Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I the Great (November 23, 912 - May 7, 973), son of Henry I the Fowler, king of the Germans, and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of the Germans and arguably the first Holy Roman Emperor. (While Charlemagne had been crowned emperor in 800, his empire was divided amongst his grandsons, and following the assassination of Berengar of Friuli in 924, the imperial title lay vacant for nearly forty years.)

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 peoples on his eastern borders, he founded several new bishoprics.

Related Topics:
Bishop - Abbot - Bruno - Cologne - Wends - Slavic peoples

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Because Otto personally appointed the bishops, these reforms strengthened his central authority, and the upper ranks of the German church functioned in some respect as an arm of the imperial bureaucracy. Conflict between Otto's successors and the growing power of the Papacy over these powerful bishoprics would, however, eventually lead to the Investiture Conflict and the undoing of central authority in Germany.

Related Topics:
Papacy - Investiture Conflict

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~