Otto the Great

Europe was an extremely volatile region in regards to the nobility and kingdoms, with many, many small kingdoms constantly erupting out of pre-existing ones. It was like this for a considerable time after the fall of the Roman empire, but Charlemagne, who I’ve talked about in a previous post, united much of Europe together, such as France, Italy, Germany, and part of Spain. He also started the tradition of the “Holy Roman Emperor and Empire” but this, like the empire itself, fell apart quicker than it came together under him. It fragmented like before only to be partly salvaged by Charles the Fat in 881-888. This also fell apart and would only be united again under Otto the First, later to be known as “the Great.” Like his empire the title of Holy Roman Emperor became a gift from whatever Pope happened to be ruling to whoever the most helpful King was, not an actual title passed father to son, though this to would be fixed by Otto. Otto started his life as the prince of Saxony, a German province. When his father died he became King of Saxony, and this is when he started the constant uphill improvement of his status. All historians agree that Otto was a very good strategic planner and he showed this for the first time when he went and conquered all the other Germanic peoples. He was suffered a slow down upon leaving the main Germanic provinces, however, and it was during this time that the Magyars invaded. Or, at least, tried to invade. The Magyars, also known as Hungarians, moved west until they encountered Germany- and Otto. The Magyars were pagan, and Otto was Christian, so when Otto threw the Magyars out on their butts a great portion of Europe came to regard him as a savior of Christianity, though the war had nothing to do with this. This made it almost impossible for the Pope to deny him the title of “Holy Roman Emperor” and even if he could’ve he probably wouldn’t have, since Otto was now far an away the strongest king in Europe. However, he never gave up the title until his death, and he had made sure his son got the title, and so it went until 1806. on his way to the pope, though, since he was in Italy Otto just conquered his way down south into Italy, where he received both the title Holy Roman Emperor, and the Queen of Italy’s hand in marriage, since that was one of the most peaceful ways to deal with him. Though his Empire never reached the scale of Charlemagne’s, it did live all the way to 1806, with the only major fractures being Italy.