Otto I Holy Roman Emperor: Encyclopedia II - Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign

Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign

Otto succeeded his father as king of the Germans in 936. He arranged for his coronation to be held in Charlemagne's former capital, Aachen, and on being anointed by the archbishop of Mainz, primate of the German church. According to the Saxon historian Widukind of Corvey, at his coronation banquet he had the four other dukes of the empire, those of Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria and Lorraine, act as his personal attendants, Arnulf I of Bavaria as marshal (or stablemaster), Herman of Swabia as cupbearer (lat. pincerna or buticularius), Eberhard III of Franconia as steward (or seneschal), and Gilbert of Lorraine as chamberlain. Thus from the outset of his reign he signalled that he was the successor to Charlemagne, whose last heirs had died out in 911, and that he had the German church, with its powerful bishops and abbots, behind him. Otto intended to dominate the church and use that sole unifying institution in the German lands in order to establish an institution of theocratic imperial power. The Church offered wealth, military manpower and its monopoly on literacy. For his part the Emperor offered protection against the nobles, the promise of endowments, and a developing chancelry as an avenue to power as his ministeriales.

In 938, a rich vein of silver was discovered at the Rammelsberg in Saxony. This ore body would provide much of Europe's silver, copper, and lead for the next two hundred years, and this mineral wealth helped fund Otto's activities throughout his reign.

Otto's early reign was marked by a series of ducal revolts. In 938, Eberhard, the new duke of Bavaria, refused to pay Otto homage. When Otto deposed him in favor of his uncle Berthold, Eberhard of Franconia revolted, together with several of the Saxon nobility, who tried to depose Otto in favor of his elder half-brother Thankmar (son of Henry's first wife Hatheburg). While Otto was able to defeat and kill Thankmar in 936, the revolt continued the next year when Gilbert, the Duke of Lorraine, swore fealty to King Louis IV of France. Meanwhile, Otto's younger brother Henry conspired with the Archbishop of Mainz to assassinate him. The rebellion ended in 939 with Otto's victory at the Battle of Andernach, where the dukes of Franconia and Lorraine both perished. Henry fled to France, and Otto responded by supporting Hugh the Great in his campaign against the French crown, but in 941 Otto and Henry were reconciled through the efforts of their mother, and the next year Otto withdrew from France after Louis recognized his suzerainty over Lorraine.

To prevent further revolts, Otto arranged for all the important duchies in the German kingdom to be held by close family members. He kept the now-vacant duchy of Franconia as a personal fiefdom, while in 944 he bestowed the duchy of Lorraine upon Conrad the Red, who later married his daughter Liutgard. Meanwhile, he arranged for his son Liutdolf to marry Ida, the daughter of Duke Herman of Swabia, and to inherit that duchy when Herman died in 947. A similar arrangement led to Henry becoming duke of Bavaria in 949.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early reign", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki