OTHO I., or the great, sou of the emperor Henry I. of Germany, was b. in 912, and after having been early recognized as his successor, was, ou the death of his father in 936, formally crowned king of the Germans. His reign one succession of eventful and generally ti iumphant wars, in the course of which he brought many turbulent tribes under subjection, acquired and maintained almost supreme power in Italy, where lie imposed laws with equal success on the kings of Lombardy and the popes at Rome, con solidated the disjointed power of the German emperors, and established Christianity at many different points in the Scandinavian and Slavonic lands, which lay beyond the circuit of his own jurisdiction. His earliest achievement was a successful war against the Bohemian duke Boleslas, whom he reduced to subjection, and forcibly converted to Christianity; next, the dukes of Bavaria and Franconia were compelled to succumb to his power; the former paying the penalty of his opposition to Otho by defeat and death in battle, and the latter by the confiscation of his territories, which, together with the other lapsed and recovered fiefs of the empire, were bestowed on near and devoted relatives of the conqueror. After subduing the Slavi of the Order and Spree, for whose Christian regeneration he founded the bishoprics of Havelhurg and Brandenhum driving the Danes beyond the Ryder, compelling their defeated king to return to the Christian faith and do homage to himself; and after founding, at the suggestion of his mether's former chaplain, Adeldag, the bishoprics of A:trim:is, Ribe, andSleswick, which he de creed were forever to be free from all burdens and imposts, he turned his attention to the affairs of Italy. Here he presented himself as the champion of the beautiful the widow of the murdered king Lothaire; and having defeated her importunate suitor, Berengar II. (q.v.), married her, and assumed supreme power over the north of Italy in 951. The wars to which this gave rise obliged Otho frequently to cross the Alps; but at length after a great victory gained over the Huns in 955, and the defeat mind capture of Berenga•, Otho was acknowledged king of Italy by a diet held at Milan; and after being crowned with the iron crown of Lombardy, was, in 962, recog nized by pope John XII. as the successor of Charlemagne, and crowned emperor of the
west at Rome. Otho lost no time in asserting his imperial prerogatives; and having called a council, effected the deposition of John, whose licentiousness had become is burden to Italy and is scandal to Christendom, Leo VIII. to be elected in his place. Fresh wars were the result of this step. Popes and antipopes distracted the peace of Rome; but through all these disorders Otho maintained the supremacy which he claimed as emperor of the west in regard to the election of popes and the temporal concerns of the Roman territories. His later years were disturbed by domestic differences; for his elder son, Ludolph, and his son-in-law, Konrad of Lorraine, having risen in rebellion against him, through jealousy of his younger son and intended suc cessor. Otho. the empire was distracted by civil war. Although the war terminated in the defeat of the rebels, and the recognition of young Otho as king of the Germans, and his coronation at Rome, in 967, as joint emperor with his father, Otho's favorite scheme of uniting the richly-dowried Greek princess, Theophania, with the young prince met with such contempt from the Greek emperor that his outraged pride soon again plunged him into war. His inroads into Apulia however, proved convincing argu ments in faVor of the marriage, and Theophania became the wife of young Otho, with Calabria and Apulia for her dowry. Otho died at Minsleben, in Thuringia, in 973, and was buried at Magdeburg, leaving the character of a great and just ruler, who had extended the limits of the empire, and restored the prestige of the imperial power more nearly to the stand which it occupied under Charlemagne than any other emperor. He created the duchy of Carinthia, and the mark-grafdorns of east and north Saxony; appointed counts-palatine; founded cities and bishoprics; and (lid good service to the empire, in reorganizing the shaken foundations of its power in Europe. See Velise's 'Leben Kaiser Otho's dear (Dresd. 1827).