There have been few European figures who died young with as much promise as Otto III Augustus, Emperor of the Romans. Otto, half Saxon, half Byzantine, was brought up by his Byzantine mother Theophano to see himself as a true Basileus, as God's vice regent on Earth. In 994, at the age of just fourteen he crushed the Slavs in battle, and in 997, at seventeen, he marched on Rome and imposed Popes as he pleased. In 1002, he requested a marriage to young Zoe, the favourite niece of the great Eastern Roman Emperor Basil II, and Zoe was despatched to Italy. Tragically though, Otto died before they could meet.
What if Otto survived for another thirty years, and Zoe gave him children? Would he be able to impose a Byzantine style of rule over fractitious East Francia and Italy? Would he be able to continue the firm subordination of the Papacy to the Emperor? How would this affect the major trends of the eleventh century such as the rise of the Normans, the Reconquista, and the decay of the Eastern Roman Empire?
Discuss.
What if Otto survived for another thirty years, and Zoe gave him children? Would he be able to impose a Byzantine style of rule over fractitious East Francia and Italy? Would he be able to continue the firm subordination of the Papacy to the Emperor? How would this affect the major trends of the eleventh century such as the rise of the Normans, the Reconquista, and the decay of the Eastern Roman Empire?
Discuss.