The New International Encyclopædia/Otho I. the Great

​O′THO I., The Great (912–73). The founder of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (Heiliges römisches Reich deutscher Nation). He was the eldest son of Henry the ​Fowler, King of Germany, and was early recognized as the successor to the crown. In 936, on the death of his father, who left him the Duchy of Saxony, he was elected and crowned as King of the Germans, though his brother Henry, who had been born in the purple, was the favorite of many. Immediately upon the news of the death of King Henry, the various conquered Slavic tribes arose, and amid these foreign wars, civil strife soon raged, which centred around King Otho’s brother Henry. Otho with the assistance of Hermann Billung repulsed the Slavs and Hungarians, leaving their total subjugation to a more favorable time. Meanwhile, however, Duke Eberhard of Franconia, feeling himself injured by Otho, conspired with Henry, the brother of Otho, Giselbert of Lorraine, and others, and was supported by Louis IV. of France. But, though the danger for a long time was great, Otho finally triumphed; in 939 Eberhard and Giselbert were killed, and Henry became reconciled to his brother. A new assignment of the duchies was thereupon carried out by Otho, who gave them to faithful relatives and devoted followers, and bound them closer to the Crown than they had ever been. Meanwhile Otho’s fame had spread and he embraced the opportunity for interfering in Italian affairs when he was summoned by Queen Adelaide, the widow of King Lothair, to protect her from her importunate suitor, Berengar II. In 951 Otho answered the call, Berengar was defeated, and Adelaide became Otho’s second wife. Berengar II. was permitted by Otho to rule as his feudatory. But though Otho thus was master of Northern Italy, he was unable to take Rome, which was held by Alberic II. (q.v.), and in 952 he returned to Germany, where a rebellion, incited by Liudolf, son of his first wife, soon threatened to overturn his throne, especially as the Hungarians, taking advantage of the internal strife, invaded Germany in 954. But the rebels were finally overcome, and the Hungarians were decisively defeated in 955 in the battle on the Lechfeld, which ended their raids forever.

In 954 Alberic II. died, and his son Octavian became Pope as John XII. Against him Berengar took up arms, whereupon Otho sent his son Liudolf into Italy. Liudolf died in 957, and four years later the German King himself crossed the Alps for the second time and put an end to the rule of Berengar. The gates of Rome were opened to him, and in 962 he received from John XII. the Imperial crown, thus founding the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and establishing that close connection between Italy and Germany which formed so important a feature of mediæval history. Otho lost no time in asserting his Imperial prerogatives, and having called a council, effected the deposition of John, whose licentiousness had become a burden to Italy and a scandal to Christendom, and caused Leo VIII. to be elected in his place. This resulted in renewed wars, in all of which Otho was victorious. In order to obtain control over the whole of Italy, Otho sought the hand of the Greek princess Theophano for his son and presumptive successor. An embassy to Constantinople in 968 failed, as we know from the account of one of the ambassadors, Liudprand (q.v.). Thereupon Otho began to make inroads into the Italian provinces of the Byzantine Empire (Apulia and Calabria), which resulted, in 972, in the marriage of the later Otho II. and Theophano, though the coveted provinces were never surrendered. On May 7, 973, the great Emperor died, and was buried at Magdeburg, which he had made the seat of an archbishop. Otho had restored the prestige of the Imperial power, but it rested on no firm foundation. He was compelled, on account of the absence of a strong middle class, to depend on a party among the higher clergy and great nobles, who, under weaker successors, turned against the Crown. Consult: Vehse, Kaiser Otto der Grosse (3d ed., Leipzig, 1867); Köpke and Dönniges, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Otto I. (Berlin, 1838–39); Köpke and Dümmler, Kaiser Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, vol. i. (5th Otto der Grosse (Leipzig, 1876); Giesebrecht, ed., Brunswick, 1881).