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Biography of Otto, IName: Otto, IBirth Date: 912 Death Date: 973 Place of Birth: N/A Nationality: German Gender: Male Occupations: emperor Otto, I The Holy Roman emperor Otto I (912-973), called Otto the Great, was the most powerful western European ruler after Charlemagne. He organized a strong German state and expanded his authority over Burgundy and Italy.Otto I was the son of King Henry I (the Fowler) of Germany. In 929 he married Edith, daughter of Edward the Elder of England; she died in 946. Otto was Duke of Saxony when his father died in 936, and he was at once elected king (which rule he held until 962) at Aix-la-Chapelle by the great magnates. The rulers of the other great duchies caused Otto initial problems. By 947 he had solved them by absorbing the duchy of Franconia into his direct rule and by handing over the others, Lorraine, Swabia, and Bavaria, to members of his family.By 951 Otto had been drawn into Italy by the fear that its widowed Queen Adelaide, who was having trouble, would be …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…Byzantine princess as a bride for his son Otto II.Finally, Otto deserves credit for supporting learning and culture. His support of learning resulted in the so-called Ottonian Renaissance, which helped to keep learning alive for the future. The churchmen he appointed often proved interested in building and in supporting culture in their church establishments, both monastic and episcopal. Thanks to them, culture continued to flourish there and at the court, making the Age of the Ottos an important intellectual and architectural one for medieval Europe. Further Reading Fine accounts of Otto I are in R.H.C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe, from Constantine to Saint Louis (1957); Christopher Brooke, Europe in the Central Middle Ages, 962-1154 (1964); and Eleanor Duckett, Death and Life in the Tenth Century (1967). For Otto's northern European and Eastern policies see Archibald R. Lewis, The Northern Seas (1958), and Romilly Jenkins, Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, A.D. 610-1071 (1966). |