Otto I and the Holy Roman Empire - 962-973
Charlemagne had three grandsons who ruled the kingdom after his death. The kingdom was divided among the three grandsons by the Treaty of Verdun. Around 100 years later, Otto I became king of Germany in 936. Germany was the eastern part of Charlemagne's kingdom. Otto wanted more power, so the dukes of Germany, who acted separately from Otto, were made vassals, and they became under Otto's domain.
It was at this time in history that popes were selected by the Noble families of Rome. Because of the nature of the change in noble families, there were many different popes selected. There were 23 different popes in a 60 year period! Now here something tricky happened. The pope at this time, Pope John XII, saw that Otto was a strong leader, and he asked Otto for help. He needed help so that the papacy would not keep changing. He wanted stability in the papacy, for he knew that with the next family ruling Rome, there would be another pope selected, and he would be out! So, in exchange for the help, this pope made Otto I the Holy Roman Emperor on February 2, 962.
Since Otto was now Holy Roman Emperor, he was able to reunite the empire in the west. The Treaty of Verdun, which was in 843, provided for the Middle Kingdom to be under Germanic control. The Holy Roman Empire remained distinctly German until 1806, when Napoleon rose to power.
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