Otto III (980-1002) was one of the most powerful rulers in Europe
in the late tenth century. He is also one of the most enigmatic.
The son of the German emperor Otto II and the Greek princess
Theophanu, he came to the throne at the age of three and was only
twenty-one years old at the time of his death. Nonetheless, his
reign had a lasting impact on both Germany and Italy for
generations. In this book, Gerd Althoff provides a much-needed
biography of this fascinating figure. In the process, he uses
Otto's life to explain how in practice early medieval kingship
worked.
At the heart of Otto's short career lay three expeditions to
Italy and his efforts to solidify a German Reich that controlled
the territory on both sides of the Alps. Most writers of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries understood Otto, for good or
ill, as an idealist and an individualist. Althoff's great
contribution is to make sense of Otto III against the backdrop of
his own time, depicting Otto as a ruler challenged and limited both
by his ancestry and by the political customs of his time.
Publication of Otto III marks an impressive debut in English for
one of Germany's leading medieval historians. Throughout his
career, Althoff has been especially interested in conflicts between
kings and aristocrats as a means of understanding the fluid
exercise of power. What emerges in this book is a tantalizing
picture of rule by symbolic act and word, by consensus of the
nobles, by behind-the-scenes negotiations, and through public
rituals to cement agreements. The final result is a vivid portrait
of a medieval monarchy that is neither absolute nor based on
long-term policies. Instead we see a ruler who is truly a productof
his civilization.
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