Further Reading
Althoff, Gerd, and Hagen Keller. Heinrich I. und Otto der Große:
Neubeginn und karolingisches Erbe. Göttingen: Muster-
Schmidt, 1985.
Leyser, Karl. Communications and Power in Medieval Europe:
The Carolingian and Ottonian Centuries, ed. Timothy Reuter.
London: Hambledon Press, 1994.
Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 800 – 1056.
London: Longman, 1991.
Phyllis G. Jestice
OTTO II (955–983)
King 961–983, emperor 967–983, sole ruler of the Ger-
man Empire from 973, Otto II was born in 955 to Otto I
and his second wife, Adelheid. His father arranged for
the six-year-old Otto’s election and coronation as king
of the Germans in May 961, before setting out on his
second Italian expedition. To secure the imperial title
to his dynasty, the elder Otto further arranged to have
his son crowned co-emperor on Christmas Day 967;
Otto II was the last western emperor to receive imperial
coronation in his father’s lifetime. Despite these honors,
the future Otto II was not given an independent position
even after he came of age, and has left only twenty-seven
extant documents from the twelve years of his offi cial
shared rule with Otto I. At his father’s death in 973, the
eighteen-year-old Otto was accepted as ruler without
opposition.
The early years of Otto II’s reign were occupied by
a series of rebellions in Bavaria and Lotharingia. These
rebellions were provoked by an attempt Otto made in
974 to reduce the power of his overly mighty cousin,
Henry II “the Quarrelsome” (the nickname is not con-
temporary), duke of the semiautonomous duchy of Ba-
varia. Henry’s defeat in 976 gave Otto the opportunity to
reorganize the southern duchies, weakening Bavaria by
turning its province of Carinthia into a separate duchy.
Henry, unsatisfi ed with his position, led a second up-
rising in 976–977, and Bavaria was pacifi ed only with
Henry’s imprisonment in 978.
Otto II’s early military campaigns were successful, as
Otto continued the strong eastern and northern policies
of his father and grandfather. A victory over the Danes in
974 led to an expansion of German efforts to evangelize
in the north. He also invaded Bohemia several times,
returning it to its earlier tributary status after its ruler
had seceded by joining with Henry the Quarrelsome
in the rebellions of 974–977. On the western front,
though, Otto was unable to play as strong a role as his
father had. An effort of the French King Lothar to gain
control of Lotharingia in 978 caught Otto by surprise,
forcing him to fl ee Aachen before the French army. Otto
quickly retaliated with a raid that penetrated France to
the gates of Paris, but that accomplished little besides
salving Otto’s pride.
In 972, Otto II had married the Byzantine princess
Theophanu, a marriage arranged by his father to enhance
the prestige of the Ottonian dynasty. Contemporary
sources suggest that Theophanu exerted a very strong
infl uence on Otto, including the belief that the empress’s
“childish advice” led to Otto’s disastrous campaign in
southern Italy in 982. In reality, the southern campaign
needs little explanation. Otto decided in 981 on the
conquest of southern Italy, split at that time among
Saracens, Greeks, and Lombards. He probably planned
the campaign as an extension of imperial policies be-
gun by Otto I, who had conducted several inconclusive
campaigns in the region. Otto II’s army was, however,
decisively defeated by a Saracen force at the battle of
Cotrone (Cap Colonne) on July 13, 982. Almost the
entire German army was destroyed; Otto himself es-
caped only by swimming his horse out to a Greek ship
in the bay, then disguising his identity until he reached
safety. The Saracen army was too badly weakened to
press its advantage, so the battle had little effect on the
balance of power in Italy. This defeat, though, dealt a
severe blow to Otto’s prestige. The Slavs responded
to news of the German defeat with an uprising in the
summer of 983. A Slavic confederation devastated theOTTO IIEmperor Otto receives the homage of the nations. Gospels
of Emperor Otto (II or III), also called “Registrum Gregorii.”
Ottoian art, 10th. © Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York.