Territorial evolution of France face up to the formidable challenge with which they were presented. The Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066 through his victory at Hastings over the Saxons. On the extinction of his male line of descent, his heir was the Duke of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, grandson by his mother of Henry I of England. Two months before he ascended to the English throne, as Henry II, he married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, the richest heiress in the French kingdom and ex-wife of the King of France. The kings of France nevertheless, held some trump cards:
Conrad II, Duke of Carinthia Conrad II, Duke of Carinthia Conrad II ( – 20 July 1039), called the Younger (), a member of the Salian dynasty, was Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona from 1035 until his death. Named after his great-grandfather, Conrad was probably born on 12 July 990. At the time, his family had not yet started calling themselves the "Salians". Conrad's parents were Duke Conrad I of Carinthia and his consort Matilda, a daughter of the Conradine duke Herman II of Swabia. His father died in 1011, when Conrad the Younger was still a minor, and King Henry II vested