External threats to penetrate the heart of the Frankish world who hoarded wealth in churches and palaces. The Normans, or other Vikings who for over a century to terrorize the west coast, emboldened to go up rivers and sack the banks. Their armies are now up to besiege the cities or imposing heavy tributes. Even more incisive and ferocious hordes Magyars , the ancestors of riders Hungarians , swept into eastern Europe from 900 and sometimes install an army of looting.

Disintegration and the resulting power vacuum imperial decadence of the Church and monasteries which are under the influence or the commendation of the secular political powers, then warriors rivals. In the various principalities and kingdoms emerging from the West, the kings and princes respecting the principles called Carolingian bishops and abbots drawn from their immediate family. The related family clans eager to grab all positions of dignitaries and so earn revenues. A good bishop or abbot is a child or a layman, whose wealthy family is of noble lineage claimed princely or aristocratic regal, but the spirit of family solidarity or failing vassal is required to return the regal authority. Any reward or enjoyment fdum, assigning a title or property in turn requires ministerium, that is to say a proper service to the rules of equivalence honorable calibrated. The ecclesiastical monopolized follow this model begins to apply to all functions of administrative or military command. It is common for bishops to have women and children despite the ban which made them to marry after their consecration. They often combine various episcopal and does not reside in their parish or diocese, as the only episcopal imposed on the Merovingian . As the dissolute life of priests and simony is to say the theft and smuggling of objects of worship by servants, spread in the absence of exemplary leadership. A church priesthood or a monastery, without resources after a robbery or grabbing property tax may fall into poverty or often let life come into common decay if they retain the usufruct of tithes and temporal welfare.

The papacy, dignity prestigious Western Christianity, is the subject of fierce political rivalry between the great aristocratic families of Rome. The religious power of the Metropolitan Roman fate blunt while pagan or Muslim invasions threaten. Popes often poor and immoral succeed during much of the ^tenth century. In 954, John XII becomes pope at the age of 18. He thinks only of paying court to women, to celebrate and participate in the hunt.

However, if the miserable victims of abuse and survivors of atrocities, looting and theft, fleeing famine and epidemics or frightened to grieve their dead and looking for their missing, the rural population continues to grow at a slow inexorable. With new land, she is looking for effective protection and appropriate, improvises a snarling defense or aggression perpetuates vengeance. And the common people, both dominated if it is completely controlled by the whole community and the opinion ignored or seemingly inconsistent, facing local issues which, after a slow maturation, define powerful political forms.

Eastern France

In ^the tenth century , the East Frankish is limited to the west by the Rhine , the north by the North Sea , the Jutland and in theory by the Baltic Sea even though it no longer controls its coast, East by ' Elbe , the Saale and Bohemia to the Inn , and ends at the South by Lake Constance surrounded by the Alps . The population is unevenly distributed in four nuclei of dense population: Franconia , Swabia , Saxony , Bavaria. It tends to concentrate near the valleys of the Rhine , the Weser and the Danube to the west and to a lesser extent those of the Elbe and Saale in the east which borders East to regain the form of steps partially outside military control. . Rivers are important waterways for commerce and trading. From the ^tenth century, around the number of men begin to increase and the forest area in the plains and mountain decreases in favor of agricultural expansion on the good soils and mostly plain edge between plain and mountain. The exploitation of massive silver in the mountains of Harz in Saxony is essential for monetary stability Saxon. . The development of metallurgical techniques also explains the subsequent Saxon hegemony
Besides the main lines to both river and land leading to the passes of Rhaetia , eastern France is crossed by trade routes connecting the West and East. The oldest and most prestigious is the Helweg along its numerous diverticula in the first hint of Hercynian ranges overlooking the plain between Germany and Poland and beyond the Rhine wins Aix-la-Chapelle, or Liege, Saint-Quentin and Paris. Mainly devoted to the slave trade and grains, metals and furs, other roads joining the north-south axis formed by the succession of the Rhine or Meuse in the west or the Elbe east, they cut the valley of the Weser , the many southern tributaries of the Danube river or strengthen the axis of the Danube or Main. Rich cities are thriving at the edge of these rivers, as Mainz , Augsburg or Regensburg .

^In the tenth century, East Francia, Germania named yet if you include the eastern marches, is divided into four entities: the Bavaria , the Saxony , the Swabia and Franconia , which assert themselves in ethnic duchies. The noble families at their head, mainly descendants of the Carolingian aristocracy or former vassals Merovingian have huge areas. To ensure their hegemony, they have for the second ^ninth century or left devastate devastated areas and countries hostile to their authority. So if they often control a power center rich and dense, they are not obeyed border periodically ransacked their territories, especially if they are massive in many valleys, places of refuge. Aware of the escalating destruction of this game between rivals, the princely families of Swabia and Franconia fear quickly master military marches in part Slavisa that are the dukes of Bavaria and Saxony. If they come to power, they can be left as winner of a war game of elimination. Maintaining the royalty of Germany due on a house in Franconia is a strategy to keep a check on religious and administrative actions military border.

• Centered on the Main valley, encompassing most of the hills and mountains of Hesse , stretching from north of the Neckar to the foothills of Thuringia and the Franconian Jura , Franconia is hotly disputed by both families and Frankish Conrardin in Bamberg constant struggle.
• Bavaria inhabited by mixed populations, both Germanic and Slavic, extends to the Alpine foothills of Thuringia, bounded on the west by the Lech and east by the mountains of Bohemia and the river Enns. Family Carolingian Louis the German managed to retain the benefit of the duchy. His grand-son Arnold was bequeathed to Duke Leopold who throws walk between Bohemia and Carinthia and dreams of gaining a foothold in Italy to wear the imperial crown.
• Swabia collects a fraction of the duchy of Alemannia between Franconia and Rhett, between the Rhine valley to the east and east of the Lech. It is headed by a dynasty of Swabia Lake Constance. It encompasses the Alsace from Basel to Speyer from 912 and continues to assert its sovereignty over the collar of the upper basin of the Adige.
• Saxony extends north of Franconia and Bavaria. The valley of the Weser is the heart of Saxon world still resist the advance slave before his brutal conquest by Charlemagne. Saxon ruling families, from Saxon chiefs killed, or captured and saved, converted to Christianity under the aegis of Charlemagne. They are gradually recalled to power under the aegis Carolingian since Saxon people forcibly converted, disoriented and uncooperative, launches serious revolts while marches in front of the Frankish Slavonia yield. They receive a mission of Christian peace and defense of the military march and perform in a few decades of their work, pushing slowly and surely beyond the Elbe and Saale pagan Slavs. In doing so, they merely repeat their former land and Christianize Slavisa in two centuries. To the north, the border with the Danish Jutland is set at the mouth of the Eider and Kiel Saxon is the only item on the Baltic monitoring.

