We present here the full Slavic contingent from Wipo’s The Deeds of Conrad II (Gesta Chuonradi II imperatoris). We previously featured one little component of that work but here is the full account in Karl Morrison’s translation.
Wipo of Burgundy (also Wippo circa 995 – circa 1048) was Conrad’s chaplain and served also his son Henry III so he was intimately familiar with the goings on at court. Although he is obviously biased towards his masters, his sycophancy does not prevent him from delivering a number of interesting facts.
I. On the Assembly of Princes
“In the year 1024 from the incarnation of the Lord, the Emperor Henry II, although of sound mind, was taken with an infirmity of the body, which prevailing, he departed this life the 3rd of the Ides July [July 13]… [lists the various eminent members of the Empire] These were the dukes, on the other hand, contemporaries of the wove-mentioned men: … Udalric, duke of Bohemia…”
II. On the Election of the King
“…While all the magnates, and, so to say, the valor and the vitals of the kingdom, had convened there, they pitched camps on this side and in the region about the Rhine. As it [the Rhine] separated Gaul from Germany the Saxons, with their neighbors, the Slavs, the eastern Franks, the Bavarians, and the Alamanni, convened from the German side; and from Gaul, the Franks who live above the Rhine, the Ribuarians, and the Lotharingians were joined together.
IX. Of Boleslaus, Duke of the Slavs
In the same year [1025] which I have mentioned above, Boleslaus Sclavigen [of the Slavic nation], duke of the Poles, took for himself in injury to King Conrad the regal insignia and the royal name. Death swiftly killed his temerity.”
“But his son Misico, similarly rebellious, cast his own brother Otto out into the province of Russia because he favored the partisans of the King [Conrad]. I shall tell in its proper place how King Conrad afterwards curbed the impudence of this Misico and the perfidy of a certain Udalric, duke of Bohemia.”
XXI. That the King of Burgundy Came to meet the Emperor at Basel
“…Shortly after, Adalbero, duke of the [H]istrians or Carinthians, convicted of less majesty, was exiled with his sons by the Emperor, and that Cuono just mentioned received from the Emperor his dukedom, which the father of this very Cuono is said to have had once. So Duke Cuono, as long as he lived, remained faithful and one who strove well for the Emperor and also for his son, King Henry.”
XXIX. Rudolf, King of Burgundy, Died, and Odo Invaded His Realm
“In the year of the Lord 1032, Rudolf, king of Burgundy, the uncle of the Empress Gisela, died in peace. Count Odo Francigen, son of his sister, invaded his realm, and took certain very well-armed castles or cities by craft or battle. Neither did he dare to make himself king nor, indeed, did he wish to lose the kingdom. Some persons related that he had often said that he never wished to be king, yet always to be the master [magister] of a king. In this fashion he drew away [for himself] a great part of Burgundy, although King Rudolf had already confirmed, not long ago, through a solemn oath that the kingdom of Burgundy should go to Emperor Conrad and his son, King Henry, after his death. But while Count Odo did these things in Burgundy, Emperor Conrad was in Sclavonia with his troops.* What he did there and how he afterwards repelled Odo from Burgundy, I shall tell in the following [passages].”
* note: In his expedition against Misico (Mesko), which was begun in 1031 and concluded with a treaty at Merseburg in 1032. [notes are Morrison’s]
“When the aforementioned Boleslaus, duke of the Poles, died, he left two sons, Misico and Otto. Misico persecuted his brother Otto and expelled him into Russia. While Otto lived there for some time in a miserable condition, he began to ask the favor of Emperor Conrad, in order that through his intercession and assistance he might be restored to his fatherland. Since the Emperor was willing to do this, he decided that he himself would attack Misico with troops on one side and Otto on the other. Since Misico was unable to withstand this attack, he fled into Bohemia to Duke Udalric, against whom at that title the Emperor was enraged. But Udalric was willing, in order to please the Emperor, to give Misico up to him. Caesar renounced this dishonorable pact, saying that he did not wish to buy an emery from an enemy. Otto was restored to his fatherland and made duke by Caesar; but since, after some time, he acted wit too little caution, he was slain secretly by one of his household.** Then Misico sought in every way the favor of the Empress Gisela, and of the othe princes, that he might be found worthy to return to the favor of the Emperor. Caesar, moved by compassion, granted him pardon; and after the province of the Poles had been divided into three parts, he made Misico tetrarch and commended the remaining two parts to two other men. So, with his power diminished, his temerity was reduced. After the death of Misico,*** Casimir, his son, has served our emperors faithfully until this very time.****”
** note: 1032
*** note: 1034
**** note: From 1042 his relations with Henry II worsened, and in 1050 Henry readied an expedition against him. The expedition was canceled however by Casimir’s voluntary submission.
