ABSTRACT
The imperial experiment of Otto III was only a brief episode, and was followed by a return to the normal; but the effect of it was seen in the difficulties that faced his successor. The death of Otto III created a vacancy that could only be filled by election. There were two obvious candidates, duke Henry of Bavaria, the only descendant in the direct male Une from Henry I, and duke Otto of Carinthia, the son of Otto I’s daughter Liutgarde. The policy of Otto III had tended to release the newly-Christianised States of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary from their dependence, both political and ecclesiastical, upon Germany, and to attach them directly to the imperial Crown. In North Italy there was still a German party, composed of the bishops, with Otto III’s friend, Leo of Vercelli, at their head, and of the greater nobles; it was directly at their expense that Ardoin had gained and was maintaining his authority.
