marburg (Breslau, 1871).
CONRAD OF WÜRZBURG (d. 1287), the chief German poet of the second half of the 13th century. As little is known of his life as that of any other epic poet of the age. By birth probably a native of Würzburg, he seems to have spent part of his life in Strassburg and his later years in Basel, where he died on the 31st of August 1287. Like his master, Gottfried of Strassburg, Conrad did not belong to the nobility, from which most of the poets of the time sprang. His varied and voluminous literary work is comparatively free from the degeneration which set in so rapidly in Middle High German poetry during the 13th century. His style, although occasionally diffuse, is dignified in tone; his metre is clearly influenced by Gottfried’s tendency to relieve the monotony of the epic-metre with ingenious variations, but it is always correct; his narratives—if we except Die halbe Birn, of which the authorship is doubtful—are free from coarseness, to which the popular poets at this time were prone, and, although mysticism and allegory bulk largely in his works, they were not allowed, as in so many of his contemporaries, to usurp the place of poetry. Conrad has written a number of legends (Alexius, Silvester, Pantaleon) illustrating Christian virtues and dogmas; Der Welt Lohn, a didactic allegory on the familiar theme of “Frau Welt,” the woman beautiful in front, unsightly and loathsome behind. Die goldene Schmiede is a panegyric of the Virgin; the Klage der Kunst, an allegorical defence of poetry. His most ambitious works are two enormously long epics, Der trojanische Krieg (of more than 40,000 verses and unfinished at that!) and Partenopier und Meliur, both of which are based on French originals. Conrad’s powers are to be seen to best advantage in his shorter verse romances, such as Engelhart und Engeltrut, Kaiser Otto and Das Herzemaere; the last mentioned, the theme of which has been made familiar to modern readers by Uhland in his Kastellan von Coucy, is one of the best poems of its kind in Middle High German literature.
There is no uniform edition of Conrad’s works. Der trojanische Krieg was edited by A. von Keller for the Stuttgart Literarische Verein (1858); Partenopier und Meliur, by K. Bartsch (1871); Die goldene Schmiede and Silvester, by W. Grimm (1840 and 1841); Alexius, by H. F. Massmann (1843) and R. Henczynski (1898); Der Welt Lohn, by F. Roth (1843); Engelhart und Engeltrut, by M. Haupt (1844, 2nd ed., 1890); Klage der Kunst, by E. Joseph (1885). The shorter poems, Otto and Herzemaere, will be found most conveniently in Erzählungen und Schwänke des Mittelalters, edited by H. Lambel (2nd ed., 1883). Modern German translations of Conrad’s most popular poems have been published by K. Pannier and H. Krüger in Reclam’s Universalbibliothek (1879–1891). On Conrad see F. Pfeiffer in Germania, iii. (1867), and W. Golther in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 44 (1898), s.v.. “Würzburg, Konrad von.”
CONRAD, JOSEPH (1856–), English novelist, was born in Poland, his full name having been Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski. He learnt French in infancy, but did not learn English until he was nearly twenty. At Constantinople, where he had gone with the intention of joining the Russians against the Turks, he joined the French merchant navy. Later on he found his way to Lowestoft in England, and, after obtaining his mate’s certificate, he sailed for the East in an English ship. The story of this voyage is told in Youth, and other Tales (1902). His chief other volumes are Almayer’s Folly (1895), An Outcast of the Islands (1896), The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897), Tales of Unrest (1898), Lord Jim (1900), Typhoon (1903), The Mirror of the Sea (1906), and, with F. M. Hueffer, Romance (1903). All these are remarkable for their vigorous English style, and the vivid description of exotic scenes; the author being especially successful in tracing the effects of tropical surroundings and the contact with Asiatics on European sailors and traders. His play One Day More was produced by the Stage Society in June 1905.
CONRADIN, or Conrad the Younger (1252–1268), king of Jerusalem and Sicily, son of the German king Conrad IV., and Elizabeth, daughter of Otto II. duke of Bavaria, was born at Wolfstein in Bavaria on the 25th of March 1252. Having lost his father in 1254 he grew up at the court of his uncle and guardian, Louis II. duke of Bavaria; but little is known of his appearance and character except that he was “beautiful as Absalom, and spoke good Latin.” Although he had been entrusted by his father to the guardianship of the church, he was pursued with relentless hatred by pope Innocent IV., who sought to bestow the kingdom of Sicily on a foreign prince. Innocent’s successor, Alexander IV., continued this policy, offered the Hohenstaufen lands in Germany to Alphonso X. king of Castile, and forbade Conradin’s election as king of the Romans. Having assumed the title of king of Jerusalem and Sicily, Conradin took possession of the duchy of Swabia in 1262, and remained for some time in his dukedom. Conradin’s first invitation to Italy came from the Guelphs of Florence, by whom he was asked to take arms against Manfred, who had been crowned king of Sicily in 1258. This invitation was refused by Louis on his nephew’s behalf, but after Manfred’s fall in 1266 envoys from the Ghibelline cities came to Bavaria and urged him to come and free Italy. Pledging his lands, he crossed the Alps and issued a manifesto at Verona setting forth his claim on Sicily. Notwithstanding the defection of his uncle Louis and other companions who returned to Germany, the threatenings of Pope Clement IV., and lack of funds, his cause seemed to prosper. Proclaimed king of Sicily, his partisans both in the north and south of Italy took up arms; his envoy was received with enthusiasm in Rome; and the young king himself was welcomed at Pavia and Pisa. In November 1267 he was excommunicated; but his fleet was victorious over that of Charles duke of Anjou, who had taken possession of Sicily on Manfred’s death; and in July 1268 he was himself greeted with immense enthusiasm at Rome. Having strengthened his forces, he marched towards Lucera to join the Saracens. On the 23rd of August 1268 he encountered the troops of Charles at Tagliacozzo, but the eagerness of his soldiers to obtain plunder gave the victory to the French. Escaping from the field of battle Conradin reached Rome, but acting on advice to leave the city he reached Astura, where he was seized and handed over to Charles of Anjou. At Naples he was tried as a traitor, and on the 29th of October was beheaded with his friend and companion Frederick
