Germany in the Early Middle Ages C. 800-1056 by Reuter Timothy

Author:Reuter, Timothy.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317872382
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

HEGEMONY: FRANCE, BURGUNDY AND ITALY

From the beginning of Otto’s reign the strength of the external position which had been built up by Henry I was very evident. To the west and south-west the hegemony of the east Frankish kingdom could be extended even during the initial crisis. In Burgundy, Rudolf II had died in 937; in 939 Otto made a quick expedition to the kingdom to rescue the young king Conrad from his enemies, including Hugo of Aries, king of Italy. He brought him to his court, and thus both saved his kingship and consolidated the tradition of east Frankish overlordship over Burgundy already begun under Arnulf and Henry I. Also reminiscent of Arnulf were Otto’s shifting alliances with the leading men of the west Frankish kingdom. At first, and especially during the succession crisis, Otto had tended to favour Hugo the Great, while Louis IV, with eyes on Lotharingia, allied with Henry and Gilbert. In 940 Otto even received the commendation of Hugo the Great, Heribert of Vermandois and Hugo the Black of Burgundy. After the peace settlement of 941, and especially after the granting of Lotharingia to Conrad in 943-4, there was little immediate prospect for Louis of gains in Lotharingia, and Otto was able to play the role of mediator between Robertines and Carolingians. This was made all the easier by kinship ties: Hugo the Great was married to Otto’s sister Hadwig, while Louis IV had as part of his attempt to regain Lotharingia married another sister of Otto’s, Gilbert’s widow Gerberga, immediately after Gilbert’s death in 939. Already in 942 Otto had met Louis at Visé and sworn friendship with him (much as Henry I had done with Charles the Simple and with Robert).

It was partly pressure by Otto which forced Hugh the Great to release Louis IV, whom he had captured in 945, in return for the surrender of Laon. This was in July 946; a full-scale east Frankish expedition to west Francia in the autumn was not able to improve Louis’s position much, though it did restore Carolingian control over the crucial archbishopric of Rheims. Otto’s reputation, however, was undamaged, and it was still more enhanced by the council held at Ingelheim in 948 under the presidency of a papal legate, for here not only was the dispute over the archbishopric of Rheims settled, but also the accusations made by Louis against Hugo and his followers were discussed. Few things could have displayed Otto’s hegemony more effectively than a synod, which he had summoned and which was held in his kingdom and attended in the majority by his bishops, sitting in judgement on west Frankish affairs, both secular and ecclesiastical. In all probability it was also at Ingelheim that Otto’s new episcopal foundations in the Danish and Slav marches (see above, p. 163) were confirmed, a further demonstration of his power. It is no accident that the first examples of Otto’s being called emperor in narrative sources and private charters come from Lotharingia in the years immediately following Ingelheim.

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