25 From this moment forward the man designated as the King of Germany would possess the right to be King of Italy and to be crowned Emperor, though his coronation still lay in the hands of the Pope. To this end he invaded the Italian peninsula and was crowned Emperor in Rome by Pope John XII on February 2, 962 (Bryce 2012, 94–95), thereby seizing a title which had been unclaimed for more than 40 years, becoming the founder of what would ultimately be known in the historiography as the Holy Roman Empire. In just years Otto I managed to become the most powerful ruler in the West, which prompted him to aspire to the Kingdom of Italy which since the time of Charlemagne had been the key to wielding the imperial scepter. In the East, he definitively halted the Hungarians and imposed his protectorate upon the Slavs of Bohemia, while in the West, he annexed modern-day Lorraine and part of today’s Belgium to the German kingdom. The new German king managed to expand the boundaries of his kingdom and shore up his authority. In the year 936, Henry I of Saxony’s heir was elected “King of Germany” 24 with the name of Otto I (936–973). Under these conditions only the strongest kings prevailed, such as Henry I (919–936), Duke of Saxony 23 and, above all, his son Otto I. The problem was that the novus rex, although crowned and publicly acknowledged by all, were in perpetually tenuous positions, as they had to face potential opposition from two camps: their defeated rivals and the members of their clans, and those who had voted for him, but with a view to their own self interest, expecting greater wealth in return, ever willing to rescind their support if they concluded that doing so would benefit them (Reuter 1991, 203).

22 The authority exercised by the German king was largely theoretical, however, as the Germanic territories were ruled by powerful nobles (usually dukes) whom the king had to subjugate, whether by arms or by means of alliances. According to tradition, it was in this year that Conrad I was elected the first King of Germany.

German historiography establishes 911 as a chronological milestone to mark the passage from the Frankish to the Germanic Empire.

Papal states medieval 2