Conrad III of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III, and from 1138 until his death in 1152 King of the Romans in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Duke Frederick I of Swabia and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.
King Conrad III (Cunradus rex) in a miniature from the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis, c. 1240
Conrad III and his armies in Hungary. Image from the Chronicon Pictum
The Hohenstaufen dynasty, also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy. The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen' is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of the Swabian Jura, near the town of Göppingen. Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268.
The Hohenstaufen Castle ruin
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his sons King Henry VI and Duke Frederick V of Swabia, Historia Welforum, 1167/79, Weingarten Abbey
Frederick's Castel del Monte, in Andria, Apulia, Italy.
Frederick II with his falcon, from De arte venandi cum avibus, c. 1240, Vatican Library