territorial policies before his royal tenure as early as 1111, when he installed count Adolf of Schauenburg in Holstein and Stormarn. In an act of royal consolidation policy Lothair established the Landgraviate of Thuringia, that encompassed the remaining and predominantly non-contiguous estates of the ill-fated former Merovingian Duchy of Thuringia. The brutal conquest of the old Thuringii kingdom under king Chlothar I had left the area devastated. Subsequently the Franks desired to rule the acquisition, which proved to be only partly successful, as a long process of depopulation and recurring population replacement by Franconians, Bavarians and Christianized Slavs followed. The 1129 appointment of Herman of Winzenburg to the comital office was a failure, as he allegedly was deposed a year later on charges of breach of the peace. The sources, however provide conflicting dates. The 1131 investiture of Louis marked the beginning of smooth Ludowingian rule for more than a century. In 1134 Lothar appointed the Ascanian Albert the Bear as Margrave of Brandenburg and in 1136 Conrad the Great of Wettin, already margrave of Meissen, for the office of the Margraviate of Lusatia, thereby uniting the two marches. In addition, he petitioned the pope to grant more executive rights for the Archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg. King Eric II of Denmark was made an imperial prince of the emperor in 1135, and member of the Reichstag. Lothair's diplomatic missions to the warring parties of Poland and Bohemia/Hungary were successful and resulted in overdue tribute payment by the Polish Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth for the 1121 established Duchy of Pomerania, which in addition to the island of Rügen was eventually secured as a fief of the Empire. Relations with the Papacy The 1130 papal election had resulted in another schism. A minority of the cardinals elected Innocent II before a majority of the cardinals appointed Anacletus II in a tumultuous process. Both popes claimed to have been legally elected and in a first collision Anacletus prevailed. Innocent had to leave Rome and fled to France. Nonetheless, Anacletus could only secure the support of Roger II of Sicily, Innocent was, with the help of Bernard of Clairvaux, able to secure the support of King Louis VI of France and King Henry I of England. Both popes offered Lothair the imperial crown. The king was occupied with the Staufer resistance and once again it was Bernard of Clairvaux who convinced the souvereign