Hrotsuit of Gandersheim, Carmen de gestis Oddonis—all in the
Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores, Bände iii. and iv. (Hanover
and Berlin, 1826 fol.); Die Urkunden des Kaisers Ottos I., edited
by Th. von Sickel in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Diplomata
(Hanover, 1879); W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen
Kaiserzeit (Leipzig, 1881); R. Köpke and E. Dümmler, Jahrbücher
des deutschen Reichs unter Otto I. (Leipzig, 1876); Th. von Sickel,
Das Privilegium Otto I. für die römische Kirche (Innsbruck, 1883);
H. von Sybel, Die deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich (Düsseldorf,
1862); O. von Wydenbrugk, Die deutsche Nation und das Kaiserreich
(Munich, 1862); J. Ficker, Das deutsche Kaiserreich in seinen
universalen und nationalen Beziehungen (Innsbruck, 1861); and
Deutsches Königthum und Kaiserthum (Innsbruck, 1862); G. Maurenbrecher,
“Die Kaiserpolitik Otto I.” in the Historische Zeitschrift
(Munich, 1859); G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel,
1844); J. Ficker, Forschungen zur Reichs- und Rechtsgeschichte
Italiens (Innsbruck, 1868–1874); F. Fischer, Über Ottos I. Zug in
die Lombardei vom Jahre 951 (Eisenberg, 1891); and K. Kötler, Die
Ungarnschlacht auf dem Lechfelde (Augsburg, 1884).
OTTO II. (955–983), Roman emperor, was the son of the emperor Otto the Great, by his second wife Adelaide. He received a good education under the care of his uncle, Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, and his illegitimate half-brother, William, archbishop of Mainz. He was chosen German king at Worms in 961, crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 26th of May 961, and on the 25th of December 967 was crowned joint emperor at Rome by Pope John XIII. On the 14th of April 972 he married Theophano, daughter of the eastern emperor Romanus II., and after sharing in various campaigns in Italy, returned to Germany and became sole emperor on the death of his father in May 973. After suppressing a rising in Lorraine, difficulties arose in southern Germany, probably owing to Otto’s refusal to grant the duchy of Swabia to Henry II., the Quarrelsome, duke of Bavaria. The first conspiracy was easily suppressed, and in 974 an attempt on the part of Harold III., king of the Danes, to throw off the German yoke was also successfully resisted; but an expedition against the Bohemians led by the king in person in 975 was a partial failure owing to the outbreak of further trouble in Bavaria. In 976 Otto deposed Duke Henry, restored order for the second time in Lorraine, and made another expedition into Bohemia in 977, when King Boleslaus II. promised to return to his earlier allegiance. Having crushed an attempt made by Henry to regain Bavaria, Otto was suddenly attacked by Lothair, king of France, who held Aix in his possession for a few days; but when the emperor retaliated by invading France he met with little resistance. He was, however, compelled by sickness among his troops to raise the siege of Paris, and on the return journey the rearguard of his army was destroyed and the baggage seized by the French. An expedition against the Poles was followed by peace with France, when Lothair renounced his claim on Lorraine. The emperor then prepared for a journey to Italy. In Rome, where he restored Pope Benedict VII., he held a splendid court, attended by princes and nobles from all parts of western Europe. He was next required to punish inroads of the Saracens on the Italian mainland, and in September 981 he marched into Apulia, where he met at first with considerable success; but an alliance between the Arabs and the Eastern Empire, whose hostility had been provoked by the invasion of Apulia, resulted in a severe defeat on Otto’s troops near Stilo in July 982. Without revealing his identity, the emperor escaped on a Greek vessel to Rossano. At a diet held at Verona, largely attended by German and Italian princes, a fresh campaign was arranged against the Saracens. Proceeding to Rome, Otto secured the election of Peter of Pavia as Pope John XIV. Just as the news reached him of a general rising of the tribes on the eastern frontier of Germany, he died in his palace in Rome on the 7th of December 983. He left a son, afterwards the emperor Otto III., and three daughters. He was buried in the atrium of St Peter’s, and when the church was rebuilt his remains were removed to the crypt, where his tomb may still be seen. Otto, who is sometimes called the “Red,” was a man of small stature, by nature brave and impulsive, and by training an accomplished knight. He was generous to the church and aided the spread of Christianity in many ways.
