Lessons Learned from Medieval Elections

The topic of elections typically brings to mind representative democracies or constitutional monarchies. Are there other forms and what can we learn from them?

East Francia celebrated its first royal election in 911 AD, beginning a political tradition that would last centuries. What can we learn from that moment and how can we apply it to our current situation in the United States?

Riding the Coattails

The tradition of electing kings in East Francia—which later became the Roman-German Kingdom—began with the Frankish Duke Conrad the Younger who was chosen to fill the vacancy left by the late King Louis the Child in 911 AD. His support among the princes—mainly among the Rhineland counts and dukes of Lotharingia—would later withdraw their favor only to bestow it on his enemy.

Conrad was not the only candidate for the vacant royal throne, as the Saxon Luidolfings had also maneuvered themselves into a strategic position as well. Despite their favorability among the majority of the counts of East Francia—particularly in the Duchies of Saxony and Bavaria and the eastern Sorbian March—the princes still agreed upon Conrad for the first election.

Conrad’s candidacy was marked with strife, hailing from a dynasty of Rhineland Franks who absolutely perceived Saxon and Bavarian counts as beneath them. However, his key flaw was that he had relied entirely upon the reputation of his father, Conrad the Elder, a Rhineland count and nephew of the late Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia. Conrad the Elder managed to secure an alliance of Frankish leaders and even pave the way for his son to become Duke of Franconia in the Main region.

However, Conrad the Elder’s efforts did not proceed without opposition, as the sons of the Thuringian family of Babenberg challenged Frankish rule East Francia. These ill-advised sons initiated a conflict, known in German as the Babenberger Fehde, or the Babenberg Feud. They sought to establish their family as a premier force in the east, having recently enjoyed the restitution of their County of Grabfeld that had been taken away in 841 AD by the Frankish Carolingian King, Louis the German.

Although Conrad I was elected in Forchheim, this throne in Cathedral of Aachen would become the seat of coronation for centuries to follow, beginning with Otto I.

Miscalculations

Having regained the territory they thought that belonged to them, Adalbert of the Babenberg family and his two brothers began accumulating comrades, thus forming a loose alliance of Saxons and other East Frankish counts who felt threatened by Conrad the Elder’s increasing presence. All too eager to take up battle, the three brothers attacked the Conradine force near the town of Fritzlar (in modern-day Hessen, Germany).

The chronicler Regino of Prüm—a Rhineland noble and former abbot of the Abbey of Prüm in the former Archdiocese of Trier—recorded the battle that took place on the 27th of February 905 AD. Noticing that the armies of Conrad the Elder and his allies were camped and somewhat inattentive, Adalbert stormed the field with a force of infantry and cavalry.

His quick advance forced the Conradine armies to muster and form a defense against the fast-arriving Babenbergs. Conrad split his army in three parts and ordered them to attack at different angles. However, the two parts not under his direct command feared the approaching stampede and fled. Furious that his own men had betrayed him, Conrad engaged both his fleeing soldiers and the Babenberg army. His men fought with the courage of despair as theirs was a futile mission against traitors and an overwhelming enemy.

In the end, Conrad and his men managed to kill two of Adalbert’s brothers, though he himself was slain on the field. Furious at the loss of his brothers, Adalbert ordered his forces to pillage the remains of the Conradine army and wreak havoc upon the villages that had once been loyal to Conrad the Elder. The massacres lasted three days and served only to dissuade the hard-won Saxon and Bavarian allies to abandon Adalbert.

Taking Account of Misdeeds

King Louis the Child and his regents ordered Adalbert to appear before the throne and take account of his brutality, but to no avail. Adalbert had at first barricaded himself in the city of Bamberg and later retreated to Castle Theres (near Schweinfurt). Having lost the support of nearly everyone—save his band of loyalists—Adalbert was charged with high treason and arrested by a force of East Frankish princes.

After a trial before the young king and the highest-ranking princes of the kingdom, Adalbert was sentenced to death and beheaded on September 9th, 906 AD. His passing marked the abrupt, but perhaps not entirely shocking, collapse of the Babenberg influence leaving a vacuum filled by their former allies. These more suave and politically clever princes who withheld their support of Adalbert’s crass maneuvers, sought to repair relations with their Rhineland counterparts.

Conrad the Younger, Duke of Franconia, had gained substantial reputation following the death of his father, enjoying both the support of his late father’s allies and the hesitant former allies of the Babenbergs. However, his own achievements were few and far between. Though as fortune would have it, King Louis the Child died in 911 AD, leaving a vacancy that the princes of the realm sought to fill.

Despite the fact that the Saxon Luidolfings—who had once been allied with the Babenbergs—were clearly the better choice, the princes elected Conrad the Younger instead. A betrayal of the eastern counts? Perhaps that was perceived so by some, but the election of a Rhineland Frank who served as duke of an eastern territory secured peace with the more powerful Western Franks who bordered the Rhineland.

As expected Conrad the Younger’s inexperience resulted in failure after failure in his attempts to unite East Francia under his rule. By the year 918 AD, while nearing his death, Conrad was suddenly moved to wisdom and gave his support to the candidacy of his political nemesis—the Luidolfing Henry the Fowler.

An excerpt of the 12th century Chronica St. Pantaleonis showing the genealogy of the Henry I and his descendants.

Going Forth

Henry was elected as the second non-Carolingian king of East Francia in May of 919 AD in the royal palace of Fritzlar by the princes. The place of his election was not coincidental, as it had been the place where his opponent’s father had fallen on the battlefield. In stark contrast to his predecessor, Henry’s election brought about a dynasty of kings and emperors who united East Francia and laid the foundations for the most powerful secular territory in Europe for centuries to come.

His son, Otto was elected by the princes in 936 AD, after which he succeeded in uniting the counties and duchies through the charism of his firm leadership skills. He victoriously thwarted invasions by West Francia, Vikings, Prussian Slavs, and the Magyars—whose defeat invited the occasion of the conversion to Christianity.

Additionally, Otto I strengthened bonds with the Anglo-Saxons in England and renewed formal relations with the Byzantines, who had hitherto seen East Francia as a horde of barbarians. Within a ten years of Otto’s imperial coronation in 962 AD, his son, Otto II, was married to Theophanu—a Byzantine princess and one of the great Empresses of the Holy Roman Empire.

The election of Conrad the Younger, an inexperienced duke who had only ever followed in the shadow of greater men, was a clear mistake by the princes and risked further disunity of the kingdom. What would have happened had the princes instead taken a Luidolfing at that time? Although Conrad’s failed rule lasted only eight years, much can happen in a short time span.

Going into the current election of 2024 AD—1113 years since the election of Conrad I—consider the culture that a future leader is likely to inculcate and the unity that leader is capable of instilling. Consider how the candidate will impact the country’s stance against foreign adversaries, and how that candidate can unite the eristic factions plaguing U.S. politics. Although we may not be princes, we can still make decisions of great and lasting magnitude.