Middle Ages Biographies | Holy Roman Emperors Biography

Otto the Great

Born 912

Died 973

German king, Holy Roman emperor

Otto III
Born 980
Died 1002
German king, Holy Roman emperor

Frederick I Barbarossa
Born 1123
Died 1190
German king, Holy Roman emperor

Frederick II
Born 1194
Died 1250
Sicilian and German king, Holy Roman emperor

"The Renewal of the Roman Empire"

Inscription on seal ring of Otto III, signifying his life's goal

There is a joke almost as old as the Middle Ages themselves, to the effect that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Actually the observation, originally made by the French writer Voltaire in the 1700s, has a grain of truth. A revival of the realm established first under Charlemagne (see entry), the Holy Roman Empire represented an attempt to restore the glories of the...