According to him, "the entire company of the princes ... from the immense extent of the transalpine realm (as well as certain barons from Italy)" met in Frankfurt by early March to elect a successor to King Conrad III, who had died barely two weeks earlier at Bamberg on 15 February 1152.
In his own letter to Otto of Freising listing the accomplishments of his first five years on the throne, Frederick does not mention his election, but says only that "we were anointed at Aachen and received the crown of the German realm."
[2] Since no document was issued during Frederick's brief time in Frankfurt, the names of those participating in his election are not directly attested and can only be inferred.
They preferred him for his proven valour and his descent from "two renowned families", the Staufer on his father's side and the Welfs on his mother's.
It was carried by Bishop Eberhard II of Bamberg, who has been accused of altering the text of the only copy that survives in Wibald of Stavelot's letter book.