Swords of the 10th century as symbols of sovereignty in the Ottonian Dynasty. On the precursors of the Imperial Sword and its imitated types

Abstract

As symbols of their authority Otto I. (936-973) and Otto II. (973-983) used opulent »Viking swords« of the 10th century, from which only depictions exist. According to a drawing of the so-called Maurice Sword in the Hallesches Heiltum (1526/1527) and in the will of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (1540) the Emperor Otto I. seems to have owned a sword of type V, which in the year of his death he donated to St. Maurice in Magdeburg Cathedral. In the Beneventan rotulus (985-987) there is a miniature of a coronation showing the Emperor Otto II. with a luxurious sword of type S on his belt. Both cutting weapons of an antiquated manufacture still possessed a two-part pommel, which was certainly decorated with damascene and comprised a cross-guard and a pommel-end, as well as a sheath with a short chape.

Towards the end of the 10th century the shape and decoration of the sovereign’s symbols changed completely. Thereafter it possessed just a single-part pommel, but additionally a long sheath fully enclosed in goldleaf and richly ornamented. The oldest proof of this is the bejewelled sword presented to King Heinrich II. at his coronation in 1002 and depicted in the Regensburg Sacrament. From this one can conclude that the ceremonial sword of the same type in Essen, which in the late 10th century was transformed from a normal cutting weapon into a splendid sword useless for fighting, also may already have been part of the regalia of Emperor Otto III. (983-1002). From the decorations of their gold-leafed sheaths it was not yet discernible how these swords were carried in front of the ruler.

Both symbols of rule are precursors of the sword that was made for the coronation of Emperor Heinrich IV. in Italy in 1084. Of this only its long, splendid gold-leafed sheath survived, which one later combined with the coronation sword of Emperor Otto IV. (1198-1218). Thereafter they formed together the Imperial Sword, the unchanging symbol of Imperial state sovereignty. Its long gold-leafed sheath with the depictions of 14 kings and emperors in full regalia, which were only recognisable when bearing the insignia with the point upwards in front of the sovereign, provided the prototype for types of imitation of the Imperial Sword in later times.