Otto III was born in June or July 980 somewhere between Aachen and Nijmegen, in modern-day North Rhine-Westphalia. The only son of Emperor Otto II and Empress Theophanu, Otto III was the youngest of the couple's

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Polish relations
Around 960, the Polish Piast dynasty under Mieszko I had extended the Duchy of Poland beyond

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Return to Rome
The Emperor spent the remainder of 1000 in Italy without any notable activities. In 1001, the people of the

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Between 1012 and 1018 Thietmar of Merseburg wrote a Chronicon, or Chronicle, of eight books dealing with the period between 908 and 1018. For the earlier part he used

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Regency of Henry II
Otto III's cousin Henry II had been deposed as Duke of Bavaria by Otto II in 976 following his failed rebellion and imprisoned within the

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Roman instability
Prior to his sudden death in December 983, Otto II had installed Pietro Canepanova as pope. Calling himself Pope John XIV, Canepanova was a non-Roman from Lombardy who had served as Otto II's chancellor in Italy. After

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Otto's mental gifts were considerable, and were carefully cultivated by Bernward, later bishop of Hildesheim, and Gerbert of Aurillac, archbishop of Reims. He spoke three languages and was so learned that contemporaries called him mirabilia mundi or "the wonder of the

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