The family of Luidolfinger who heads the first Duke of Saxony Ludolph down in 866. He forwarded the charge to his son Odo or Otto who is quick to deflect the onslaught of the Slavs to the east for a time quiet trading partners to take control of Thuringia.

On the death of the last king of East Francia Franconian, this family is one of the most powerful country, because for the necessities of defense against Danish and Slavic worlds, periodically aggressive solidarity cantonal foolproof defense has benefited group leader of Saxony. The warlord and delegates consult, listen and decide. In addition, the Duke of Saxony brought together and placed on the front a crowd of refugees from Germany, mercenaries boxes on the reclaimed land Saxon who relate well distended with their countries of origin. Defender undisputed world frank, it is necessary throughout arbitrator. That's why Conrad was appointed to the safety of his family while he hates the Saxons, and especially Henri carefree bird catcher who, humiliated, not responding to its summons.

The birth and assertion of an imperial dynasty of Saxony

Seal of Henry the Fowler , father of Otto ^I

Henry the Fowler , Duke of Saxony is named king of Francia orientalis in 919. Simply appointed by his predecessor enemy yet, he refused the sacrament for a long time not to give the impression that royalty makes him a being apart . He met by chance in 912 Mathilde a beautiful nun, she is the daughter of Count Theodoric of Westphalia Rheingelheim. He leaves the convent and marries her. She had five children: Otto born in 912, Gerberge born in 913, Henry born in 916, Edwin was born in 920 or Hatwige, Bruno was born in 928 .

His first acts in favor of the extension of Francia orientalis at the expense of Lorraine, in particular it is to include Alsace in the duchy of Swabia and authorize the reconquest of the lands of the lower Rhine. The northern part of Lorraine which runs from Friesland to the mouths of the Scheldt was annexed by the kingdom of Germany and submitted to the Saxon protection to avoid the ravages of the pirates. This is the origin of the county of Friesland and Holland . Aix-la-Chapelle , the former imperial capital of Lorraine is already the object of desire .

But Henry atypical inaugurated a dynasty that refuses to link service and regal regal reward, and ministerium feodum. The service is for God and Men in the interest of all. The reward need not be adjusted - could it when arbitrariness includes loss of life - as in an ordinary commercial transaction. Even the warlord and his family are children frolicking on their knees and their hands to the God Christ Savior.

Henry the Fowler acquires a royal prestige thanks to victories over the Slavs, Danes and Hungarians . But he can not stop the infiltrations and attacks on and starts, to avoid losing the dignified figure of the protector, a series of negotiations, agreeing to pay tribute to the most threatening to spare the East Francia. He must find resources, and the Saxon Henry covets morcelle Lorraine, both rich and political disintegration.

In 925, Henry I submit and integrity after a bloody battle of Lorraine. Now the valley of the Meuse and the Scheldt fixed the border between France and Germany, Verdun and Bar-le-Duc are part of the kingdom of Germany. Duke Gisilbert both the Trust and pays tribute to his service and receives the mission to eradicate the fragmentation Lotharingian. Henry assures his regal powers in appointing bishops and abbots of Lorraine, Swabia and Saxony. During the reign ottonides, part of Lower Lorraine gradually integrate with the East Frankish. With reinforcements Lotharingian warriors, Meissen Henry I took a fortress in Slavic countries. Walking over the Elbe and Saale, beginning a long progression towards the Oder. The king of Germany receives the homage of Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia. With this security alliance, he thought to bend the duchy of Bavaria, who emancipated arrogantly. But he stopped the fratricidal war by granting them the right to appoint clergy, are not they reject the Frankish Empire returning to the negotiation and a modus vivendi?

Before his death, he obtained the promise of the Germanic princes his son Otto or Othon legitimate successor is chosen in . After his death on July 2 936 , the Diet of Erfurt and confirms this choice means Otto as his successor. The Saxon dynasty thus rests on the twin principles hereditary and elective.

An early reign heckled initiating a labor organization to impose a ten kingly

Otto ^I, twenty-four years, was crowned on August 7 936 at Aix-la-Chapelle. The ceremony shows that it wants to reconnect with the Carolingian tradition. Representatives of all communities of eastern France were summoned but they are the representatives of the duchies of Saxony and Franconia who are privileged to honor him first on August 7 in the atrium of the Palace Chapel. It is then acclaimed by the people and the sacred in the chapel by the Archbishop of Mainz Hildebert. He then received the insignia of his power sword, coat, bracelet, scepter and baton. During the banquet that follows the great honor the sovereign domestic servants in charge of offices . Otto intends to assert its sovereignty by all visible signs. He banished Eberhard , the Duke of Bavaria after beating him because he had refused to pay tribute to him .

In 937, the first decisions of King Otho arouse hostile reactions in the same way that raises his coronation jealousy and envy. In the Carolingian tradition, he faces a rebellion led by his family brother Henry ^I of Bavaria, supported by the Duke of Lorraine Gislebert , the Duke of Franconia Eberhard, part of the Saxon nobility. The conspirators, who at first does not obey him are more interested in the covenant of Carolingian king of Western Francia , Louis IV d'Outremer which intends to recover the ancient imperial capital of his ancestors, Aquae or Aix. All the springs of sovereign power collapse. The Saxon duchy infiltrated by hostile elements still obedient. However Swabia despised by the conspirators listening to the sovereign.

By diplomatic missions, the king gauge his support. It then includes a focus of the plot takes place in Carolingian West Francia. But the Robertians charge of the duchy of France, among them a host of state actors hostile to the Carolingians. The Robertians have not yet managed to take command of these hostile forces. But the duchy of France defends military coastal and marine shorelines for the benefit of the kingdom, he kept walking in Britain and monitors installed by the Norman kings of France. They appear as brothers who oppose the Saxons and Slavs and Danes fought periodically in Germany. Otho married her younger sister to Hughes Hedwig the Great, famous warrior in the kingdom which he expects it neutralizes any action warrior king against him. He promises to end the descendants of the kingdom Hughes?

With the support of Duke Hermann ^I of Swabia , the grand council of Otto takes the initiative and managed to defeat the rebels in the terrible battle of Andernach in October 939 when the dukes of Lorraine and Franconia are killed. Before the fratricidal carnage for most families dominant victory Otho is moved. Full of anger, he thinks at first that those responsible be caught and slaughtered the fugitives. If he can not forgive that a majority of the survivors of his family, he defers his anger on others, and for decades has its inflexible vengeance.

Otho forgives his brother Henry and blames his entourage and a few related ambitious. He gives responsibility and places it at the head of Lorraine. But Henry, jealous and several former conspirators, continues to deceive and plot. It is really only 941 subjects .

The King of France understands the terrible threat and is saved by his quick marriage with Gerberge, sister and widow of Otho duke of Lorraine, powerful woman whom he agrees to take the burden of Lorraine by his brother Henry. Entering the family, the king and bowed before Otho diplomat and becomes the equal of his rival Hughes.

