Death of Emperor Henry II

July 13, 1024

The last Ottonian ruler, a limping, pious bureaucrat who founded Bamberg and crushed Italian revolts, died at his hunting lodge at Grone. He left no son. The German princes gathered at Kamba on the Rhine to choose a successor, ushering in the Salian dynasty and a new era. His wife Kunigunde retired to a convent, and both were eventually canonized as saints by the Church.