Otto has at the same time to…

Otto has at the same time to settle a dispute with Duke Eberhard of Franconia, the brother of the former king Conrad I of Germany.

On his deathbed, in December 918, King Conrad had persuaded Eberhard to forgo any ambition for the German crown and to support Henry the Fowler as his successor.

Conrad had considered this the only way to end the long-standing feud between Saxons and Franks and to prevent the dissolution of the German kingdom into individual states based around the German tribal duchies.

Though Eberhard had remained loyal to King Henry I, Eberhard has used the transition to Otto as an opportunity to increase his own power by besieging Helmern castle near Peckelsheim.

Though the fortress is located within the Duchy of Franconia, near the border of the Duchy of Saxony, it is under the control of a Saxon commander who refuses to swear fealty to any non-Saxon ruler.

Otto calls the feuding parties to his court at Magdeburg, where Eberhard is ordered to pay a fine, and his lieutenants are sentenced to carry dead dogs in public, a particularly dishonoring punishment.