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Rh and Hungary. According to one account the actual cause for quarrel arose through the Emperor's refusal to grant, at the request of King Stephen, the dukedom of Bavaria to his son Henry (he was the nephew of the Emperor Henry II, whose sister Gisela had married Stephen of Hungary). In 1030 Conrad took the field against him; this, like the Polish campaign, was a miserable disaster. Conrad did no more than ravage the border country as far as the Raab, and retired with an army imperilled by famine, while the Hungarians pursued the retreating Germans and captured Vienna, which celebrated city is now for the first time mentioned under this name. Břatislav, who had gained the only success in the Polish campaign of the previous year, was again conspicuous for his services to the Empire; he defeated the Hungarians and devastated their country as far as the town of Gran. The young King Henry, who as Duke of Bavaria was closely concerned with the affairs of Hungary, was entrusted with the settlement of the quarrel with King Stephen. By the cession of a small tract of country lying between the Fischa and the Leitha he secured, in the spring of 1031, peace and the restoration of Vienna.

Conrad, relieved of danger from Hungary, was at liberty to cope effectively with the troublesome Duke of Poland. Allied with Mesco's banished brother Otto, Conrad organised a combined attack; while he advanced from the west, Otto Bezprim and his protector Yarosláv, Prince of Kiev, were to attack from the east. Mesco, thus threatened from two sides, soon gave way and agreed to the terms stipulated by the Emperor. He was required to surrender the border territory which his father had acquired by the treaty of Bautzen (1018), the prisoners and booty captured in the raids upon Saxony, and also the Upper and Lower Lausitz which were attached respectively to the Meissen and the East Marks. Poland was thus once more confined within the limits of the old duchy as it was before the ascendancy of Boleslav Chrobry. The attack of Bezprim had not synchronised with that of the German troops; it took place after this peace had been concluded. He too, however, was successful; he drove Mesco from the throne, of which he himself took possession, and, by recognising the overlordship of the Emperor, was himself recognised as the lawful duke of Poland. His reign, characterised by the most brutal savagery, was cut short in the next year (1032) by assassination, engineered in part by the enemies he had made in his own circle, in part by the intrigues of the brother he had expelled. Mesco promptly returned from Bohemia, where he had taken refuge with Duke Udalrich. In spite of his apparent willingness to enter into friendly relations with the Emperor, we hear of a renewed outbreak of war before the end of the year. But Conrad was anxious to rid himself of the vexatious business and to be free to make good his claim to the Burgundian crown. He therefore received the duke's submission at Merseburg (1033), and allowed him to retain his dukedom, subject to his feudal superiority and reduced in extent