Emperor Conrad planned a marriage alliance with the Byzantine Empire and dispatched one of his advisors, Bishop Werner of Strasbourg, to Constantinople. The bishop presented himself as a pilgrim, but Stephen, who had been informed of his actual purpose, refused to let him enter into his country in the autumn of 1027. Conrad's biographer, Wipo of Burgundy recorded that the Bavarians incited skirmishes along the common Imperial-Hungarian border in 1029, causing a rapid deterioration in relations between the two countries. In 1030, open conflict erupted. Conrad launched an invasion into Hungary, but was forced to retreat when the Hungarians had successfully used scorched earth tactics. Conrad left the matters in Hungary to his son Henry, so he was free to leave and address the problem with his stepson Ernest II, the deposed Duke of Swabia. Henry settled the conflict by 1031 by bestowing titles of eastern Bavarian lands in between the Leitha River and Fischa River to the Hungarian nobility. Hungary and the Empire remained at peace from 1031 through to Henry's own reign as Emperor in 1040.