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Ottonians

Ottonian dynasty
Country Duchy of Saxony, Kingdom of Germany, Holy Roman Empire
Titles
Founded 9th century: Liudolf, Duke of Saxony
Final ruler Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor
Dissolution 1024 (after the death of Emperor Henry II)
Ethnicity Germans
Cadet branches Brunonids
German royal dynasties
Ottonian dynasty
Chronology
Henry I 919 – 936
Otto I 936 – 973
Otto II 973 – 983
Otto III 983 – 1002
Henry II 1002 – 1024
Family
Family tree of the German monarchs
Succession
Preceded by
Conradine dynasty
Followed by
Salian dynasty

The Ottonian dynasty (German: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after its first Emperor Otto I, but also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings (Liudolfinger), after its earliest known member Count Liudolf (d. 866) and one of its primary leading-names. The Ottonian rulers were successors of the Carolingian dynasty in East Francia.

In the 9th century, the Saxon count Liudolf held large estates on the Leine river west of the Harz mountain range and in the adjacent Eichsfeld territory of Thuringia. His ancestors probably acted as ministeriales in the Saxon stem duchy, which had been incorporated into the Carolingian Empire after the Saxon Wars of Charlemagne. Liudolf married Oda, a member of the Frankish House of Billung. About 852 the couple together with Bishop Altfrid of Hildesheim founded Brunshausen Abbey, which, relocated to Gandersheim, rose to a family monastery and burial ground.

Liudolf already held the high social position of a Saxon dux, documented by the marriage of his daughter Liutgard with Louis the Younger, son of the Carolingian king Louis the German in 869. Liudolf's sons Bruno and Otto the Illustrious ruled over large parts of Saxon Eastphalia, moreover, Otto acted as lay abbot of the Imperial abbey of Hersfeld with large estates in Thuringia. He married Hedwiga, a daughter of the Babenberg duke Henry of Franconia. Otto possibly accompanied King Arnulf on his 894 campaign to Italy; the marriage of his daughter Oda with Zwentibold, Arnulf's illegitimate son, documents the efforts of the Carolingian ruler to win the mighty Saxon dynasty over as an ally. According to the Saxon chronicler Widukind of Corvey, Otto upon the death of the last Carolingian king Louis the Child in 911 was already a candidate for the East Frankish crown, which however passed to the Franconian duke Conrad I.


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