v17_2360 - MOUZON - OTHON Ier, ROI DE GERMANIE PUIS EMPEREUR Denier

MOUZON - OTTO I, KING OF GERMANY THEN EMPEROR

(936-962-973)

Otto I the Great is the son of Henry I the Birdcatcher. King of Germany from 936, he inherited a power weakened by the feudal insiders and threatened by the Hungarians and the Slavs outside. He gradually crushed the revolts of the dukes and entrusted the administration to faithful abbots and bishops, whom he invested with temporal power. In 955, he defeated the Hungarians at Lechfeld, which earned him immense prestige, increased by his intervention in French quarrels and in Italy where he was crowned king in 951. During his second expedition to the Italian peninsula, he received at Rome of Pope John XII the imperial coronation (February 2, 962). Walking in the footsteps of Charlemagne, Otho I had his dignity recognized by marrying his son, the future Otho II, to Theophano, daughter of Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine emperor.