CONRAD, MARQUIS OF TYRE, threw himself into Tyre when beset by Saladin, and held it till Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus arrived; was assassinated by emissaries of the Old Man of the Mountain in 1192.

CONRAD I., count of Franconia, elected on the extinction of the Carlovingian line Emperor of the Germans, which he continued to be from 911 to 915; fell wounded in battle with the Huns, egged on by a rival.

CONRAD II., the Salic, of the same family as the preceding; elected Emperor of Germany in 1024; reigned 15 years, extending the empire, suppressing disorders, and effecting reforms.

CONRAD III., founder of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; elected Emperor of Germany in 1138; had Henry the Proud, as head of the German Guelfs, for rival; crushed him at Weinsberg; joined Louis VII. of France on a third crusade, and returning, overthrew the Guelfs again, leaving Barbarossa as his heir; d. 1152.

CONRAD OF THUeRINGIA, a proud, quick, fiery-tempered magnate, seized the archbishop of Mainz once, swung him round, and threatened to cut him in two; stormed, plundered, and set fire to an imperial free town for an affront offered him; but admonished of his sins became penitent, and reconciled himself by monastic vow to the Pope and mankind about 1234.

CONRADIN THE BOY, or CONRAD V., the last representative of the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Romish Kaisers, had fallen into the Pope’s clutches, who was at mortal feud with the empire, and was put to death by him on the scaffold at Naples, October 25, 1265, the “bright and brave” lad, only 16, “throwing out his glove (in symbolic protest) amid the dark mute Neapolitan multitudes” that idly looked on.  See CARLYLE’S “FREDERICK THE GREAT” FOR THE CONRADS.

CONSALVI, Italian cardinal and statesman, born at Rome, secretary of Pius VII.; concluded the Concordat with Napoleon in 1801; represented the Pope at the Congress of Vienna; was a liberal patron of literature, science, and arts; continued minister of the Pope till his death (1757-1824).

CONSCIENCE, HENDRIK, a brilliant Flemish novelist, born at Antwerp; rose to popularity among his countrymen by his great national romance the “Lion of Flanders,” a popularity which soon extended all over Europe; his writings display great descriptive power and perfect purity of sentiment (1812-1883).

CONSCRIPT FATHERS, the collective name of members of the Roman Senate, and addressed as such, fathers as seniors and conscripts as enrolled.

CONSERVATION OF ENERGY, the doctrine that, however it may be transformed or dissipated, no fraction of energy is ever lost, that the amount of force, as of matter, in the universe, under all mutation remains the same.

CONSERVATISM, indisposition to change established laws and customs that have wrought beneficially in the past and contributed to the welfare of the country; in practical politics often a very different thing, and regarded by Carlyle in his time “a portentous enbodied sham; accursed of God, and doomed to destruction, as all lies are.”