Otto was only three years old when his father died in 957. He was raised at the court of his grandfather, Otto I, who seems to have adopted him and raised him alongside his own son, the future Emperor Otto II, born late in 955. The latter regarded him as both "nephew and brother" (nepos ac frater).[1] When the childless Duke Burchard III of Swabia died in 973, Otto II transferred the Swabian duchy to his nineteen-year-old nephew and brother, whose father had been Burchard's predecessor.[1] The elder Otto became a close confidante of his younger sovereign.
In 976 the imprisoned Duke Henry the Wrangler of Bavaria was formally dismissed from office for rebellion. In his place the emperor appointed Otto of Swabia, who became the first ruler of two duchies in medieval Germany.[1] The Duchy of Carinthia and the March of the Nordgau were also taken from Henry, but were not bestowed on Otto, thus their history is separate from that of Bavaria from this point on.[2][3] In 977, while the emperor was campaigning elsewhere, Otto helped crush the revolt of the Three Henries—the deposed duke of Bavaria, Bishop Henry I of Augsburg and Duke Henry I of Carinthia—by successfully besieging the leaders in Passau.[1] The army of Bavarians that was ambushed by Boleslaus I of Bohemia near Plzeň while on its way to join the emperor at this time may have been sent by Duke Otto.[2][3]
In 980 Otto accompanied the emperor on his south Italian campaign, fighting both the Byzantines and the Sicilian Arabs. He survived the defeat near Crotone on 13/14 July 982 and a subsequent ambush by an Arab force. Assigned to take the news of the campaign back to Germany, he died en route, of wounds received in battle, either 31 October or 1 November, at Lucca.[1] His father had also died south of the Alps. His family brought his body back and had it buried in the collegiate church of Saints Peter and Alexander at Aschaffenburg, which Otto had generously endowed.[1] His death is noted in the contemporary Abingdon version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: "And then, as he went home, his [the emperor's] brother's son, who was called Otto, died; and he was the son of the aetheling Liudolf, and this Liudolf was son of Otto the Elder and King Edward's daughter".[4][5]
↑ Whitbread 1959, pp.577–78: and þa he hamweard for . þa forðferde his broþor sunu . se wæs haten Odda . and he wæs Leodulfes sunu æþelinges . and se Leodulf wæs þæs ealdan Oddan sunu . and Eadweardes cininges dohtor sunu.
Stälin, Paul Friedrich von (1886). "Otto I., Herzog von Schwaben und von Baiern". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol.24. Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp.725–26.
Swanton, Michael James (1998). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. New York: Routledge.
Whitbread, L. (1959). "Æthelweard and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". The English Historical Review. 74 (293): 577–89. doi:10.1093/ehr/lxxiv.293.577.
Zotz, Thomas (1998). "Otto I.". Neue Deutsche Biographie. Vol.19. pp.694–95.
The Ottonian dynasty was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings, after its earliest known member Count Liudolf and one of its most common given names. The Ottonian rulers were successors of the Germanic king Conrad I, who was the only Germanic king to rule in East Francia after the Carolingian dynasty and before this dynasty.
Otto II, called the Red, was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.
Conrad II, also known as Conrad the Elder and Conrad the Salic, was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms of Germany, Italy and Burgundy.
Henry II, called the Wrangler or the Quarrelsome, a member of the German royal Ottonian dynasty, was Duke of Bavaria from 955 to 976 and again from 985 to 995, as well as Duke of Carinthia from 989 to 995.
The Duchy of Saxony was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire (Francia) by 804. Upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun, Saxony was one of the five German stem duchies of East Francia; Duke Henry the Fowler was elected German king in 919.
Conrad I, called the Younger, was the king of East Francia from 911 to 918. He was the first king not of the Carolingian dynasty, the first to be elected by the nobility and the first to be anointed. He was chosen as the king by the rulers of the East Frankish stem duchies after the death of young King Louis the Child. Ethnically Frankish, prior to this election he had ruled the Duchy of Franconia from 906.
The Dukes of Swabia were the rulers of the Duchy of Swabia during the Middle Ages. Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. The most notable family to rule Swabia was the Hohenstaufen family, who held it, with a brief interruption, from 1079 until 1268. For much of that period, the Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors. With the death of Conradin, the last Duke of Hohenstaufen, the duchy itself disintegrated although King Rudolf I attempted to revive it for his Habsburg family in the late 13th century.
Conrad, called the Red, was Duke of Lorraine from 944 until 953. He became the progenitor of the Imperial Salian dynasty.
The Duchy of Bavaria was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (duces) under Frankish overlordship. A new duchy was created from this area during the decline of the Carolingian Empire in the late ninth century. It became one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish realm which evolved as the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
Liudolf, a member of the Ottonian dynasty, was Duke of Swabia from 950 until 954. His rebellion in 953/54 led to a major crisis of the rising German kingdom.
The Duchy of Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German Kingdom. It arose in the 10th century in the southwestern area that had been settled by Alemanni tribes in Late Antiquity.
The War of the Three Henries was a brief rebellion of three German princes, all called Henry, against Emperor Otto II in 976–977, with a final peace imposed in 978.
Conrad I, also known as Cuno or Kuno, was the duke of Bavaria from 1049 to 1053. He was of the Ezzonen family, his parents being Liudolf, Count of Zütphen and eldest son of Ezzo, Count Palatine of Lorraine, and Matilda. For this, he is sometimes called Conrad of Zutphen.
Henry III, called the Younger, a member of the Luitpolding dynasty, was the first Duke of Carinthia from 976 to 978, Duke of Bavaria from 983 to 985 and again Duke of Carinthia from 985 to 989.
Burchard II was the Hunfriding Duke of Swabia and Count of Raetia. He was the son of Burchard I of Swabia and Liutgard of Saxony.
Conrad I, a member of the Salian dynasty, was Duke of Carinthia from 1004 until his death.
Liutgarde of Saxony, a member of the Ottonian dynasty, was Duchess of Lorraine from 947 until her death by her marriage with Duke Conrad the Red. She and Conrad became progenitors of the Salian dynasty.
Otto I, traditionally known as Otto the Great, was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Henry the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim.
Matilda of Swabia, a member of the Conradine dynasty, was Duchess of Carinthia by her first marriage with Duke Conrad I and Duchess of Upper Lorraine by her second marriage to Duke Frederick II. She played an active role in promoting her son, Duke Conrad the Younger, as a candidate for the German throne in 1024 and to this end corresponded with King Mieszko II Lambert of Poland.
The German royal election of 1002 was the decision on the succession which was held after the death of Emperor Otto III without heirs. It was won by Duke Henry IV of Bavaria among accusations of uncustomary practices.
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