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PersonAD 912 – AD 973

Otto I

Also called: Otto the Great

King of East Francia (Germany) who defeated the Magyars at the Lechfeld in 955 and was crowned emperor by the pope in 962, founding the Holy Roman Empire

The son of Henry I, founder of the Saxon dynasty, he was crowned king in 936 at Aachen, Charlemagne’s city. Faced with rebellions by his brother and his son, he made bishops — who, being unmarried, could not found dynasties — the pillars of royal power, granting them land and authority in place of the great nobles. After the Lechfeld he extended missions among the Slavs and made Magdeburg an archbishopric. By marrying Adelaide, widowed queen of Italy, he also became king of Italy.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    AD 962Coronation of Otto I and the Holy Roman Empiremonarch

    Otto I, king of East Francia (Germany), who had defeated the Magyars, was crowned emperor by the pope in Rome in 962, beginning the Holy Roman Empire.

Themes this person appears in

  • Medieval Europe and ByzantiumAD 476 – 1077

    From the fall of Rome in the West to Canossa — the feudal West built by the Franks and the papacy, Byzantium as heir of Rome, and a church divided east and west