See Die Urkunden des Kaisers Otto II., edited by Th. von Sickel, in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Diplomata (Hanover, 1879); L. von Ranke, Weltgeschichte, Part vii. (Leipzig, 1886); W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit (Leipzig, 1881–1890); and Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Kaiser Otto II (Berlin, 1837–1840); H. Detmer, Otto II. bis zum Tode seines Vaters (Leipzig, 1878); J. Moltmann, Theophano die Gemahlin Ottos II. in ihrer Bedeutung für die Politik Ottos I. und Ottos II (Göttingen, 1878) ; and A. Matthaei, Die Händel Ottos II. mit Lothar von Frankreich (Halle, 1882).
OTTO III. (980–1002), Roman emperor, son of the emperor
Otto II. and Theophano, daughter of the eastern emperor Romanus II.,
was born in July 980, chosen as his father’s successor at
Verona in June 983 and crowned German king at Aix-la-Chapelle
on the 25th of the following December. Otto II. had died a
few days before this ceremony, but the news did not reach
Germany until after the coronation. Early in 984 the king
was seized by Henry II., the Quarrelsome, the deposed duke of
Bavaria, who claimed the regency as a member of the reigning
house, and probably entertained the idea of obtaining the
kingly dignity himself. A strong opposition was quickly aroused,
and when Theophano and Adelaide, widow of the emperor
Otto the Great, appeared in Germany, Henry was compelled to
hand over the young king to his mother. Otto’s mental gifts
were considerable, and were so carefully cultivated by Bernward,
afterwards bishop of Hildesheim, and by Gerbert of Aurillac,
archbishop of Reims, that he was called “the wonder of the
world.” The government of Germany during his minority
was in the hands of Theophano, and after her death in June
991 passed to a council in which the chief influence was exercised
by Adelaide and Willigis, archbishop of Mainz. Having accompanied
his troops in expeditions against the Bohemians and the
Wends, Otto was declared of age in 995. In 996 he crossed the
Alps and was recognized as king of the Lombards at Pavia.
Before he reached Rome, Pope John XV., who had invited
him to Italy, had died, whereupon he raised his own cousin
Bruno, son of Otto duke of Carinthia, to the papal chair as
Pope Gregory V., and by this pontiff Otto was crowned emperor
on the 21st of May 996. On his return to Germany, the emperor
learned that Gregory had been driven from Rome, which was
again in the power of John Crescentius, patrician of the Romans,
and that a new pope, John XVI., had been elected. Leaving
his aunt, Matilda, abbess of Quedlinburg, as regent of Germany,
Otto, in February 998, led Gregory back to Rome, took the
castle of St Angelo by storm and put Crescentius to death.
A visit to southern Italy, where many of the princes did homage
to the emperor, was cut short by the death of the pope, to whose
chair Otto then appointed his former tutor Gerbert, who took
the name of Sylvester II. In the palace which he built on the
Aventine, Otto sought to surround himself with the splendour
and ceremonial of the older emperors of Rome, and dreamed of
making Rome once more the centre of a universal empire. Many
names and customs were introduced into his court from that
of Constantinople; he proposed to restore the Roman senate
and consulate, revived the office of patrician, called himself
“consul of the Roman senate and people” and issued a seal
with the inscription, “restoration of the Roman empire.”
Passing from pride to humility he added “servant of the apostle,”
and “servant of Jesus Christ” to the imperial title, spent a
fortnight in prayer in the grotto of St Clement and did penance
in various Italian monasteries. Leaving Italy in the summer
preceding the year 1000, when it was popularly believed that the
end of the world was to come, Otto made a pilgrimage to the
tomb of his old friend Adalbert, bishop of Prague, at Gnesen,
and raised the city to the dignity of an archbishopric. He then
went to Aix, and opened the tomb of Charlemagne, where,
according to a legendary tale, he found the body of the great
emperor sitting upright upon a throne, wearing the crown and
holding the sceptre. Returning to Rome, trouble soon arose
between Otto and the citizens, and for three days the emperor
was besieged in his palace. After a temporary peace, he fled to
the monastery of Classe near Ravenna. Troops were collected,
but whilst conducting a campaign against the Romans, Otto
died at Paterno near Viterbo on the 23rd of January 1002,
and was buried in the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle. Tradition
