24.3 Europe: a.d. 901 to 1000  (Page 2/7)

In A.D. 950 the Mediterranean was almost entirely a "Muslim lake" and such trade as there was between east and west was in the hands of the Byzantine cities of Italy, such as Bari, Amalfi, Gaeta and Salerno and of course the independent Venice. Northern Italy was converted into a crisscross of irrigation canals for shipping goods. The Moslems were finally dislodged from their base on the Ligurian coast. (Ref. 213 , 8 )

The written Italian language can be said to date from A.D. 960. The old Latin final vowels were retained, but only one case.

Central europe

Germany

While political fragmentation continued west of the Rhine, in the east a new Saxon Dynasty under Henry I and his son, Otto I the Great, extended influence over the German duchies and conquered the northern kingdom of Italy so that this Ottonian Empire emerged as an equal of Byzantium. By 925 this Saxon Dynasty had regained some territory from France, defeated the Danes and brought Bohemia and Moravia and the Elbe-Oder Slavs under their wing. Otto I married a daughter of Edward

Early in his reign Otto gave most of Bavaria to his brother, Duke Henry. Germany was soon invaded by the Magyars from their bases in Hungary, but Otto finally defeated them at Lechfeld, near Augsburg, in 955, recovering the eastern Bavarian march and laying the foundation for the future Austria. The Magyar leaders were executed. (Ref. 8 ) It was after these battles that Otto invaded Italy and was finally crowned "Holy Roman Emperor" by Pope John XII, in 962, with central and northern Italy becoming an appanage of the German crown. This predominance of the German monarchy and the virtual eclipse of the French was a striking feature of the 10th century in Europe. Otto, with the help of his brother Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne, began a cultural revival. Late in life he learned to read Latin, but not to speak it. His court literary circle included Irish and English monks and learned Greeks and Italians. He did have some further trouble with Rome but did get his son coronated as Otto II and married to Theophano, daughter of the Greek emperor, Romanus II. Otto II (973-983) took five years to put down a revolt involving the Duke of Bavaria and Boleslav of Bohemia and then had to repulse an attempted Danish invasion. His infant son, Otto III began to rule in 983 under the influence of his brilliant mother, Theophano. As a young adult, in two expeditions to Italy at the end of the century Otto III decapitated Pope Crescentius II, deposed Pope John XVI and installed Pope Sylvester II. He then settled down in Rome, beginning a theatrical restoration of the splendors of the city, and alienating the populace. He died without heirs and was buried at his request beside Charlemagne, at Aachen. (Ref. 119 )