XXXIII. That King Henry Subjected the Slavs
“In the meantime, while the Emperor was doing those things in Burgundy which have been recounted above, his son, King Henry, although still in the years of boyhood, attended no less energetically the affairs of the commonwealth in Bohemia and in the other regions of the Slavs, where he vigorously subjugated Udalric, duke of Bohemia, as well as many other opponents of Caesar. When his father returned, he met him, and thus he gave to the peoples double joy because of the double victory.”
“Then, when troops had been collected from Saxony, the Emperor came upon those who are called Liutizi and who, once semi-Christian, now are wholly pagan through the wickedness of apostasy; and there he brought to an end an implacable conflict in an astounding fashion. For there were at that time many quarrels and border raids between the Saxons and the pagans. And when Caesar came, he began to to inure by which side the peace, which had lon bgeen inviolate between them, had been destroyed first. The pagans said that t peace was disturbed first by the Saxons and that this would be proven through a duel, if Caesar so commanded. The Saxons, on the other hand, although they contended unjustly, similarly pledged before the Emperor their willingness to engage in single combat to refute the pagans. The Emperor, even though he took the counsel of his princes, did not act cautiously enough and permitted this matter to be adjudged by a duel between them. At once two fighters met, each elected by his own men. The Christian began to fight boldly, confiding in that faith alone which, however, is dead without works of righteousness, and not diligently heeding the fact that God, who is Truth, disposes everything in true judgment, He who makes His sun to rise over good and evil, who causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. The pagan, however, put up a staunch resistance, having before his eyes only the consciousness of the truth for which he fought. Finally, the Christian fell, wounded by the pagan. Because of this outcome, the pagans became so greatly elated and bold that, if the Emperor had not been present, they would have thrown themselves upon the Christians straightaway. But, in order to curb their incursions, the Emperor constructed the castle of Werben in which he stationed garrisons of knight,s and he constrained the princes of Saxony by solemn oath and imperial order to resist the pagans of one accord. Then he returned to Franconia.”
“But in the following year, the same castle was taken by the pagans through craft, and many of our men who were in it were killed by them. Disturbed by this, the Emperor again came with troops to the Elbe River. But since the pagans prevented the crossing, the Emperor sent part of the army across under cover through another ford of the river. When the enemies had been set to flight in that way, Emperor Conrad entered the region by the now-free bank of the river and laid them so low with immense devastations and burnings everywhere except in impregnable places that afterwards they paid to him the tax which had been imposed by emperors of old and which was now increased.”
“For both before and at that time, Emperor Conrad toiled greatly amidst the nation of the Slavs. Because of this, one of us composed a short account in verse which afterwards he presented tot he Emperor. There one may read how the Emperor sometimes stood in h marshes up to the thighs, fighting in person and exhorting the soldiers to fight; and how, after the pagans had been conquered, he slew them with the greater ferocity because of a certain reprehensible superstition of their. For it is said that at some time the pagans kept a wooden effigy of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ in shameful mockery and spat upon it and struck it with blows; finally they tore out the eyes and cut off the hands and feet. To avenge these deeds, the Emperor in a similar manner mutilated a great multitude of captured pagans for one effigy of Christ and destroyed them with various deaths. Therefore Caesar is called an avenger of the Faith in these verses and is compared with the Roman princes Titus and Vespasian, who in avenging the Lord had exchanged thirty Jews for one coin since the Jews sold Christ for that many denarii.”
“After his return the Emperor imperiously cast aside whatever resistance he found in the kingdom. In the same year, Adalbero, duke of the Carinthians lost the favor of the Emperor and was deprived dog his dukedom and sent into exile.”
40. Verses on the Death of the Emperor Conrad
[after telling how Conrad subdued the Saxons, Alemanni, Bavarians, Rome, Ravenna and Verona (Pavia?) he comes to the Slavs]
“…The Emperor never tarried, everywhere the giver of peace.
He carried war to the pagans lest they harm Christians:
The marsh did not defend them, nor was there safety in the waters;
Well he made the barbarian Slavs and all peoples depraved feel his force.
O King God, guard the living and have mercy upon the dead.”
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