But Otto is not satisfied with promises of Louis IV d'Outremer. It operates in France to ensure the safety Lotharingian victim of robbery and stops only Attigny , where bargaining restores peace and harmony. Otto plays easily the rivalry between his relatives by marriage, the last Carolingians and Robertians , the ancestors of the Capetian to ensure its hold on western France and the backlash Lotharingia landlocked. It strives to maintain a balance between the two houses so that none is strong enough to claim the Lorraine . But can they when they are powerless to prevent local wars?

The Lorraine indispensable royal prestige because of Aix-la-Chapelle is not the mythical kingdom of Ottonian weakness. It is by cons as in Germany to reform the church and set effectively shifting territorial divisions to ensure a stable sovereign power. Archbishop Bruno , the younger brother of Otto, was promoted to oversee this development well underway: the strong man of Lorraine in 954, he was successively Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lorraine , combining the two until his death responsibilities . In 959, it divides into two immense ecclesiastical principality. Thus appear:

• Lower Lorraine, which includes the pagi or country North Rhine-West between, Scheldt, Meuse and Moselle, including the greater part of the Ardennes massif.
• Upper Lorraine, pagi southern valleys that go back to their sources, especially those of the Meuse, the Saone, Moselle and its tributaries. The countries of the dioceses of Toul, Metz and Verdun Lorraine become the ^eleventh century.

To ensure his need for revenge on large families and their power over the duchies, Otto aid and creates a slow awakening of the Christian affirmation under the auspices of the Bishops. To increase the protection and rehabilitation of lands periodically ravaged by the Norman incursions or Hungarian, it encourages and tolerates a cantonal structure of defense, modeled after the Saxon fashion. The margins of the duchies which perpetuate this archaic Saxon benefit from the consideration of the sovereign. Always crumbled once denigrated men of mountainous regions have a critical need for protection and began a loyal subject to kingly authority, which paradoxically requires a lot of themselves for the greater collective benefit. The Christian Church of its marginal areas, often dominated by old abbey structures, is forced to accept the return of pastoral visits, and self-monitoring of the bishop claiming sovereign rights. A reversal of positions of power begins to emerge: the heart of autonomous duchies and often recalcitrant to royal decisions now seems under threat of obedient to the religious margins Christians loyal to the sovereign power.

For the same purpose, the king multiplies surveillances and matrimonial alliances. His wife and eldest son inherited the duchy of Swabia, where he became duke after the death of his stepfather. In March 953, a revolt broke out in the heart of the kingdom. It is led by his eldest son Liudolf , Duke of Swabia and son Conrad Roux , former duke of Lorraine. If the first fear of being evicted from the estate for the benefit of the son Otto expects his second wife Adelaide, the second is that it is not involved enough in decisions of the kingdom, while men of Swabia it saved the day early reign. Many men of the past Carolingian bishops and nobles favored previously and victims of political and administrative reforms to join the rebellion. But the king can count on Saxony and Lorraine of Bruno, emerging on the margins of the duchies increasingly crowded. Western Francia weakened and can not intervene in the Christian church revival does not support dithering. Rebels also feeling insecure make the mistake to ally with pagan Slavs and Hungarians, which earned them lose much of their support the most effective.

The revival of an empire in the Western world

The intelligent use of bishoprics to found a kingly government is slowly fading the Carolingian world. The great monasteries often decaying fast monopolizing this crucial function as intermediaries administration practices regal slowly lose their power, becoming mere managers advised of their time in the best case they do not score enough allegiance. The bishops and their chapters emboldened under royal patronage: they regain control of the countryside and revalue their cities, throwing a fantastic urban growth and leaving invent Ottonian art. Everywhere, cities are beginning to revive conquering or even grow near military marches despite the dangers of looting and destruction.

Germanic expansion at the time of Otto ^I

Otto the Great receives submission of Berengar of Ivrea

Even before finishing the margins of pacifying warring Nordic or Slavic, consolidate its positions in Lorraine and Germany, Otto understands the need to take a wise strategy of legitimation Royal initiated by Pepin the Short. The sovereign must be the primary supporter of the papal dignity and receive in return for divine delegation of the Head of the Church of Rome over other bishops and Christian leaders. Otto leaves his old vengeance and turns its attention to Italy, surprised Chagrin Frankish crown.

In Italy , the situation is very confused. Anarchy reigns and arouses the appetites of powerful neighbors. It increases the threat of conquest by the Moors. In 950, Berengar of Ivrea and walking slavise Friuli Italy to dominate the death of Lothair of Arles. The masters of Italian politics trap widow of Lothair, Adelaide of Burgundy and remarriage to prevent the emergence of a world legal heir to the kingdom of Italy.

In September 951, Otto, decided to conquer war if necessary, down to Italy with an army supplemented by the prelates Lombard . Berenger can regain the initiative and takes up the title against a commitment of vassalage. Berenger, left alone, forgets his oath and attacks the Pope John XII who called Otto to the rescue .

Since the beginning of the ^tenth century the Hungarians or Magyars are causing major devastation. But by mid-century, these ravages begin to decrease as the resistance of military townships organized as Saxon or Nordic increases. In addition, religious leaders, bishops or abbots, hesitate to lead troops mobilized heavy reinforcements. In the heat of August 955 , a band led by three captains Magyar Lehel, Bultzu Boton and emerges from the Alpine foothills and threatens Augsburg. The Bishop of Augsburg is the head of an army of peasant-warrior Swabian archarne after a defense of the city and push with violence. The troops surrounded the ducal who come. The authorities then called the Swabian neighboring duchies which fly to their rescue. Otto ^I last came with his Saxons, took command of operations Aug. 10 and defeated the Hungarians at the battle of Lechfeld near Augsburg. The looters are surrounded invaders ruthlessly massacred one by one, the Hungarian legend which reported that seven survivors in a desperate flight.

United Germanic troops, with their technical prowess and warrior on foot and horseback and animating massive concentrations of merciless warrior-farmers are now taking the initiative. They massacred the Rechnitz October 16th a coalition of 955 Slavs of the Elbe, under the hegemony of the Slavs Obodrites in Mecklenburg . Otto calls the Slavic leaders not to enter for any reason other than trading or market protection in the marches and Hungarian leaders to settle in the plains of Pannonia , if they qualify for the royal clemency. Over the following decades, Hungarians forgo looting, settle in the plains of Pannonia and Christianized.

These spectacular victories allow Saxon royalty to play a major role on the European level while invasions drag on for five long decades. Soldiers and clerics should be cheering for Otto as the savior of Christianity, a winner worthy of Emperor . Faced with the Slavs, he led a genuine policy of eastward expansion. Following victories over the Slavs and Hungarians, the Oder is reached.

