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December 21, 1140
Eight hundred and seventy-two years ago today, the army of Welf VI released the Weibertreu castle thereby ending the long siege of Weinsberg (a town in Southern Germany). The womenfolk of the castle were granted free departure and allowed to take what they could carry on their backs. They carried down their men, and so saved their lives, becoming known as treue Weiber ("loyal women").
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The merciful victor was none other than Welf's own brother Conrad Hohenstaufen (pictured). And the siege was best understood as a climatic event in the long struggle between the Staufers and the Welfs which was brought to a diplomatic conclusion in a peace agreement signed in Frankfurt in May 1142. But the conflict eventually resumed and a decision was forced at the Battle of Flochberg in 1150.
Although Conrad III was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, he was never crowned emperor and he continued to style himself "King of the Romans" until his death in 1152.
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