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Otto I, the Great)
Otto I the Great (912 - May 7, 973), son of Henry I the Fowler, king of the Germans, and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of Germany and arguably the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire -- Charlemagne having been Holy Roman Emperor but ruling over all of today's France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, western Germany, Switzerland, western Austria and northern Italy.
Succeeding his father as king of the Germans in 936, he married Adelaide of Italy in 951. She bore him three sons and one daughter.
Early during Otto's reign, in 938, a rich vein of silver was discovered at the Rammelsberg in Saxony. This ore body provided much of Europe's silver, copper, and lead for the next two hundred years, and remained in production, although not continuously, for 1050 years. The wealth and trade engendered by the silver strike ensured Saxon influence in German politics for some time to come.
Around the time of his last child's birth, Otto defeated the Magyars in 955 at the Battle of Lechfeld near Augsburg in Bavaria, halting their advance into central Europe. In 963, Otto defeated Mieszko I, duke of Poland and compelled him to pay tribute.
On February 2, 962 Pope John XII crowned Otto Emperor. Though the term "Holy Roman Empire" was not used until about 200 years later, Otto is sometimes considered its founder (others confer this honor on his father Henry) and is counted as the first in a succession of emperors of various dynasties which ended only when Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and the last Emperor of the house of Habsburg abdicated the crown in 1806. (Note: Charlemagne was crowned Emperor in 800, reviving the concept and ideal of a western Roman Emperor, and is regarded by many as the first Holy Roman Emperor. However, the last Carolingian emperor Berengar of Friuli died in 922, and the imperial title remained unclaimed until Otto was crowned in 961. With Otto began the association between the title of Emperor and the German kingship.)
His younger brother was Archbishop Bruno I of Cologne.
After his death in 973 he was buried next to his first wife Editha of Wessex in the Cathedral of Magdeburg
de:Otto I. (HRR) it:Ottone I, Sacro Romano Imperatore nl:Otto I pl:Otton I Wielki sv:Otto I, tysk-romersk kejsare
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