“ Boleslaus, duke of the Poles, took the title of king, and assumed a threatening attitude; Rudolph III., king of Burgundy or Arles, who had arranged that the emperor Henry II. should succeed him, refused to make a similar arrangement with Conrad; many of the Italians were hoping to obtain a king from France; and some German princes, including Conrad the younger, and the king’s step-son Ernest II., duke of Swabia, showed signs of revolt. ”

“ The death of Boleslaus in 1025, and a cession of some lands north of the Eider to Canute, king of Denmark and England, secured the northern and eastern frontiers of Germany from attack, and the king’s domestic enemies were soon crushed. In 1026 Conrad set out for Italy, and supported by Heribert, archbishop of Milan, assumed the Lombard crown in that city, and afterwards overcame the resistance which was offered by Pavia and Ravenna. Travelling to Rome, he was crowned emperor in the presence of the kings of Burgundy and Denmark by Pope John XIX., on the 26th of March 1027. ”

“ He ruled the church with a firm hand; appointed his own supporters, regardless of their individual fitness, to bishoprics and abbeys; and sought by inquiry to restore to the royal domain the estates granted to the church by his predecessors. ”