Otto I, the Great 912-73
Holy Roman Emperor

The son of Henry, the Fowler he was crowned King of Germany in 936 and Emperor in 962. Virtual founder of the kingdom of Germany, he brought the great tribal duchies under the control of the monarchy, and made the Church the main instrument of royal government. He was married (930) to Edith, daughter of Edward, the Elder,and sister of Athelstan of England, and later (951) to St Adelaide. He preserved Germany from the Hungarian invasions by his great victory on the Lechfeld, near Augsburg (955), and re-established imperial rule in Italy in a revival of the Carolingian tradition. He presided over a cultural revival, sometimes called the Ottonian renaissance.

Bibliography: Rudolf Koepke and Ernst Duemmler, Jahrb�cher der deutschen Geschichte: Kaiser Otto der Grosse (1876)