Princes of the Holy Roman Empire
Sieghard in turn safely conducted the king across the Alps. Back in Germany, King Henry in addition nominally assigned the suzerainty over the marches of Carniola and Istria to the patriarchs as ecclesiastical Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The act, traditionally regarded as the birth of the ecclesiastical state of Aquileia, led to a long-running conflict with the rivaling margraves from the Carinthian House of Sponheim and the Andechs dukes of Merania.