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| 981–82 |
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| Otto's campaign in southern Italy, to expel the Saracens and reduce the Byzantine power, ended in defeat. | 1 |
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| 983–1002 |
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| Otto III (an infant of three years). Rule of his brilliant mother, Theophano (983–91), his grandmother Adelheid, and Archbishop Willigis of Mainz (991–96). Under Theophano's influence, his education was in the Byzantine tradition; his tutor was Gerbert of Aurillac, one of the most learned men of his day, whose brilliance won him the nickname Stupor Mundi (Wonder of the World). Henry the Wrangler proclaimed himself king, but was forced to submit. | 2 |
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| 996 |
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| Otto's first expedition to Italy ended Crescentius II's sway in Rome; Otto designated his cousin Bruno as pope (Gregory V). | 3 |
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| 998 |
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| Returning to Rome on his second expedition to Italy, Otto deposed the Crescentine pope, John XVI, and decapitated Crescentius. Otto made Gerbert of Aurillac pope, as Sylvester II. Sylvester shared Otto's devotion to the Carolingian tradition of an intimate union and cooperation between pope and emperor. Otto's antiquarianism led him to a plan of reform through universal imperial overlordship independent of the German crown. He settled down at Rome and began a restoration of the splendors of the city: palace on the Aventine, Byzantine court and Byzantine titles, futile revival of ancient formulas (seals inscribed Renovatio imperii romani, etc.); rapid alienation of the Roman populace. He left no heir and was buried on his own orders beside Charlemagne at Aachen. | 4 |
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| 1002–24 |
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| Henry II (son of Henry the Wrangler, cousin of Otto, great-grandson of Henry the Fowler) emerged from the contest for the throne, and was crowned emperor at Rome (1014). Devout (canonized with his wife, St. Kunigunde) but a political realist and firm with the Church, he concentrated his attention on Germany. Against episcopal objections, he founded (1007) the bishopric of Bamberg, endowed it richly as an outpost of German culture against Slavdom; the cathedral, one of the glories of German architecture, contains his tomb. Vigorous (Gorzian) monastic reform with many confiscations. | 5 |
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| 1003–17 |
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| A long, unsuccessful struggle with Boleslav Chrobry (992–1025) of Poland, duke of Bohemia, who had acquired Lusatia and Silesia. | 6 |
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| 1006–7 |
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| Unrest in Burgundy and revolt of Baldwin of Flanders (suppressed, 1007). | 7 |
| In practice Henry had no choice but to allow the great fiefs to become hereditary. He relied heavily on the clergy to supply advisers and administrators, and looked to the Church also for military and financial support, but he dominated the Church in Germany through his control of the episcopal appointments. Extensive secularization and reform of the monasteries of the Church resulted. (See Germany) | 8 |
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