2-715-082 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Women of Weinsberg, 21 December 1140', (1936). 'Die Weiber Von Weinsberg, 21 Dezember 1140'. Conrad III (1093-1152), King of Germany, laid siege to the town of Weinsberg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, (now in the modern state of Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany). His intention was to destroy Weinsberg and imprison its inhabitants, but a surrender was negotiated in which the women of the town were granted the right to leave with whatever they could carry on their shoulders. They took no possessions, but instead carried their husbands. Conrad accepted the ingenious trick, saying that a king should always stand by his word. From "Bilder Deutscher Geschichte", (Pictures of German History), No.12, cigarette card album. [Cigaretten-Bilderdienst, Altona-Bahrenfeld, Hamburg, Germany, 1936]