The medieval ruler Otto III (980-1002) was Holy Roman emperor from 996 to 1002 and German king from 983 to 1002. Well educated, brilliant, and filled with hopes of reviving some type of Roman Empire in the West, he died while still a young man.

Otto III was the only son of Emperor Otto II and the Byzantine princess Theophano. He was three years of age when his father died, making him German king. Most of Otto's younger years were spent in Germany, where, after a period of difficulty with Duke Henry the Wrangler of Bavaria, his mother served capably as regent. After her death in 991, Otto's grandmother, the dowager empress Adelaide, became regent until, in 994, Otto himself came of age at 14.

During Otto III's minority the empresses Theophano and Adelaide had been relatively successful in keeping peace within Germany itself and in preventing the French kings from annexing Lorraine, which they...