Otto I Crowned Emperor (962): Birth of the Holy Roman Empire

On 2 February 962 Pope John XII crowned the German king Otto I emperor in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The ceremony revived the Western imperial title, which had lapsed in 924, and tied it to the kings of Germany for more than eight centuries. Historians often treat this coronation as the beginning of the state later called the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806.

Background: the empire after Charlemagne

The idea of a Western emperor came from the coronation of Charlemagne in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king in Rome. Charlemagne’s empire was divided among his grandsons by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, into western, middle and eastern kingdoms.

The imperial title survived, but it became the prize of weaker and weaker rulers, mostly kings in Italy. The last of them, Berengar I, was murdered in 924, after which there was no emperor in the West for almost four decades.

In East Francia, the eastern kingdom that became Germany, the Carolingian line died out in 911. In 919 the nobles chose Henry, Duke of Saxony, as king. Henry I, known as Henry the Fowler, founded the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty and arranged for his son Otto to succeed him.

Otto’s rise to power (936–961)

Otto was born on 23 November 912. After his father’s death he was crowned king at Aachen on 7 August 936, in Charlemagne’s chapel. The choice of place was deliberate: it presented Otto as Charlemagne’s heir.

His early reign was dominated by rebellions. His half-brother Thankmar, his younger brother Henry and the dukes of Franconia and Lotharingia rose against him between 937 and 941. Otto defeated them, notably at Andernach in 939, and gradually placed relatives and loyal allies in the great duchies.

His interest in Italy began in 951. Adelaide, the young widow of King Lothair of Italy, had been imprisoned by Berengar II, Marquis of Ivrea, who had seized the Italian crown. Otto crossed the Alps, took the title king of the Lombards at Pavia and married Adelaide. His first wife, Eadgyth (Edith), a half-sister of King Athelstan of England, had died in 946.

Berengar submitted and was allowed to keep Italy as Otto’s vassal in 952. A serious revolt by Otto’s son Liudolf followed in 953–954, and Otto had little time for Italy for several years.

The event that made Otto’s reputation was the Battle of Lechfeld on 10 August 955, near Augsburg. Otto’s army crushed a large Magyar force, ending decades of Hungarian raids into Western Europe. Later that year he defeated a Slavic army at the river Recknitz.

According to the Saxon chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Otto’s troops acclaimed him as emperor after the Lechfeld. Whether or not this happened exactly as described, the victory gave Otto an authority no other Western ruler possessed. To many contemporaries he was the obvious candidate for the imperial crown.

The opportunity came from the papacy. John XII, born Octavian, had become pope in 955 while still a young man, probably about eighteen. He was the son of Alberic II, who had dominated Rome for two decades, and he combined the roles of pope and secular ruler of the city.

Berengar II was by then threatening the papal territories in central Italy. In 960 John XII sent envoys asking Otto to intervene. Otto prepared carefully. In May 961 he had his young son, Otto II, elected and crowned king at Aachen to secure the succession, and then crossed the Alps with an army in the late summer.

Berengar avoided battle and withdrew into his fortresses. Otto spent Christmas 961 at Pavia and then marched on Rome.

The coronation of 2 February 962

Otto entered Rome at the end of January 962. On 2 February, the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, or Candlemas, John XII anointed and crowned him emperor in St Peter’s Basilica. Adelaide was crowned empress beside him, an unusual honour that reflected her importance as heiress to Italian royal claims.

Before the coronation Otto swore to protect the Roman Church and the pope and to respect the pope’s rights in Rome. In return the Romans swore loyalty to him and promised not to support Berengar.

On 13 February 962 Otto issued a charter known as the Diploma Ottonianum (the Privilegium Ottonianum). It confirmed the papacy’s claims to lands in central Italy, following earlier grants by Pepin and Charlemagne. It also stated that a newly elected pope should swear an oath in the presence of the emperor’s envoys before his consecration, giving the emperor a strong voice in papal elections.

Conflict with the pope (963–965)

The partnership broke down quickly. Once Otto left Rome to fight Berengar, John XII began negotiating with Berengar’s son Adalbert and, according to Otto’s supporters, even with the Magyars and the Byzantines.

