page_title: Konrad von Hochstaden
section_title: A Man of Influence
hierarchical_section_title: Konrad von Hochstaden / Life / A Man of Influence
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Rathausturm Köln mit den Figuren von: Meister Gerhard (von Riele), Konrad von Hochstaden, Gerhard Unmaze Details zu den Statuen: Bildhauer der Meister Gerhard-Statue: Hilarius Schwarz Bildhauer der Konrad von Hochstaden-Statue: Rainer Walk Bildhauer der Gerhard Unmaze-Statue: Rainer Walk Details zu den Konsolen: Thema der Konsole unter der Statue des Meister Gerhard: „Schreiber“. Bildhauer: Gerd Haas Thema der Konsole unter der Statue des Konrad von Hochstaden: „Kölner Spiegel“. Bildhauer: Herbert Rausch (Was macht der da?) Thema der Konsole unter der Statue des Gerhard Unmaze: „Affen“. Bildhauer: Gerd Haas
context_page_description: Konrad von Hochstaden was Archbishop of Cologne from 1238 to 1261.
context_section_description: For the first few months of his reign, the new archbishop sided with the emperor in his conflict with Pope Gregory IX, but for unknown reasons went over to the papal party shortly after the emperor's excommunication (12 March 1239). The whole temporal administration of Konrad was a series of struggles with neighbouring princes and the citizens of Cologne, who refused to acknowledge the temporal sovereignty of the archbishop over their city. Konrad was generally victorious, but his often treacherous manner of warfare has left many dark spots on his reputation. When Pope Innocent IV deposed Frederick II (17 July 1245), it was chiefly due to the influence of Konrad that the pope's candidate, Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia, was elected king; when Henry died after a short reign of seven months (17 February 1247), it was again the influence of Konrad that placed the crown on the head of the youthful William of Holland.
   In recognition of these services, Pope Innocent made him Apostolic legate in Germany (14 March 1249), an office which had become vacant by the death of Archbishop Siegfried III of Mainz, five days previously. The clergy and laity of Mainz desired to have the powerful Konrad of Cologne as their new archbishop. Konrad seems to have secretly encouraged them, but for diplomatic reasons referred them to the pope, who kindly but firmly refused to place the two most important ecclesiastical provinces of Germany under the power of one man.
  Shortly after this decision the hitherto friendly relations between Pope Innocent IV and the archbishop ceased, and in April 1250, the Apostolic legation in Germany was committed to Pierre de Colmieu, Bishop of Albano. At the same time began Konrad's estrangement from King William, which finally led to open rebellion. With all the means of a powerful and unscrupulous prince, Konrad attempted to dethrone William and probably would have succeeded had not the king's premature death made the archbishop's intrigues unnecessary. After the death of King William (28 January 1256), Konrad played an important role in the election of the new king. He sold his vote for a large sum to Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III of England, and crowned him at Aachen on 17 May 1257. This was the last important act of Konrad. He died on 28 September 1261 and is buried in the cathedral of Cologne, of which he laid the cornerstone on 15 August 1248.
caption: Konrad von Hochstaden at the tower of Cologne City Hall standing atop an autofellatio-performing grotesque.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Rathausturm Koeln - Konrad von Hochstaden - Gerhard Unmaze", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 40D", "Image DateTime": "2009:09:10 22:49:10", "Image Artist": "Raimond Spekking (raimond.spekking@gmail.com)", "Image Copyright": "The copyright is hold by the artist. This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons/Shared-Alike 3.0 (cc-by-sa-3-0) and the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html", "Image ExifOffset": "506", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "658", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4755", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:09:05 18:19:40", "EXIF FocalLength": "150"}