The steps to the east of the Elbe are firmly restored while assimilating Christianized Slavic leaders:

• walking around the Old Saxon of the bishopric of Oldenburg , formerly named Suevian walk because it leads to the Baltic Sea or Swabians. Otto gives the Duchy of Saxony to his faithful Henry Billungs in 960. Under the name of Duke Hermann , Margrave Billungs old thing and put his son Bernard permanently in the duchy and march. Dominate their heirs until 1106. The family gave his name to the march of Billungs.
• the Nordmark , the former name of the Mark Brandenburg
• three small steps in the Sorbs .

Otto ^I restored the other steps of the East, or Ostmark , the future Austria to the south of Germany, whose Babenberg will become of the Marquis until the ^thirteenth century . It also restores the march of Carinthia , and appears as the defender of Christianity .

Otto gets a first allegiance theoretical kings of Burgundy. Western Francia albeit plagued by violent divisions also manifested diplomatic recognition to this great champion of Christendom.

The imperial restoration

Otto ^I and Pope John XII, miniature of 1450

Grateful to have been protected from the expansionist plans of Berenger II , the pope is the successor of Otho the emperor Charlemagne , who had protected the papacy against the Lombards. At this point, it's not the foundation of a new empire, but the ideal restoration of the Carolingian Empire, dreamed at a territorial hegemony .

On 2 February 962 at Rome , Otto was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII. The crown, octagonal symbolizing the two holy cities of Rome and Jerusalem , is the most significant symbol of the sacred monarchy. The imperial coronation Otto gives the additional authority it expects. It lies halfway between the clergy and laity. The nobles of the kingdom can no longer be regarded as a primus inter pares, as it is within the sphere of the sacred .

On 13 February 962, he promulgated the Privilegium Ottonianum that gives the pope the same privileges as those that the Carolingians had recognized the Papacy, namely the donations made by Pepin the Short and Charlemagne. But Privilegium Ottonianum, showing a degree of Lothair ^I. , requires all new pope to swear allegiance to the emperor or his envoy before receiving the papal consecration. While giving privileges to the Holy See , the place Privilegium Ottonianum Trust imperial papacy. Otto recalls his early failures and religious policies during his first speech in Italy.

The seizure of Otto discomfort, however John XII who made contact with Aubert , son of Berenger II, and with Byzantium. It will even resume the tradition, abandoned since Adrian ^I (772-795), his actions dating from the years of reign of the Byzantine emperors. Otto returned to Rome and John must escape. The emperor summoned a synod J. Pope guilty of apostasy , murder, perjury and incest. Which shall be tabled December 4 963. John XII was replaced by a layman, who took the name of Leo VIII. Otto ^I then requires an oath of the Romans. They swear that they "fail to elect or ordain any pope without the consent of the lord or his son Otto . "

The emperor then completely control the election of the pope, and count on the collaboration of the pontiff guarantees imperial authority on the local churches of the Holy Roman Empire. Like Charlemagne, Otto received the mission of Rome to defend the peace and order in Christendom. However, the Emperor realizes that his real influence on the Romans is low: it is true that when he travels to Rome with his army. It therefore accepts the death of Leo VIII in 965 that a representative of the Roman nobility is elected under the name John XXIII . However in 966, Otto ^I must make a prefect example of Peter who rebelled against the Pope John XIII : he was hanged by the hair to the bronze statue of Constantine. This attitude pays off: John XIII is then observed .

In 968 he founded the Archbishopric of Magdeburg with suffragan bishops in Meissen , Merseburg , and Zeitz in order to convert the peoples Slavs of the Elbe. Mieszko ^I. , first king of Poland history, paid tribute to him 966 . In Germany , it makes Bohemia tributary and outruns a final revolt of the dukes of Franconia and Lorraine who want to defend their prerogatives in the face of bishoprics conquerors.

Anxious to establish relationships with major European powers, Otto ^I sends an ambassador to Cordoba in Spain Arab-Muslim. It comes back with Recemund (Rabi ibn Sid al-Rabi ibn Zaid or Usquf), representative of the caliph Abd al-Rahman III , and Mozarabic bishop of Elvira. Seven or eight embassies succeed until 976.

Otto rarely takes the title of Imperator Romanorum Francorum and that gives it its imperial coronation in Rome. He prefers that of Imperator Augustus. But it met the hostility of the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus Phocas, who defends the principle of a single Roman Empire with Constantinople as its capital. For him the other princes are but mere kings . In 968 , Otto ^I sends Liutprand Cremona embassy to Constantinople in order to ask the Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas the hand of a royal princess for his son . By this marriage, Otto ^I hoped for recognition by the Byzantine emperor the title of "Emperor and Augustus" that the pope gave him. But in the Byzantine court, Otto is simply called "Rex" and his application is rejected without consideration. The Ottonian Empire, too northern, can embody a Roman revival. As Nicephorus Phocas reign, the situation remains tense.

The young son of Otto, conscious of being despised, his troops loose on the Lucania Greek who was sacked and devastated. As the successor of Nicephorus Phocas, John I Tzimiskes in trouble on all borders accept a compromise for Italy. The Byzantine emperor keeps Calabria and Puglia and agrees that the Lombard principalities became vassals of Otto. His son Otto II in 972 married a relative of the emperor, Theophano .

The end of the reign of Otto ^I

In the autumn of 972, after six years continuously in Italy, his authority in Germany is slightly diminished: some local conflicts revived. All Holy Roman Emperors experiencing this problem during their long absence: how to maintain their authority on both sides of the Alps with dignitaries constant competition to monopolize power and place? To restore its authority in particular to people who do not understand his absence, Otto patient returned to participate in public ceremonies. The officials foresee an end. The Emperor has all the bishops in synod at Ingelheim and allocates vacant dioceses, objects of lust. It brings together for the feast of Easter all great in the kingdom lay in the Diet of Quedlinburg , abbey where his parents are buried. He died a few weeks later in his palace Memleben. His body was placed in a mausoleum at all Archdiocesan Cathedral of Magdeburg .

The organization of the empire

The reforms initiated since 919 Ottonian government are crucial to understanding the foundation of what much later called the Holy Roman Empire. The imperium dreamed for a moment in progress during the short Ottonian dynasty from 962 to 1024, however, has left a lasting anchorage, where the elective monarchy gradually assert the weight of religious princes and collegiality that continues after the Gregorian reform, requiring a separation of the spiritual and temporal.

