onrad IV (1228-54), emperor of Germany, of the house of Hohenstaufen, was the second son of the Emperor Frederick II. Elected king of the Romans (1237), he governed Germany during the long absence of his father in Italy, and after his death (1250) became emperor. Confronted with the enmity of the Pope, who excommunicated him, he was preparing to invade Germany at the head of a great army to reestablish his authority there, when he died of fever at Lavello. [World Wide Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1935]

Back