Meanwhile, Italy had fallen into political chaos. On the death (950), possibly by poisoning, of Lothair of Arles, the Italian throne was inherited by a woman, Adelaide of Italy, the respective daughter, daughter-in-law, and widow of the last three kings of Italy. A local noble, Berengar of Ivrea, declared himself king of Italy, abducted Adelaide, and tried to legitimize his reign by forcing Adelaide to marry his son Adalbert. However, Adelaide escaped to Canossa and requested German intervention. Luitdolf and Henry independently invaded nort ...

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Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Imperial title

Read more here: » Otto I Holy Roman Emperor: Encyclopedia II - Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe

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 buticulariusSee also:

Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Imperial title

Read more here: » Otto I Holy Roman Emperor: Encyclopedia II - 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. 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 stewar ...

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Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Imperial title

Read more here: » Otto I Holy Roman Emperor: Encyclopedia II - Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign

A key part of Otto's domestic policy lay in strengthening ecclesiastical authorities, chiefly bishops and abbots, at the expense of the secular nobility who threatened his own power. To control the forces that the Church represented, Otto had recourse to three institutions of which he made consistent use. One was the royal investiture of bishops and abbots with the symbols of their offices, both spiritual, for Otto was the anointed King of the Germans, and temporal, in which Otto secured his bishops and abbots as his vassals through a commen ...

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Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Imperial title

Read more here: » Otto I Holy Roman Emperor: Encyclopedia II - Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system

A key part of Otto's domestic policy lay in strengthening ecclesiastical authorities, chiefly bishops and abbots, at the expense of the secular nobility. Otto endowed the bishoprics and abbeys with large tracts of land, over which secular authorities had neither the power of taxation nor legal jurisdiction. In an extreme example, when Conrad the Red was stripped of his ducal title in Lorraine, he appointed his brother Bruno, already the Archbishop of Cologne as the new duke of Lorraine. In the lands Otto conquered from the Wends and other Slavic p ...

See also:

Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Early reign, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system, Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - Imperial title

Read more here: » Otto I Holy Roman Emperor: Encyclopedia II - Otto I Holy Roman Emperor - The Ottonian system