More than an emperor by the title, Otto is the prototype of a great king of the West after the year one thousand, without capital and continual displacement. The royal power feed contacts and exchanges, his court and his commensals live according to the seasons and the political uncertainties on the various royal estates or use the right heel with many clients or hostes honored. In the Frankish world, three levels of government increasingly tied to a specific territory archetypes seem to obey the same direction: they are represented by the counts, dukes and kings. King seeks to weaken the power and lower the ducal Duke holds the rank of a vassal. To ensure his grip on the dukes and earls, the king is increasing its surveillance: In addition to the count palatine, the first supervisor of the military actions of the Dukes and the tax administrations of counts, the king asks the bishops and more importantly their governments to lend Episcopal contests, rewarded by an enrichment provided by the tolls, rights of coinage and decentralized market. Ultimate control is provided by the Chapel Royal, which includes religious advisers of the king for his diplomacy and his choice of religious men, including the recruitment of bishops.

A limited power

The empire in the year one thousand. Kingdom of Germany Kingdom of Italy Papal States Kingdom of Burgundy (independent ally, and then incorporated in 1034, two years after the bequest of the late king Rudolph II) The steps are depicted as hatched

The authority of Otto ^I spread over huge areas ranging from the Meuse , the Scheldt and even to the Elbe and the North Sea to the Mediterranean. However, internal forces are very active. Germany is divided into the duchies which claim based ethnic , political belief and hope largely virtual: Saxony , Franconia , Swabia and Bavaria .

The Ottonian Empire, it is called in Latin or regnum theutonicorum Reich der Deutschen, includes the Germanic, Romance and Slavic. Otto ^I Is not named after the texts Saxonum rex, rex Francorum rex Romanorum or? King Otto and recalls the first duties of family life course, his great-grandfather Otto the peaceful, Count of Thuringia, and his father Henry Duke of Saxony possesses on the basis of an administration level of excellence earldom, d an army corresponding to the Saxon military power, the stronger the duchy of the kingdom. But he can no longer count on government surveillance Carolingian; the Missi Dominici supervisors advised of the counts are gone. To establish its authority over adults, royalty opposed to heredity functions and dignities and managed to impose a sentence greater power of appointment. Because it is primarily a fearsome warlord, the Saxon king may file a Duke disobeying the territory of the duchy concerned, but the exercise remains difficult. It can change the default contours of a duchy. But this is not really enough to control the Dukes. Otto ^I therefore created the institution of the dukes palatine, whose role is to control and administer the Dukes royal property. But this institution really only works in the Rhineland, .

Financial resources are reduced to the royal revenues of the sovereign's own domain. The property of Otto ^I, however, are very important. They consist of remnants of property which belonged to the Carolingian and Ottonian own property. At the center of each royal domain, is a villa. This is where the lives Provisor is to say the manager of the royal property. He is assisted ministeriales of humble origins who faithfully serve the Ottonian . But the royal property are insufficient to meet the needs of the sovereign. During his travels, he uses his right heel to be received by the great and the prelates. This hospitality is very expensive to host .

The elective nature of the function is a source of weakness of imperial power. Certainly, Otto ^I as his father asked to elect his successor major during his lifetime, which enables it to monitor the election, but the principle carries with it a weakening of the germ of power. Otto II was elected to the age 6 and he was crowned in 961 at Aix-la-Chapelle by the will of his father alive. Under Otto ^I, nor the rules of procedure or the composition of the electorate are fixed . All ethnic German political power must be represented. To strengthen his power Otto ^I chose to be sacred, which gives it a certain "holy". It is thus inhabited by the spirit of God, thereby distinguishing the rest of humanity . The sacred character gives the emperor the means to obtain its absolute obedience subjects (at least in theory).

Decentralized government but effective in broad

Statue of 1240, the rider of Magdeburg. This statue is a representation may be true of Otto ^I

Otto ^I is a sovereign roaming. It goes where business and the resulting wars. He stayed just a little longer in Thuringia and Saxony, especially in Magdeburg , the city rebuilt by his father he loves and where he chose to be buried . The sovereign is surrounded by his travels in royal service very low. In court, the principal officers are the steward, the butler, chamberlain and marshal. These offices are filled by large assisted by staff of servile origin. Diets were convened in cities that can accommodate many lords Grone near Gttingen , Goslar , Regensburg , Mainz . The decisions of the diet are recorded by the Chancery. This includes, at the time of Otto ^I, two sections: the German and Italian established in 962. Archchancellor title is vested in one who is leading the first chancellor, the archbishop of Mainz. The Archbishop of Cologne directs the second chancery. These functions are honorary. The reality of work is done by notaries, secretaries and scribes in general even for German Italian affairs. They are trained in specialized schools like Kaiserswerth. The Chancery has no records because most of his writings are privileges that are sent to individuals or communities. Not found for the period equivalent to the Ottonian capitularies Carolingian . Justice remains a prerogative but Otto has no supreme court to assist in this task. It is made orally.

The Holy Roman Emperor is a warlord. He has the right bank (right of command) that allows him to raise troops. In case of imminent danger, he uses the clamor patriae. At that time, all the freemen of the empire must be mobilized. In fact, the sedentary farmers once free will less and less in combat in a distant time when their freedoms diminish. But the urgency of the Saxon invasions and pragmatism have changed the Carolingian elite military practices, rewarding only the call of military knights. A network of castles built in a few decades by the peasant workforce covers southern Germany and northern Italy. The population of small burgs solidarity makes incursions Hungarian difficult before to prevent them completely. Called the peasants are organized on the model of milites agrarii in Saxony, often used just to keep the castles. However, for longer expeditions, it is mainly loricati, armored knights who are mobilized. In 981, shortly after the death of Otto ^I, it is possible to mobilize German knights in 6000 . The Italians also provide armed contingents.

The Margraves

The margrave, marquis, French, leading the marches. They have the castles and the military command of their march. They may on behalf of the Emperor donate goods to the Church. They perceive, for the king at first, then a second time for their own account, Wozot, a fee payable by grain farmers. They also perceive tonlieux , royalty contracts and the movement of goods. To develop the steps being appealed to Germans from the west of the Empire, mostly farming communities of the Netherlands , the Franconia and Thuringia attracted to larger plots of feudal rights and lighter. The first towns appear .

The Church, the cornerstone of the administration Ottonian

Ivory relief given by Otto at the Cathedral of Magdeburg

Under the Carolingians, the gradual establishment of heredity burden had greatly weakened their authority. To avoid such a drift, Otto, who knows they can not count on the loyalty of family relationships based on the Church and Germanic Lotharingian it fills with benefits but subjects. Historians have given the system he set up the name Reichskirchensystem . It must be said that the Church had kept alive the idea of empire. She had supported the imperial ambitions of Otto ^I .

The bishops and abbots are the backbone of the administration Ottonian. The Emperor ensure the appointment of all members of the high clergy of the empire. Once appointed, they receive the investiture of the ruler symbolized by the insignia of their position, the butt and the ring. In addition to their spiritual mission, they must meet their temporal tasks delegated to the emperor. Thus the imperial authority was it relayed by competent and dedicated . The Church of empire or Reichskirche ensures the soundness of a resource-poor own kingdom. It helps to counterbalance the power of the great dukes of Bavaria , Swabia , Franconia , Lorraine.