Otto returned to Rome in November 963. A synod held in St Peter’s accused John of a long list of crimes and deposed him in December, electing a layman, Leo VIII, in his place. Much of this comes from Liudprand of Cremona, a bishop in Otto’s service, whose account is hostile to John and must be read with caution.

When Otto left, the Romans readmitted John, who took revenge on his opponents. He died in May 964, and the Romans elected Benedict V. Otto besieged Rome, restored Leo VIII and took Benedict into exile in Hamburg. Berengar II was captured in 963 or 964 and sent as a prisoner to Bamberg, where he died in 966.

Key people

• Otto I (912–973): king of East Francia from 936, king of Italy from 951, emperor from 962.
• John XII (c. 937–964): pope from 955, who crowned Otto and was later deposed by him.
• Adelaide (c. 931–999): queen of Italy, Otto’s second wife, crowned empress in 962.
• Berengar II (c. 900–966): king of Italy, whose pressure on the papacy brought Otto south.
• Otto II (955–983): Otto’s son and successor, crowned co-emperor in 967.
• Liudprand of Cremona (c. 920–972): bishop, diplomat and chronicler of Otto’s Roman affairs.

Consequences

Otto spent much of his last decade in Italy. On Christmas Day 967 Pope John XIII crowned Otto II co-emperor in Rome. In 972 Otto II married Theophanu, a Byzantine princess, after long negotiations with Constantinople, which had resented a rival Western emperor.

In Germany Otto founded the archbishopric of Magdeburg in 968 to direct the Church in the Slavic lands to the east. Around the same years the baptism of Mieszko I of Poland in 966 drew another neighbour into the Latin Christian world. Otto relied heavily on bishops and abbots as royal servants, granting them land and rights; older historians called this the imperial church system, though the idea of a deliberate system is now debated.

Otto died at Memleben on 7 May 973 and was buried in Magdeburg Cathedral. His son, grandson and their successors would all seek coronation in Rome.

Legacy: the Holy Roman Empire

From 962 onwards the king elected in Germany was regarded as the rightful candidate for the imperial crown. The empire included the German kingdom, the kingdom of Italy and, from 1033, the kingdom of Burgundy. Its rulers claimed a special role as protectors of the Church and successors of the Roman emperors.

The name developed later. Rulers in the eleventh century used “Roman Empire”; “Holy Empire” appears under Frederick Barbarossa in 1157; and “Holy Roman Empire” is recorded from 1254. The phrase “of the German Nation” was added in the fifteenth century.

The link between emperor and pope created centuries of tension, most famously in the Investiture Controversy of the late eleventh century. It also bound Germany and Italy together politically for much of the Middle Ages. The empire ended on 6 August 1806, when Francis II laid down the imperial crown under pressure from Napoleon.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Otto founded a “German” empire. Otto ruled as king of the East Franks and Saxons and thought of his empire as Roman and Christian. National ideas of Germany came much later.
• Myth: the imperial crown in Vienna was made for Otto I. The crown has traditionally been linked with him, but its date is disputed; many scholars place it in the late tenth or early eleventh century, and its arch bears the name of Conrad II, who reigned from 1024 to 1039.
• Fact: the empire did not include all of Charlemagne’s lands. West Francia, the future France, remained outside it.

Timeline

• 912, 23 November: Otto is born.
• 936, 7 August: Otto is crowned king at Aachen.
• 951: Otto marries Adelaide and becomes king of Italy.
• 955, 10 August: Victory over the Magyars at the Lechfeld.
• 961, 26 May: Otto II is crowned king at Aachen.
• 962, 2 February: John XII crowns Otto emperor in Rome.
• 962, 13 February: The Diploma Ottonianum is issued.
• 963, December: A Roman synod deposes John XII.
• 967, 25 December: Otto II is crowned co-emperor.
• 973, 7 May: Otto I dies at Memleben.

Why it matters

Otto’s coronation created a lasting political framework for central Europe. For more than 800 years the German kings claimed the title of Roman emperor, shaping relations with the papacy, the history of Italy and the balance of power in Europe until the empire’s end in 1806.