Bruno the Great

Bruno the Great (May 925 – 11 October 965) was the archbishop of Cologne from 953 until his death and the duke of Lotharingia after 954. He was the youngest brother of Emperor Otto I. In 951, Otto appointed Bruno as his archchaplain.

Bruno soon received further advancement. In 953, the Archbishopric of Cologne fell vacant just when Duke Conrad the Red of Lotharingia, Otto's son-in-law, had joined a rebellion against Otto. By appointing Bruno to the vacant position, Otto provided himself with a powerful ally against Conrad (much of Lotharingia fell under the archdiocese of Cologne) just when he needed one most. By the next year, the rebellion had collapsed. Otto deposed Conrad as duke of Lotharingia and appointed Bruno in his place.

Bruno was to be almost the last duke of the whole of Lotharingia: in 959 two local nobles, Godfrey and Frederick, were appointed as margraves of Lower Lotharingia and Upper Lotharingia respectively. Both margraves were recognised as dukes after Bruno's death. The two duchies were reunited between 1033 and 1044 under Gothelo.

The combined positions of archbishop and duke — or archduke, as his biographer Ruotger called him — made Bruno the most powerful man after Otto, not just in Germany but also beyond its borders. After the deaths of Louis IV of France in 954 and Hugh the Great, his most powerful feudatory, in 956, Bruno, as brother-in-law to both of them and maternal uncle to their heirs Lothair, the new king, and Hugh Capet, acted as regent of west Francia.

From 962 onwards, Bruno was also appointed as Otto's regent in Germany while Otto was absent in Italy.