Within the county of Friesland and Holland, established by Henry I, the bishopric of Utrecht is, until about 1100, the most powerful entity. Besides these Northern Netherlands in the making, Liege and Cambrai emerge in South .

Chapel Royal became a hotbed for higher clergy. Imperial power selects his lords preferably in its relatives , close or extended. It enjoys the highest episcopal or monastic. The best example is the own brother of Otto, Bruno , bishop of Cologne , which adopts the rule of the Abbey Gorze to the monasteries of his diocese . Another example is Thierry ^I. , cousin of Otto, bishop of Metz from 965 to 984; a close relative of Otto, the margrave Gero of Saxony , who founded the Abbey Gernrode to 960-961, in Saxony ; Gerberge, niece of the Emperor, abbess of Our Lady of Gandersheim. In each diocese, we can find a member of the royal entourage as Otto took care to remove the Dukes the right to appoint bishops, including the dioceses in their own duchies .

Monasticism set aside part of the sovereign power relay is being renovated and begins the recovery failed monasteries providing replacements virtuous monks unworthy and expelled. Alongside the old monasteries of Fulda, Corvey, St. Gallen or Tegernsee, always prestigious, appear Brogne abbeys of Saint-Vanne de Verdun and especially Gorze. Founded in 933 in Upper Lorraine, the latter experienced a tremendous development in the lands of the empire, worthy of that of the order of Cluny in France and elsewhere.

Ottonian Renaissance

The Ottonian Renaissance is supposed to be a conservative return to order and brought to justice by a strong monarchy after the oppressions, the confusions and uncertainties of the Carolingian decline. Amplified by the whole world franc growth, it also takes its intrinsic dimension driving both administrative and regal, three major aspects:

• an undeniable opening of trade and especially a growing merchant already largely urban
• an art form, borrowing from the ancient Roman forms and principles, all melted in a Germanic original model
• a spiritual life drawn from the meeting of Nordic worlds, Slavonic and Mediterranean in respect of the Christian tradition .

The development of the market economy

With the widespread use of silver denarius Carolingians by an economic revolution is underway agricultural surpluses become readily marketable and we are seeing across the West to increase productivity and trade . In Italy and Germany together in the same empire, the kingdom of Otto I controlled the main trade routes between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Commercial traffic with Byzantium and the East indeed passes through the Mediterranean to southern Italy and especially the basin of Po and joined that of the Rhine via the Roman roads through the Alpine passes. Yet this path is long and expensive at the time more used than traditional Rhone route, especially as the Adriatic is safer than the western Mediterranean ridden pirates Saracen. Otto knows how to keep control over tolls and market development needed to increase the traffic. So contrary to what is happening in western France, Otto retains monopoly control of coin and opens many silver mines in the Harz mountains , especially near Goslar . However, the establishment of a mint in a city or episcopal abbey leads to the creation of a market which can be collected the tonlieu . This power enables commercial and monetary reward the administrative participation of bishoprics and abbeys to which the sovereign surrenders gains with surveillance of peaceful people and money management and mercurial, but also to extend its influence to the periphery of the empire: Italian or English merchants need to support the Danes become relays and trading partners, the Slavs adopted the silver penny ...

In 968, Otto grants to the bishop of Bergamo , the proceeds of the fair attended by merchants from Venice , from Comacchio and Ferrara. The goal is to help this city, which was devastated by the Hungarians. The documentation is very rich merchants of Germany: it indicates that there are many merchants in Worms , Mainz, Passau , Magdeburg, Hamburg and Merseburg . Many Jewish merchants commercent in German cities.

The beginnings of Ottonian art

The Ottonian art covers a period from ^mid-tenth century to the late eleventh ^century to the interior of the Germanic empire. So the reign of Otto ^I, that this art begins to develop. The imperial family and large secular and religious figures give a decisive impetus to the art. The Ottonian art borrows some characteristics of the Carolingian period, but it is also influenced by the art of late antiquity and Byzantine art. It allows the expression of spirituality movement . The church of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains of Metz is a good example and the church St. Cyriac in Gernrode Saxony. This Romanesque building has a double choir and Byzantine galleries. It employs a lot of rough stones and polished type sapphires, rubies, emeralds in sculpture and decorative arts. From this period also date the widespread carving ivory plaques include the gift of ivory from Otto ^I to the bishopric of Magdeburg composed of squares of 12 x 12 framed, depicting religious scenes.

The art of illumination, if more than relictual in the royal entourage, the palace school has disappeared, is still present in monastic specialized workshops on the island of Reichenau, Fulda and Echternach. The higher clergy, enriched by association with the sovereign power is a caste of sponsors and patrons, among whom are renowned Egbert of Trier and Bernward of Hildesheim.

; Notker physicist (d. in 975) is one of the first to bring Germanic language of Latin works both secular and religious . Hrotsvita , a nun in terms of noble ladies of the Abbey Gandersheim in Saxony, written in Latin, a poetic work. This is a series of poems that make up a book of legends around some holy figures (the Virgin Mary ), Gengoul, Pelagius , Theophilus , Dionysius the Areopagite , Agnes , etc..) . Between 967 and 968 She also wrote an epic about the reign of Otto ^I, commissioned by the abbess of Gandersheim Gerberge, a niece of Otto .

The interest for the letters of Otto finds himself in the choice of tutor to his son. He is impressed by the knowledge of Gerbert d'Aurillac , the future pope, who was introduced by Borell II , Count of Barcelona. He entrusted the education of Otto II.

Religious Shrines

The church Gernrode

Clerics are celebrating a new Otto Charlemagne . Religious life was booming again. The Ottonian era is characterized by a period of reform of monasteries in much of Western Christianity . Otto ^I founded the Abbey of Saint Maurice of Magdeburg in 937. All his life he has ties with very privileged dignitaries of the Church, also working with them to the monastic reforms of his time. But it is certainly not the originator, but a dynamic player.

The Cluniac reform , which began about 960-965, can count on assistance from the Otto's second wife, Empress Adelaide , sister of King Conrad III of Burgundy. Another important monastic reform movement develops from the Abbey Gorze in the duchy of Lorraine. In areas reconquered are based abbeys prestigious as those of Melk and St. Florian in Austria

The religious revival is also reflected in the construction of churches or cathedrals like Magdeburg. In 937 , the first church was founded and dedicated to St. Maurice. The work, funded by Otto ^I, respect the Roman fashion. This first building, grand and balanced, probably had a nave with four aisles, a width of 41 meters, a length of 80 meters and a height estimated at about 60 meters. This church was enlarged in 955 when it obtained the status of cathedral. It was at that time, decorated with plaques of silver carried to Milan and telling scenes of the New Testament . Destroyed in 1207 by a fire, it was later rebuilt.

