Death of Henry V ends the Salian dynasty

May 23, 1125

The last of the Salian emperors died childless at Utrecht, leaving the German princes to choose their next ruler. They picked the Saxon duke Lothair III rather than the dead emperor's Hohenstaufen nephew, sowing the rivalry that would set Welfs against Waiblingen for generations. The Salian dynasty had governed the empire for over a century, leaving behind the half-finished cathedrals and institutional quarrels that defined the German medieval state.