On 2 February 962, in Rome, Pope John XII crowned Otto I ⓘ Emperor of the Romans. The ceremony marked the effective beginning of what later historians would call the Holy Roman Empire.

Otto, already King of East Francia since 936, had intervened in Italian politics at the request of Pope John XII, who faced pressure from local rivals. In return for military support, the pope conferred the imperial title upon the German ruler.

Unlike the imperial revival under Charlemagne ⓘ, Otto’s coronation created a more enduring political structure. The imperial dignity became closely associated with the kingship of East Francia, and subsequently Germany. Imperial coronation in Rome remained the culmination of royal authority, but effective power rested north of the Alps.

The coronation of 962 therefore marks the institutional consolidation of a transalpine empire linking German kingship with Roman imperial symbolism.