he son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer and of Worms as an infant when Henry died at age twenty. As he matured he came to be well known beyond his power base in Worms and Speyer, so when the Saxon line died off and the elected monarchy for the German realm stood vacant, he was elected King in 1024 at the respectably old age of thirty-four years and crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on 26 March 1027, becoming the first of four kings and emperors of the Salian Dynasty.