The Book of Emperors: A Translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik

XLVII. Otto I, “the Great”

352 XLVII Otto I, “the Great” Henry I’s son Otto succeeded in putting together the strongest European empire since that of Charlemagne. Often the German Empire of the Middle Ages is dated from his accession as emperor in 962. Born in 912, Otto was elected German king in 936 and made a serious attempt to keep the duchies under his control. Saxony, Lorraine, and Franconia at first resisted Otto’s authority but later submitted to him, while Swabia and Bavaria were joined to Otto’s house through marriage. Otto reduced the tribes between the Elbe and the Oder to tributary status, and, in 950, he personally led an expedition to Bohemia , which ended with the Bohemians losing their independence. Once again, the Hungarians attacked German territories, and soon they threatened Augsburg. The victory of Otto’s troops over them at the Battle of the Lechfeld (August 10, 955) was the greatest German or imperial victory over the Magyars in the nearly continual wars their invasions set off. Otto’s religious policy aimed at having church officials serve state interests as well as clerical ones. In Italy, Otto’s control was challenged by Berengar, margrave of Ivrea, who had himself made king of Italy. In 960, Pope John XII complained of being hard-pressed by Berengar and asked Otto to come to Rome, which—after pacifying parts of northern Italy on the way—he did and was crowned Roman emperor, with Pope John taking an oath of loyalty to him. Men loyal to Otto subsequently intercepted letters from John XII that attempted to incite foreign powers to oppose the emperor. Otto returned to Rome, deposed John, and put in his own appointee as Leo VIII, after he had compelled the Romans to agree not to name any popes without imperial consent. The Romans revolted against imperial authority when Otto returned to Germany, but Otto marched on Rome again and this Otto I 353 time gave his soldiers permission to sack the city. He was resolved to move against Greeks and Muslims in southern Italy, but decided on diplomacy instead, sending Bishop Luitprand of Cremona to arrange a marriage between his son, the future Otto II, and a Byzantine princess. Those negotiations foundered largely because Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus II refused to recognize Otto’s imperial title and treated Liutprand with abject contempt. The succeeding Byzantine emperor was conciliatory, however, and agreed to a marriage between a princess and the younger Otto, after which relations between the Greeks of southern Italy and the Empire improved. The story of blinding captives, leaving one of them one-eyed to lead the rest home, was probably inspired by the actual atrocity of Byzantine Emperor Basil II, “Basil the Bulgar Killer,” in 1014. After a long war culminating in a decisive victory, Basil ordered fifteen thousand Bulgar soldiers blinded, leaving one eye to one man in a hundred to lead the troops back to their own emperor, who fainted at the sight and died two days later. Although the cities of northern Italy revolted on several occasions to assert their independence from the Holy Roman Empire, there is no record of Otto’s doing anything like this in Milan or elsewhere. when Emperor Henry departed this life, he left a son whose name was Otto. The princes would not depart for home until they were assured that they could have young Otto as their judge. They praised the son all the more highly since his father had been so able. Otto convoked a council at Aachen. Pious messengers from Rome came to it, bringing an urgent complaint to him from the Pope: men of Milan were seizing Christians and forcing them to commit pagan acts; their army was ravaging the land in defiance of him. The pope asked him to force them to cease all this, since by rights he was the Roman ruler and judge. The fabled King Otto lost no time in making preparations for an expedition against Milan, and the princes pledged to go with it to besiege Milan. The Milanese held that siege in the utmost contempt. Hai! How well they 354 Chapter Forty-seven defended themselves with spears and with swords. The city-dwellers bore the brunt of injury from the attack, but many of the king’s heroes were also lying there wounded or dead. Injury and misery abounded there. The king thought that it would be too...