Otto the Great’s Tribute to His Late English Queen Finally Makes Sense

A historical document composed by King Otto I, better known as Otto the Great, to his English queen has been re-examined and re-dated by a medieval historian from the University of Exeter in the UK.

In this document, which was originally dated to 942 AD, the monarch of the Germanic Kingdom of the East Franks (East Francia) donated a large estate to a church in the village of Fallersleben (known as Valareslebo in the 10th century). Otto stated that he was doing so to guarantee the “salvation of the soul” of his beloved wife Edith, the former Edith of England who had married Otto and become his queen when he ascended to the Frankish throne in 936. He also declared his hope that his gift would secure blessings for his son, Liudolf, who was Otto and Edith’s only child.

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Seal of Otto I. (Otto Posse/Public domain)

This has always been seen as a somewhat curious proclamation by Otto the Great, since his wife was still very much alive in 942, when it was believed the document had been written. But thanks to the efforts of Exeter professor Levi Roach, an expert in medieval western European history, it has now been determined that the document in question was actually written in the year 950, which was four years after Queen Edith had tragically and unexpectedly passed away.

Correcting an Error of Historical Interpretation

At the time of his discovery, Professor Roach had been researching a collection of more than 500 documents relating to King Otto, including this one, which had been held in the archives of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

As he went over this document, he wasn’t expecting to find anything new or significant. But as he read on, he realized that something had been overlooked by other scholars who had examined the document.

“Dating documents in the Middle Ages presents challenges to historians because they were not yet done according to the Gregorian calendar as is widely used today,” Professor Roach explained in a University of Exeter press release.

“When I began to examine this piece, I had a ‘Eureka moment’ because within minutes, it was clear that modern scholars had misdated it, and it was, in effect, a tribute to the king’s late wife and their surviving son.”

The document would have been drafted by a royal notary, and according to the date on the first page, this happened in the year 966. Since Otto the Great had been crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by this time and was not simply a king, the document had been dismissed as a forgery by many experts. But everything changed when the renowned medieval historian Theodor Sickel studied the document and dated it to 942, showing that only the 966 date had not been legitimate.

“It is by no means a standard royal document,” Professor Roach noted. “The passage on the salvation of souls, with its strong emphasis on caring for the ruler’s first wife and their son Liudolf, is clearly out of the ordinary and was already noticed by 20th century historians, who thought that it might hint at some form of undocumented crisis or illness, such as Edith suffering a miscarriage.”

But with the change in dates, everything in the document now makes sense. Otto’s gift was indeed motivated by the loss of his beloved queen, and concern over the welfare of his son, who was 16 at the time of his mother’s death in 946.

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Looking closely at the document, Professor Roach was able to determine that it had been written by a notary in Magdeburg. He discovered this by comparing it to another document that was signed by this individual, and noted consistencies in style and punctuation that made it clear each document had been composed by the same person.

Interestingly, the second document also had been stamped with the year 966. But this second sample featured another date within its text, stating that it had been composed when King Otto was in his 14th year as king (this is known as a regnal date). This means the document had been written in 950, not in 966.

From this evidence, Professor Roach deduced that each document must have been created in the year 950, as part of a series. The later date of 966 must have been added to each 16 years later, perhaps when the documents were filed away or passed on from one location to another for safekeeping.

Magdeburg Cathedral statues thought to be Otto and Edith. (Henk Bekker/CC BY NC-SA 2.0)

Real Love, Not Just an Arranged Marriage

Otto I served as the monarch of East Francia from 936 until his death in 973. Otto’s marriage to Edith, the daughter of King Edward the Elder and granddaughter of Alfred the Great, took place in 929, sealing an alliance between two Saxon kingdoms. When he succeeded his father Henry the Fowler as sovereign of the Eastern Franks in 936 Edith was made the queen, where she served until her unexpected death in 946.

During his reign Otto I made a concerted effort to unite various German duchies into one strong nation. To accomplish this, he had to quash a large-scale internal rebellion against his rule, which ironically enough was led by his son Liudolf (father and son reconciled after the rebellion was put down). Hi

In recognition of his impressive feats and sterling reputation, in 962 Pope John XII officially named Otto as the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, a unique political and religious entity that was destined to endure for the next several centuries.

Otto I did remarry after his first wife’s death, and that union produced the son who would replace Otto as king and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire when he passed away. But by all accounts Otto’s 16-year marriage was a happy one, and after his death he was buried alongside his first queen at Magdeburg Cathedral.

Professor Roach’s discovery certainly adds weight to the assertion that Otto’s first wife had a special place in his heart. It was four years after her death that he gave the estate to the church in her name, showing that she had remained on his mind well after her untimely passing at the age of 35.

“This redating deepens our understanding of this important but difficult to interpret document, which can now be counted among a series issued after 946 for the eternal memory of Edith,” Professor Roach said. “Above all, it provides further insight into the relationship between Otto and Edith. Although they were married for a much shorter period than Otto was with his second wife, it is next to Edith that he would be buried. This was clearly a love that lasted through the ages.”

Top image: Tribute document of King Otto I of Germany. Source: University of Exeter

By Nathan Falde