Holy Roman Emperor Otto III survives

[wormyguy]

In reality, the capable and strongly Romanophile Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (son of the Byzantine princess Theopanu) made it his mission to make the Holy Roman Empire live up to his name. He controlled the papacy by installing his cousin as Pope Gregory V, then his brilliant advisor Gerbert d'Aurillac as Sylvester II, moved his capitol to Rome, and reinstituted Roman law and forms of government. However, he died of malaria at the age of 21, days shy of marrying future Byzantine empress regnant Zoe.

However, what if he, having already at a young age shown himself to be strong-willed and able to control the church and rebellious nobles that plagued future emperors, and in line to succeed to the Eastern Empire's throne, had survived? Could Voltaire be pre-emptively proven wrong?

 

[CandyDragon]

I thought that as a matter of custom, it was the male line that succeeded among the Byzantines. Even if this isn't the case, I don't think Otto would be able to unify the "HRE" and ERE ("Byzantium")

If he did, I doubt he'd be able to hold on to it... I just get the feeling that it's a lot of "ifs,"too many perhaps, to be plausible.

 

[wormyguy]

I thought that as a matter of custom, it was the male line that succeeded among the Byzantines. Even if this isn't the case, I don't think Otto would be able to unify the "HRE" and ERE ("Byzantium")

If he did, I doubt he'd be able to hold on to it... I just get the feeling that it's a lot of "ifs,"too many perhaps, to be plausible.

Zoe was the heir to the male line (she had no brothers), so her husband would (and did) become Emperor.

Anyone else have any thoughts? C'mon, this is a cool WI.

 

[Elfwine]

Zoe was the heir to the male line (she had no brothers), so her husband would (and did) become Emperor.

Anyone else have any thoughts? C'mon, this is a cool WI.

"Is Otto going to even be able to handle one empire?"

Handling Germany and Italy is a staggering task, adding that on top of the ERE would demonstrate why the empire was divided into two halves to begin with.

It would be interesting to see how Otto is seen, too. Being too Roman/Greek for the Germans and too Germanic for the Romanoi would be depressingly plausible.

Here's a thread or three on the same subject: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=206387
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=152090
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=192389

 

[Boto von Ageduch]

Uniting the Empires seems really tough.
Beside all political, legal, and psychological considerations, remember how long, costly, and endangered communication links were at that time. Even if all nobles of both realms would love to submit to Otto or his successors, it would be a mostly nominal regiment: The Emperor would heavily rely on local officials (e.g. knights) to enforce his policies; and those may very easily follow their own strategies.

This is of course already true for the HRE alone (but less so for the ERE).
However, Elfwine is completely right in pointing out that doubling the territory doesn't help.


On the other hand, have a common nominal Emperor, or only closely related dynasties could change a lot. The ecclesiastical question is the key: With some link between East and West, the quarrels between Rome and Constantinople might have been kept on a "subcritical" level.

That would for sure not eliminate the differences between Catholic and Orthodox traditions. But if the two churches don't anathematize each other, that would seriously affect the roads church-loyal theologians may take, in particular, in defining the Papal role.

I imagine the Eastern and Western Churches in this kind of scenario to be roughly as friendly to each other as rivalling political parties ...

 

[Don_Giorgio]

Well Otto might have succceeded as Emperor but he has to face the nobles in Constantinople... Without Basil's II strong hand to keep them quiet they would have gone nuts to someone who in their eyes would seem as a foreigner... Otto's reign would propably have been challenged by some powerful noble...