Progeny

Otto I and Adelaide, statues of the cathedral of Meissen

In a first wife whose name remains unknown:

• William (b. c. 929 - March 2 968 ), Archbishop of Mainz

Edith of Wessex (910 - January 29 946 ), daughter of Edward the Elder

• Ludolph of Swabia (b. 930 - 957), Duke of Swabia
• Liutgarde ( 931 - 953), wife of Conrad the Red , Duke of Lorraine

With Adelaide of Burgundy , daughter of Rudolf II of Burgundy , and widow of Lothair of Arles , King of Italy.

• Henry, died young
• Bruno, who died young
• Mathilde ( c. 955 - 6 February 999 ), abbess of Quedlinburg
• Otto II (b. 955 - December 7 983 )

Posterity

Otto is a key figure in medieval historiography. While the sovereign, strong men of his time, is a figure of a political model of stable government yet in gestation, elective monarchy, history rewritten in the nineteenth ^century continues to build the hype with a savior a pseudo-state or in rallying behind the anachronistic or mythical power of the German people . The recovery spurred by political presuppositions nationalist Pan-German bad faith, or even delusional mythology National Socialist exploited the deep divisions created by a historical debate, both free and not without controversy of false or true way of deepening the research. ^{The Royal Institution elective aristocracy}

Saxon political power whose summit is a sovereign extended form of a ducal power and administration is based on the counts of archaisms:

• the need for solidarity to defend margins of the regnum Francorum was adopted and extended by the early Carolingians.
• double line giving the uncle or great-uncle, the formative power in return for an addiction.

The Saxon aristocracy, controlled by a line of chiefs elected, succeeds mainly in power by dlisquescence previous forms of power. Findings of helplessness, it takes several decades long to evacuate the powerful intrusion Magyar central and northern frank and Germanic world. Where the fragmentation of power tends to give way to local regulations violent as in France or Western political structures are already complex, as in Italy, the Saxon king can not exceed the brute force impotent as a legitimate family control and administrative regulation split between castellanies precarious. Saxon women and their families are the cornerstones of its policy of control of the Kingdom of France, and even discount the authority of his wife Adelaide in Italy. The failure of the Italian Ottonian dynasty leaves only the temptation to other kings alleged heirs to repeat the adventure. The first Capetian line, partly by Saxon women, not only captures the power of religious justice, while the Duchy military Robertian loses effectiveness. It was not until the social changes of the early ^twelfth century to provide a real foundation to this sovereign power, long confined to a region.

Judgments of the medieval history

The historian of Corvey Widukind writes with Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum a History of the Saxons to Matilda, daughter of Otto the Great. Widukind should know that the content of his work was known to the emperor. On several occasions, he stressed that it is the dedication (devotio) which led in writing and requests for clemency (pietas) to his lord when he reads his work. Widukind begins his account of Archbishop Frederick of Mainz who had opposed Otto ^I as follows: "It is not for me to communicate the reason for the fall and reveal the secrets royal. But I think having to satisfy the story. If it happens that we had to reproach myself with something, can there be to forgive me " . We must not forget that the topos of humility is part of the topoi of historiography.

However Widukind implements a surprising strategy of legitimation. It does not mention the coronation of the emperor and developing a free representation of any Roman intervention. Instead of a sacred by the pope and the imperial coronation, Widukind presents an acclamation of the emperor by the victorious army. The victory of Otto ^I to the Battle of Lechfeld become the real act of legitimation of imperial power . Parallel to this coronation in the ancient style, that is to say a coronation by the soldiers mingle among Widukind Germanic and Christian conceptions of power and heroism. The emperor is not a lord but a universal rex gentium Germanic king over the people. Finally, Widukind celebrates the achievements made possible by the long reign of Otto ^I: "The emperor ruled with grace father, released his subjects of the enemy, defeated the Hungarians, Arabs, Normans and the Wends, submitted the Italy, destroyed the idols of pagan neighbors and established churches and religious communities " .

Otto of Freising

Liutprand Cremona was first in the service of Berengar of Ivrea. After a quarrel with him, he finds refuge with Otto who appointed him bishop of Cremona. In his major work entitled Antapodosis (contrast), Liutprand seeks to represent the facts of all the sovereigns of Europe. Revenge of the title refers to a settlement with the King Berenger II Liutprand that seeks to stigmatize as a tyrant. According Liutprand, the supremacy of Ottonian is willed by God. Thus Henry I of Germany is a humble lord who overcomes his disease and that defeats the Hungarians. Otto ^I is a worthy successor who conquers his enemies also with God's help. Liutprand knows the Byzantine court by several delegations. Ironically it is the representation of life at the court of Byzantium is the glory of Otto and emphasizes the greatness of his power.

The historian Dithmar describes the reign of Otto ^I about forty years after his death with the words: "In his lifetime shone golden era! " . It celebrates the sovereign as Otto the largest since Charlemagne .

The characteristic feature of these three representations is the following: Otto is presented as God's instrument. Otto was a great king because he is acting right and thus obtained the protection and assistance of God. A series of works on history published during the lifetime of Ottonian ruler or shortly after his death shows Otto the Great as a hero. These works celebrate its success, praise the way he led the empire and ascribe all the qualities that a king must possess . However, one can also note that during the reign Ottonian, criticism was made that went as far as saying that the king's death is a divine vengeance . This criticism has mainly been made in the town of Halberstadt , where Otto enjoyed a very bad reputation considerably reduced after the diocese for the benefit of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the bishopric of Merseburg.

The nickname was used in Grand latest from half of the twelfth ^century through the chronicle of Otto of Freising , who writes: "Otto brought the empire of the Germanic Lombards, the Franks of the East and has no doubt been named the first King of the Germans, even though the Empire remained one of the Franks where only the ruling dynasty changed "

At the end of the thirteenth ^century, the Dominican chronicler Martin of Opava Otto ^I described as the first emperor of the Germans (primus imperator Theutonicum) .

Otto the Great and German historical research

In the nineteenth ^century, under the guise of national interests, it opposes Italy's policy of Otto and politics of East Bismarck. Otto policy is presented as fatal because of the fixation made on Italy. This question gives rise to the historical controversy between historians and Sybel Ficker to be settled by Wilhelm von Giesebrecht in 1859. On the reign of Otto, Giesebrecht writing that is the "period during which our people safe from his union suffered the highest development of his power, he could not control his own destiny but only commanded other people, where German man was the largest in the world and where the German name had its most complete resonance " .

