on his deathbed in forchheim, in december 918, king conrad assembled the german princes to arrange his succession. according to the medieval chronicler widukind of corvey, he persuaded eberhard to forgo any ambition for the german crown and to urge the prince-electors of the empire to choose his former rival, the ottonian duke henry the fowler, as his successor. eberhard was assigned to personally hand over the royal insignia to henry at the imperial diet, which was held in may 919 in fritzlar. conrad considered this to be the only way to end the long-standing feud between saxons and franks and to prevent the dissolution of the empire into smaller states based on the german stem duchies.