Background
Conrad I was a son of Duke Berthold II and his wife, Agnes of Rheinfelden.
Conrad I was a son of Duke Berthold II and his wife, Agnes of Rheinfelden.
He spent most of his life stemming the growing power of the House of Hohenstaufen and to this end, allied himself with the House of Guelph. In 1122, Conrad I succeeded Berthold III as Duke of Zähringen. In this situation, he benefitted from the situation Emperor Lothar III found himself in.
He rejected Renaud"s claim, with the dubious argument that Renaud had failed to comply with his duty to attend the Emperor"s court.
Conrad received the title Rector of Burgundy, which denoted, as least theoretically, a kind of representative of the Emperor in the Kingdom of Burgundy. In 1138, King Conrad III of Germany grabbed power and the power conflict between the Guelphs and the Hohenstaufen relaxed.
Until the late 1150s, the Dukes of Zähringen were among the Hohenstaufen"s most loyal supporters. Conrad I died in 1152 and was buried in the family vault in the Abbey of Saint Peter in the Black Forest.
Conrad was married to Clementia of Luxembourg-Namur and had at least five children:.