The (Medieval Texts in Translation) complete works of Liudprand of Cremona

Concerning King Otto

concerning king otto 1. It was the period when Berengar and Adalbert ruled, or rather ravaged, in Italy and, to be more truthful, exercised their tyranny.1 The supreme pontiff and universal Pope John XII, whose church was then all-too-familiar with the savagery of the aforementioned Berengar and Adalbert, sent [two] ambassadors of the holy Roman church, that is, John the cardinal deacon and Azzo the archivist, to Otto, the most serene and pious king (now august caesar).2 With prayerful letters and indicators of the situation, the messengers were to beg that, for the love of God and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, who the pope hoped would be the ones to absolve his own sins, the king would free the pope himself and his ward, the Roman church, from the tyrants’ fangs, and return them to their original health and liberty.3  1. Berengar II and his son Adalbert (whose name Liudprand spelled several ways) were crowned on December 15, 950; unsure of his Italian policy, Otto I entrusted them with the kingdom of Italy in 952.They held power until 962 and created trouble for Otto thereafter. 2. After 959 Adalbert raided the Sabina, northeast of Rome, from Spoleto. Beneventan lords menaced Rome’s territory from the south, too. 3. Otto had sought emperorship in 951, only to be rebuffed by Alberic, then lord at Rome. Egged on by his son Liudolf and brother Henry of Bavaria, he campaigned in Italy 951–52 in defense of the widow of King Lothar II of Italy (†950), Adelheid (whom Otto married, gaining rights over the kingdom); he also sent his son Liudolf to overthrow Berengar there in 957. Otto was thus known to have an interest in ItalY While the Roman ambassadors were pleading this case, the venerable man Walpert, archbishop of the holy Milanese church, having been freed half-dead from the rage of the same Berengar and Adalbert, sought out the power of the above-mentioned Otto, then king and now august caesar. He indicated he could not bear and endure the savagery of Berengar and Adalbert, nor that of Willa, who had appointed Manasses, the bishop of Arles, to the Milanese see, contrary to all law and decency.4 He claimed, quite reasonably, this was a calamity for his church, since it snatched away what ought to belong to him and his people. But after this there followed Waldo, bishop of Como, crying out that he had been stricken with an injury not unlike that which Berengar, Adalbert, and Willa had inflicted onWalpert.5 There also came from Italy many men of clerical and secular status; among them the illustrious margrave Otbert hastened with the papal ambassadors, seeking aid and advice from the most holy Otto, then king and now august caesar.6 2. The most pious king was moved by the tearful requests of these people, and, considering not his own interests, but those of Jesus Christ, he appointed his own son king, equal to himself, while he was still a boy, though this was contrary to custom, and left him in Saxony.7 As for himself, having gathered his forces, Otto came ian affairs. The powerful foreign lord was the deus ex machina of tenth-century Italian politics: see Retribution, passim. 4. Liudprand had promised to discuss this issue in Retribution 4.7. Manasses’s defection from the Berengarian camp in 951 created difficulties for the new king, who promptly deposed him. Berengar’s wifeWilla was introduced in Retribution 4.8. 5. Waldo became bishop during the aristocratic upheavals that brought Berengar to power between 947 and 950. His presence in the Italian delegation to Otto meant that aristocratic support for Berengar had waned after a decade of his rule. 6. Otbert I († before 978), founder of the Obertenghi clan that came to dominate northwestern Italy, especially Liguria, exploited the demise of the march of Ivrea under King Hugh (†948) to build a territorial base at the expense of Berengar, whose power base Ivrea was. 7. The numerous deaths of Ottonian rivals in the 950s gave Otto I enough security to have his son Otto II elected and crowned east Frankish king in summer 961: T. Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages (London: Longman, 1991), 158–59. Otto II was only six, but secured dynastic succession.    liudprand of cremona quickly to Italy.8 There he expelled both...