The coronation of Otto the Great seemed to his contemporaries a necessary and beneficial act. They still believed that the Roman Empire was suspended, not extinct; and that now, one hundred and fifty years after Charlemagne, the occasion was opportune to revive the name and power associated with the golden age of the first Frankish emperor. Otto's ardent spirit, one may well believe, was fired with this vision of imperial sway and the renewal of a title around which clustered so many memories of success and glory.
[Illustration: Map, EUROPE IN THE AGE OF OTTO THE GREAT, 962 A.D.]
ULTIMATE RESULTS OF THE CORONATION
But the outcome of Otto's restoration of the Roman Empire was good neither for Italy nor for Germany. It became the rule, henceforth, that the man whom the German nobles chose as their king had a claim, also, to the Italian crown and the imperial title. The efforts of the German kings to make good this claim led to their constant interference in the affairs of Italy. They treated that country as a conquered province which had no right to a national life and an independent government under its own rulers. At the same time they neglected Germany and failed to keep their powerful territorial lords in subjection. Neither Italy nor Germany, in consequence, could become a unified, centralized state, such as was formed in France and England during the later Middle Ages.
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
The empire of Charlemagne, restored by Otto the Great, came to be called in later centuries the "Holy Roman Empire." The title points to the idea of a world monarchy—the Roman Empire—and a world religion—Roman Christianity—united in one institution. This magnificent idea was never fully realized. The popes and emperors, instead of being bound to each other by the closest ties, were more generally enemies than friends. A large part of medieval history was to turn on this conflict between the Empire and the Papacy. [23]
111. THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN BRITAIN, 449-839 A.D.
ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN
From the history of Continental Europe we now turn to the history of Britain. That island had been overrun by the Germanic barbarians after the middle of the fifth century. [24] They are commonly known as Anglo-Saxons, from the names of their two principal peoples, the Angles and Saxons. The Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain was a slow process, which lasted at least one hundred and fifty years. The invaders followed the rivers into the interior and gradually subdued more than a half of what is now England, comprising the fertile plain district in the southern and eastern parts of the island.