The Ottonians as kings and emperors
Eckhard Müller-Mertens
Charles the Fat had been able to reunite Carolingian kingdoms and, apart from Provence, exercised direct rule over all of them. Unlike Charles, who accepted west Frankish crown offered him in 885, Arnulf Carinthia rejected a corresponding offer magnates. Franconia and Lotharingia were former royal provinces, whose political organisation stemmed Carolingians; Suabia, Bavaria Saxony ethnically defined regions. The phrase Francia et Saxonia, used by Otto I later Widukind Corvey Adalbert Magdeburg, corresponds actual structure Reich. Instead device renovatio imperii Romanorum III Henry adopted formula regni Francorum, which already on imperial bulls Louis Pious, III, Wido Spoleto. Acomparison Rheims electoral dispute 989-97 with that 940-48 shows how France Ottonian Reich developed away each other.
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