Toynbee "Currado_1"
Conrad III of Swabia, king of Germany (1138-1152), the first of the Hohenstaufen line, but never himself crowned emperor, [Hohenstaufen]. In 1147, at the instigation of St. Bernard, he undertook the disastrous Second Crusade, in company with Louis VII of France [Crociata]. He returned to Germany in 1149, and died at Bamberg three years later.

He is mentioned by Cacciaguida (in the Heaven of Mars), who says he followed C. and was knighted by him (el mi cinse de la sua milizia), and afterward met his death in his train while fighting against the Mohammedans [Par. xv. 139-148]. [Cacciaguida.]

Since there is no record of any Florentine's having been knighted by Conrad III, some think that D. may have confused him with Conrad II (1024-1039), who, according to Villani, undertook an expedition against the Saracens in Calabria, and passed through Florence on his way, knighting several Florentines who accompanied him:

Questi fu giusto uomo, e fece molte leggi, e tenne lo 'mperio in pace lungo tempo. Bene andò in Calavra contro a' Saracini ch'erano venuti a guastare il paese, e con loro combatteo, e con grande spargimento di sangue de' cristiani gli cacciò e conquise. Questo Currado si dilettò assai della stanza della città di Firenze quando era in Toscana, e molto l'avanzò e più cittadini di Firenze si feciono cavalieri di sua mano e furono al suo servigio. (iv. 9.)

Pietro di Dante in his note on this passage confounds the two Conrads, besides confusing Louis VI with Louis VII:

Loquitur Cacciaguida dicendo se fuisse cum imperatore Corrado de Soapia, cum in Calabria contra Saracenos ivit et bellavit, cum quo ivit Ludovicus Grossus rex Francorum; coepitque dictus Corradus tertius imperare in 1148.

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press