The Prussian historian Heinrich von Sybel Giesebrecht causes controversy by asserting that Otto was not a "savior of Germany and Europe from the misery of a lonely time without an emperor" . The expansion to the East he said is inherent in the German people. Charlemagne , Otto the Great and Frederick Barbarossa had not encouraged but recklessly risky. Giesebrecht response in 1861 that his vision of the world and the past does not differ from those of Sybel by the compass point that governs them. The development of power and influence are also dominant bases its reflection . Also in 1861, Julius Ficker joined the historical controversy by criticizing Sybel to anachronisms: the era of Otto, there was still no German nation. For Ficker, not the empire that is responsible for his downfall but Barbarossa and his speech without action in Sicily Leopold von Ranke was meanwhile kept out of this controversy by trying to interpret Empire Ottonian rather through the contrast between the Roman and Germanic world, that is to say between Italian politics and policy in the East, one being represented by the Church and the other by the Emperor of Saxony. The controversy had the happy consequence of the approaches delineated as those of Karl Lamprecht on cultural history and log of thoughts and attitudes. It also opened European perspective because of the alternating positions of the various participants in favor of a large or small German, Austrian or Prussian, Protestant or Catholic.

This controversy has divided the field of sustained historical research, leaving its impregnation on the judgments of historians still in the early twentieth ^century. For Heinrich Class , Italian politics has been "disastrous and mother of misery" . Long, Otto was considered the creator of the medieval German empire. From the ruins of the Carolingian Empire, he led the Saxons to the unit, the Thuringian, Franks, Bavariya, Swabians and Lorraine. The intervention of the emperor in the East, South and West and his imperial coronation led the German people in the first place among the European peoples.

Recovery nationalist policy and national-socialist

In 1876, Ernst Dmmler sees the reign of Otto as an "expansion of full force" , a "national impulse through the heart of the people" that "at that time only began to be called German and feel German " . In 1936, Robert Holtzmann dedicated his biography of Otto "the German people", noting that he has "shown the way to the medieval German history," that it "has not only marked the beginning of German Empire, but actually ruled for centuries " .

Under National Socialism is spreading the theory that it was under Henry ^I of Germany that the German people came together and Otto the Great consciously tried to straighten it and cultivate it. These theories are taught in training centers of the party, even in the official newspaper, the Beobachter Vlkischer. In contrast, Heinrich Himmler and historians as Franz Ldtke see in Henry ^I the only founder of the German people.

Adolf Hitler rallied about him, on allegations by Sybel. In Mein Kampf, he named three phenomena and sustainable capital from German history: the conquest of Ostmark , the conquest of the territory east of the Elbe and the founding of the Prussian-Brandenburg . So that as the new commander of the Wehrmacht, he called Unternehmen Otto (Otto company) directive for the invasion of Austria March 11, 1938. On 24 May 1938, Hitler gave instructions for additional renaming of Austria in Ostmark. The new Chief of Staff of Hitler Franz Halder , who had not participated in the Otto Unternehmen, is preparing a campaign against Russia in 1940 and named Otto Plan. To avoid confusion, Halder was renamed Operation Barbarossa.

Otto, is a herald of the sovereign state?

In 1962, to mark the millennium of the coronation of Otto, it still sees it as one who brought "him as a design firm with a strong German state integer" . Otto has managed to "unify the empire from within, victoriously to repel outward enemy attacks, expanding the imperial territory and extend to virtually all of Europe's sphere of German influence, so that one can describe the Empire of Otto ^I as the first attempt by a European unification " .

Today, that enthusiasm against a national achievement in the tenth ^century has disappeared in specialized circles. In 2001, Johannes Laudage considers the change in structure and imposed by Otto wanted to be one of his most important actions. This change is essentially an "emphasis of its decision-making power and authority" .

References

Notes

1. The ruler without an heir is also prey to the folly of persecution, as suggests the different Vitae Richard or Lives of St. Richard, his wife humiliated.
2. It was not until the Gregorian reform in ^the eleventh century that priests can not marry after ordination.
3. Gerberge Giselbert wife, Duke of Lorraine and Louis IV d'Outremer, who married Edwin Hughes Capet the Great is the mother of Hugh Capet , to Otto and Henry of Burgundy, Bruno became archbishop of Cologne and administers the Lorraine after death of his brother Henry also in charge of Bavaria.
4. The bishopric of Utrecht became the administrative capital of the county. The recovery of some cities Batavian and growth of new towns is spectacular in the Dutch Ottonian era looting and devastation that stops regular

References

1. Genealogy of Otto I at the site Medieval Lands
2. Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Mller, Theologische Realenzyklopdie , Walter de Gruyter, 1995, p. 544
3. ^{a , b , c , d , e , f and g} Encyclopaedia Universalis Article medieval Germany, DVD, 2007
4. "Feudal Society" , University of Toulouse.
5. Francis Rapp , The Holy Roman Empire, Tallandier, 2000 32
6. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p. 33. The assertion that "Most men are empty beds. The forests are very extensive and very thick "is to be discussed. Archaeology and the names belie if hagiographic literature and historiography religious can defend it.
7. Francis Rapp: Trade certified help sustain and even a substantial increase in population density of this area of refuge op. cit., p. 34.
8. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p. 35
9. ^{a , b and c} Francis Rapp, op. cit., p. 49
10. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p 45
11. Feudal society University of Lille
12. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p 48
13. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p. 50
14. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p. 51
15. Louis Spach, Letters on the departmental archives of Bas-Rhin , E. Piton, 1862, p. 307
16. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p. 52
17. Gerard Rippe, "Ivrea", Encyclopaedia Universalis, DVD, 2007.
18. Francis Rapp, op. cit., p 53
19. Joseph Rovan , German history from its origins to the present ^day, 3rd ed. Revised and Expanded Editions du Seuil , coll. "Points History 'No. 254, Paris, 1999 ^(1st ed. 1994), 974 (ISBN 2-02-18296-3) Notes

    Bibliography

    • Jean-Pierre Cuvillier, medieval Germany, Paris, 1979-1982, 2 vols.
    • Robert Folz, The Birth of Holy Roman Empire, Paris, 1967
    • Pierre-Roger Gaussin Article medieval Germany, Encyclopdia Universalis , 1989.
    • Florentine Mtherich, Ottonian Art section, Encyclopdia Universalis, 1989.
    • Michel Parisse, Germany and the Empire in the Middle Ages, Hachette Livre , 2002.
    • (De) Matthias Puhl (ed.), Otto der Grosse, Magdeburg und Europa, Mainz, Philipp von Zabern Publishing , 2001
    • Pierre Riche , The Carolingians. A family that made Europe, Paris, Hachette, 1983
    • Joseph Rovan , History of Germany, Editions du Seuil , 1999
    • Francis Rapp , The Holy Roman Empire, Editions du Seuil, coll. "Points History, Lonrai , 2003 ( ISBN 978-2020555272 ).
    • (De) Harald Zimmermann (ed.), "Otto der Groe," Wege der Forschung, No. 450, 1976

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