Stephen convinced some pilgrims and merchants to settle in Hungary. Gerard, a Benedictine monk who arrived in Hungary from the Republic of Venice between 1020 and 1026, initially planned to continue his journey to the Holy Land, but decided to stay in the country after his meeting with the king. Stephen also established a number of Benedictine monasteriesincluding the abbeys at Pécsvárad, Zalavár and Bakonybélin this period. The "Long Life of Saint Gerard" mentions Stephen's conflict with Ajtony, a chieftain in the region of the river Maros. Many historians date their clash to the end of the 1020s, although Györffy and other scholars put it at least a decade earlier. The conflict arose when Ajtony, who "had taken his power from the Greeks", according to Saint Gerard's legend, levied tax on the salt transported to Stephen on the river. The king sent a large army led by Csanád against Ajtony, who was killed in battle. His lands were transformed into a Hungarian county and the king set up a new bishopric at Csanád (Cenad, Romania), Ajtony's former capital, which was renamed after the commander of the royal army. According to the "Annales Posonienses", the Venetian Gerard was consecrated as the first bishop of the new diocese in 1030. Stephen's brother-in-law, Emperor Henry, died on 13 July 1024. He was succeeded by a distant relative, Conrad II (r. 1024–1039), who adopted an offensive foreign policy. Conrad II expelled Doge Otto Orseolothe husband of Stephen's sisterfrom Venice in 1026. He also persuaded the Bavarians to proclaim his own son, Henry, as their duke in 1027, although Stephen's son, Emeric had a strong claim to the Duchy of Bavaria through his mother. Emperor Conrad planned a marriage alliance with the Byzantine Empire and dispatched one of his advisors, Bishop Werner of Strasbourg, to Constantinople. In the autumn of 1027, the bishop seemingly travelled as a pilgrim, but Stephen, who had been informed of his actual purpose, refused to let him enter into his country. Conrad II's biographer Wipo of Burgundy narrated that the Bavarians incited skirmishes along the common borders of Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire in 1029, causing a rapid deterioration in relations between the two countries.