On his return from the Holy Land and from the Second Crusade, King Conrad III sails through the Adriatic and stops in Pula, from where he continues the journey towards Germany by land, traveling through Aquileia to Salzburg before finally reaching Regensburg (narrative account from The Deeds of Emperor Frederick I by Otto of Freising).
Expleta vero haca expeditione, principes ad propria redire disponunt, Romanus quidem per Greciam, alter vero per Calabriam et Apuliam. Itaque Conradus Romanorum princeps naves apud Ptholomaidamb ingressus ac per equor navigans, fratrem et amicum suum Manuel regie urbis principem in Achaię seu Thessalie finibus inveniens adiit cum eoque, tamquam ex longa via fatigatus laboribusc fractus et non modica infirmitate correptusd, per aliquod temporis spacium quievit. Ibi de reditu ordinans Fridericum ducem, fratris sui filium, ad cognoscendum vel potius ad corroborandum Imperii statum premisit. Qui per Bulgariam Pannoniamque iter faciens mense aprili ad propria rediit illoque quosdam ex propriis ministerialibus suis pro bono pacis, boni iudicis exercens officium, suspendio peremit.
Porro patruus suus rex, transactis aliquode, quibus in Grecia quieverat, diebus, ducens secum predictum Basiliensem episcopum et cancellarium Arnaldum fratremque suum Noricorum ducem Heinricum – nam Gwelfo dux per Calabriam et Apuliam reversus fuerat –, per Illiricum Dalmaticumque remigans equor, in propriis Imperii sui finibus aput Polanf Hystrię civitatem applicuit, ibique sonipedesg insidens ac per Aquilegiam transiens, in Iuvavia, que nunc Salzburgah dicta Baioarię metropolitana sedes esse noscitur, pentecosten cęlebravit, expletis ab eo, quo idem festum in Pannonię finibus egerat, duobus annis. Inde Ratispone cum magna principum frequentia curiam celebravit.
a) add. sup. l. B. b) sic B; Ptolomaidam ed. MGH. c) laboribusque ed. MGH. d) add. sup. l. B. e) aliquot ed. MGH. f) sic B: pro Polam, sicut ed. MGH. g) sonipede ed. MGH. h) Salzeburga ed. MGH.
The arrival of King Conrad III to Istria in April of 1149 (for the date see Ziegler, cited above) influenced a number of events, some of which changed the trajectory of the region’s history.
First, the Roman king intervened in the dispute between the Bishopric of Trieste and Bishop Wernhard on one side and the communities of Koper and Piran on the other regarding the tithes on oil. While the original judicial proceedings are lost, Conrad III’s verdict, pronounced in favor of Bishop Wernhard, was narrated during a dispute between Piran and the Bishopric of Koper and recorded as part of these proceedings with the following words:
“[D]um rex Conradus veniret de ultra mare et transiret per partes illas, conquestus fuit dictus W(ernardus) episcopus predicto regi de laicis qui non dabant decimam olei, et cogatur clericos interdictos celebrare divina. Unde rex vocavit eos ante se apud Aquilegiam, et condempnavit eos de decimis olei prefato episcopo, et precepit eis quod decetero solverent episcopo. Et dixit idem testis quod tunc temporis vidit litteras et legit quas Conradus rex fecerit super hoc; et hoc fuit in mense madii.” – the document is edited in Camillo de Franceschi, “Chartularium Piranense: Raccolta di documenti medievali su Pirano, con una dissertazione sulle origini e lo sviluppo del comune di Pirano,” Atti e memorie della Società istriana di archeologia e storia patria 36 (1924): doc. 63, pp. 81–86, quoted part on p. 81 (soon to be edited here as well).
More importantly, the king’s presence on the peninsula fostered pro-imperial sentiment and reminded the subjects that their de iure lord is the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, not the doge of Venice. What precisely happened following Conrad III’s departure cannot be known, but soon thereafter, most probably in 1150, Doge Dominico Morosini dispatched a mighty fleet to Pula that journeyed across the western coast of Istria up to Umag, receiving a total of five oaths of fealty and various tributes from the people of Pula, Rovinj, Poreč, Novigrad and Umag (see doc. 1150_FV).
The digital facsimile of ms. hereby dubbed B stem from the official web pages of Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel where they are freely available for consultation.
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