Empress Irene in Byzantium nearly managed a marriage alliance with the Frankish emperor Charlemagne in the 780s. Otto III married a Byzantine princess in the 1000s-1100s which won the southern part of Italy and opened the possibility of mutual recognition of both the Byzantine and Holy Roman Empires as "Roman" in a nod to a time in the late imperial era when Rome was split into eastern and western halves to better manage such crises as food shortages and incursions.