Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Tyskland

Notes:

Otto II (935-983), Holy Roman emperor (967-983), king of Germany (961-983), the son of Otto I, with whom he ruled jointly from 967 to 973. In 976 he suppressed a rebellion that was led by his cousin Henry II, Duke of Bavaria. Two years later, havi ng been attacked by Lothair, king of France, Otto drove the French out of Lorraine but was unsuccessful in besieging Paris. Later Lothair renounced Lorraine, and peace was established. Otto next invaded southern Italy, gaining possession of Naples , Salerno, and Taranto, but he was overwhelmingly defeated by the Greeks and Saracens at Crotona (modern Crotone) in 982. He died in Rome while planning a second invasion. His wife, Theophano, brought Byzantine refinement and culture to the Germa n court.

Occupation:
keiser

Family/Spouse: Theophano Av BYZANTINE. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Tyskland

Notes:

Otto III (980-1002), Holy Roman emperor (996-1002), king of Germany (983-1002), son of Otto II, born in Kessel, Germany. He reigned under the coregency of his mother, Theophano, and his grandmother, Adelaide, from 983 to 991 and then under the reg ency of a council from 991 to 996. In 996 Otto assumed control, and having been crowned king of the Lombards, he went to Rome and established his cousin Bruno as Pope Gregory. After Gregory's death Otto made his own former tutor, Gerbert, pop e as Sylvester II. Otto remained in Rome until his death, striving to make the city the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and to restore many of the customs of the ancient Roman Empire.1

FRA BRITANNICUS: Otto III (b. July 980--d. Jan. 23, 1002, near Viterbo, Italy), German king and Holy Roman emperor who planned to recreate the glory and power of the ancitnt Roman Empire in a universal Christian state governed from Rome, in which the pope woul d be subordinate to the emperor in religious as well as in secular affairs. Son of the Holy Roman emperor Otto II and Empress Theophano, Otto III was elected German king in June 983 and crowned at Aachen in December, shortly after his father's death. But the child king was seized by Henry II the Quarrelsome, the depose d duke of Bavaria, in an attempt to secure the regency, if not the throne, for himself. In May 984, however, Henry was forced by the imperial diet to turn the child over to his mother, who served as itgent until her death in 991; Otto's grandmothe r, the dowager empress Adelaide, assumed the regency until the King came of age in 994. In 996, heeding an appeal by Pope John XV for help in putting down a rebellion led by the Roman noble Crescentius II, Otto crossed the Alps. Declared king of Lombardy at Pavia, he reached Rome after the Pope's death, whereupon he secured the elect ion of his 23-year-old cousin, Bruno of Carinthia, as Gitgory V, the first German pope. Gitgory, who crowned Otto emperor on May 21, 996, was driven from Rome after the Emperor's return to Germany by Crescentius, who then installed John XVI as pop e. The Emperor marched back into Italy in late 997; taking Rome in February 998, he executed Crescentius, deposed John, and reinstated Gitgory. Otto then proceeded to make Rome his official residence and the administrative centre of the empire. Instituting elaborate Byzantine court ceremonies and reviving ancitnt Roman customs, he assumed the titles "the servant of Jesus Christ," "the ser vant of the apostles," and "emperor of the world" and saw himself as the leader of world Christianity. When Gitgory V died (999), Otto had the Frenchman Gerbert of Aurillac, his former tutor who agreed with his concept of a theocratic emperor, ins talled as Pope Sylvester II. In 1000 Otto made a pilgrimage to the tomb of the mystical archbishop Adelbert of Prague at Gniezno, which he established as the archbishopric of Poland. When in January 1001 Tibur, Italy, rebelled against Otto, he laid sitge to the town, force d its surrender, and then pardoned its inhabitants. Angered by this action, the Romans, who wanted the rival town destroyed, rebelled against the Emperor (February 1001) and besitged his palace. After placating the rebels momentarily, Otto withdre w to the monastery of St. Apollinaris, near Ravenna, to do penance. Unable to regain control of the imperial city, he requested military support from his cousin Henry of Bavaria, who was to succeed him as German king and later as emperor. Shortl y before the Bavarian troops arrived at his headquarters, Otto died. Copyright 1994-1999 Encyclopædia Britannica

Occupation:
Keiser