easily traceable because there are few sources from the time. It is clear, however, that
at the beginning of the eleventh century the baptism of Olav Haraldsson allowed him
to ally with the English king ousted by the Danes. It also let Olav tie himself to his
own men through the bonds of godparenthood. Building on the successes of Olav in
opposing Danish King Cnut’s hegemony in Norway, Magnus the Good (r.1035–1047)
harnessed the Christian institutions already in place.
The story of Sweden was similar to that of Denmark and Norway, but not until
the twelfth century. Before then, Sweden was divided among many competing rulers,
most of them professing Christianity.
Kingdoms in Europe’s West
Germany Just below Denmark was Germany. There the king was as effective and
powerful as the English king—and additionally worked with a much wider palette of
territories, institutions, and possibilities. It is true that at first Germany seemed ready
to disintegrate into duchies: five emerged in the late Carolingian period, each held by
a military leader who exercised quasi-royal powers. But, in the face of their own
quarrels and the threats of outside invaders, the dukes needed and wanted a strong
king. With the death in 911 of the last Carolingian king in Germany, Louis the Child,
they crowned one of themselves. Then, as attacks by the Hungarians increased, the
dukes gave the royal title to their most powerful member, the duke of Saxony, Henry
I (r.919–936), who proceeded to set up fortifications and reorganize his army,
crowning his efforts with a major defeat of the Hungarians in 933.
Henry’s son Otto I (r.936–973) defeated rival family members, rebellious dukes,
and Slavic and Hungarian armies soon after coming to the throne. Through astute
marriage alliances and appointments he was eventually able to get his family
members to head up all of the duchies. In 951, Otto marched into Italy and took the
Lombard crown. That gave him control, at least theoretically, of much of northern
Italy (see Map 4.6). Soon (in 962) he received the imperial crown that recognized his
far-flung power. Both to himself and to contemporaries he recalled the greatness of
Charlemagne. Meanwhile, Otto’s victory at Lechfeld in 955 (see p. 130) ended the
Hungarian threat. In the same year, Otto defeated a Slavic group, the Obodrites, just
east of the Elbe River and set up fortifications and bishoprics in the no-man’s-land
between the Elbe and the Oder Rivers.
Victories such as these brought tribute, plum positions to disburse, and lands to
give away, ensuring Otto a following among the great men of the realm. His
successors, Otto II, Otto III—hence the dynastic name “Ottonians”—and Henry II,
