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CONRAD III

Volume 3 · 192 words · 1778 Edition

emperor of Germany in 1138. The duke of Bavaria opposed his election, and being put under the ban of the empire, and deprived of his duchy, he could not survive his disgrace. The margrave of Austria was ordered by the emperor to take possession of Bavaria; but Welfli, uncle to the deceased duke, attacked him, and was defeated near the castle of Winburgh: the battle fought upon this occasion is famous in history, as having given rise to the party-names of Guelphs and Gibbelines, afterwards assumed in Italy. The parole of the day with the Bavarians was Welfli, from the name of their general; that of the Imperialists Werblingen, from a small village where Frederic duke of Swabia, their commander, had been nursed: by degrees these names served to distinguish the two parties; and the Italians, who could not accustom themselves to such rough words, formed from them their Guelphs and Gibbelines. He died in 1152. CONRAD of Lichtenau, or Abbas Uspurgensis, was author of an universal Chronology from the creation to 1229, continued by an anonymous writer to Charles V. He collected a fine library, and died about the year 1240.