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Heinrich II (May 6, 973 – July 13, 1024), also known as Saint Heinrich the Exuberant, was Holy Roman Emperor (“Romanorum Imperator”) from 1014. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler of the Ottonian line. As Duke Heinrich IV of Bavaria, appointed in 995, Heinrich became King of the Romans (“Rex Romanorum”) following the sudden death of his second cousin, Emperor Otto III in 1002, was made King of Italy (“Rex Italiae”) in 1004, and crowned Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII in 1014.

The son of Heinrich II, Duke of Bavaria, and his wife Gisela of Burgundy, the eldest daughter of King Conrad I of Burgundy (c. 925 – 993), presumably from his first marriage with Adelaide of Bellay. After her mother’s death, King Conrad married Matilda, a daughter of the West Frankish king Ludwig IV; among her half-siblings were Rudolph III, who succeeded his father as King of Arles (in French or ‘King of Burgundy’) and Bertha, who married King Robért II of West Francia in 996.

Emperor Heinrich II was a great-grandson of Heinrich I the Fowler, King of East Francia and a member of the Bavarian branch of the Ottonian dynasty. Since his father had rebelled against two previous emperors, the younger Heinrich spent long periods of time in exile, where he turned to Christianity at an early age, first finding refuge with the Bishop of Freising and later during his education at the cathedral school in Hildesheim.

He succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria in 995 as “Heinrich IV”. As duke, he attempted to join his second-cousin, Emperor Otto III, in suppressing a revolt against imperial rule in Italy in 1002. Before Heinrich II could arrive, however, Otto III died of fever, leaving no heir.

After defeating several contenders to the throne, Heinrich II was crowned King of East Francia on July 9, 1002 as the first in a line of kings to adopt the title Rex Romanorum, (King of the Romans) an allusion to his perceived prerogative to the future appointment of Imperator Romanorum.

On May 15, 1004, he was anointed King of Italy (“Rex Italiae”). In that same year, Heinrich II joined Duke Jaromír of Bohemia in his struggle against the Poles, thus effectively incorporating the Duchy of Bohemia into the Holy Roman Empire.

In 999 Heinrich married Cunigunde of Luxembourg. This marriage granted him an extensive network of contacts in Germany’s western territories.

Cunigunde was one of eleven children born to Siegfried I of Luxembourg (922 – August 15, 998) and a woman called Hedwig. Numerous genealogists have tried to find out which Hedwig it is; there are different views. One of the most famous theses regarding her identity is from Joseph Depoin, who claims that Hedwig is the daughter of Duke Gilbert of Lorraine and his wife Gerberga of Saxony, the daughter of King Heinrich I the Fowler of East Francia.

If this is correct, then Cunigunde married her distant cousin, but Heinrich II was strongly against consanguineous marriage, so it can be assumed that this is not the case. It can also often be read that she is the daughter of Berthold of Schweinfurt from the House of Babenberg and Eilika of Walbeck, daughter of Count Lothar. Cunigunde’s paternal grandmother, also called Cunigunde, was a Carolingian. So Cunigunde of Luxembourg was a seventh-generation descendant of Charlemagne. She married King Heinrich II of East Francia in 999.

It is said that she had long wanted to be a nun, and that her marriage to Heinrich II was a spiritual one (also called a “white marriage”); that is, they married for companionship alone, and by mutual agreement did not consummate their relationship. It has been claimed that Cunigunde made a vow of virginity with Heinrich’s consent prior to their marriage.

The truth of this is debatable; while the couple were both certainly childless, it is supposed by some authors that later hagiographers mistakenly construed the fact to imply a virginal marriage. Others, however, accept that the marriage was purely platonic.

On February 14, 1014, Pope Benedict VIII crowned Heinrich Holy Roman Emperor (“Romanorum Imperator”) in Rome.

For his remarkable personal piety and enthusiastic promotion of the Church, he was canonized by Pope Eugene III in 1146. He is the only medieval German monarch to ever have been honoured as a saint. Heinrich II’s wife was the equally pious Empress Cunigunde, who was canonized in 1200 by Pope Innocent III.

As the union produced no children, the German nobles elected Count Conrad II of Speyer a great-great-grandson of Emperor Otto I the Great to succeed him after his death in 1024. Conrad was the first of the Salian dynasty of emperors.

The son of Franconian Count Heinrich of Speyer and Adelaide of Metz of the Matfriding dynasty, that had ruled the Duchy of Lorraine from 959 until 972, Conrad inherited the titles of count of Speyer and Worms during childhood after his father had died around the year 990.

He extended his influence beyond his inherited lands, as he came into favor of the princes of the kingdom. When the imperial dynastic line was left without a successor after Emperor Heinrich II’s death in 1024, on September 4, an assembly of the imperial princes appointed the 34-year-old Conrad King of the Romans (Rex romanorum).

On March 26, 1027, Pope John XIX crowned Conrad and his wife Gisela of Swabia as emperor and empress, respectively, in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.