Otto continued Henry's work of defending Germany from the
foes which threatened to overrun that country. He won his most conspicuous
success against the Magyars, who suffered a crushing defeat on the banks of the
river Lech in Bavaria (955 A.D.). These barbarians now ceased their raids and retired
to the lands on the middle Danube which they had seized from the Slavs. Here
they settled down, accepted Christianity from the Roman Church, and laid the
foundations of the kingdom of Hungary. [21] As a protection against future
Magyar inroads Otto established the East Mark. This region afterwards rose to
great importance under the name of Austria.
[21] The Magyar settlement in central Europe had the
important result of dividing the Slavic peoples into three groups. Those who
remained south of the Danube (Serbians, Croatians, etc.) were henceforth
separated from the northwestern Slavs (Bohemians, Moravians, and Poles) and
from the eastern Slavs (Russians).
OTTO AND THE STEM-DUKES
Otto was an excellent ruler of Germany. He made it his
business to strengthen the royal authority by weakening that of the stem-dukes.
He had to fight against them on more than one occasion, for they regarded
themselves almost as independent kings. Otto was able to keep them in check,
but the rulers who followed him were less successful in this respect. The
struggle between the kings and their powerful nobles formed a constant feature
of the medieval history of Germany.
