Otto VIII, Count of Hoya (1530 – 25 February 1582 at

Hoya Castle Hoya may refer to: Places *Hoya, Germany, a city in Lower Saxony, Germany *County of Hoya, a former state in present Germany * Hoya, Tokyo, now incorporated within Nishi-tokyo, Tokyo, Japan * Hoya, Hpruso, a place in Hpruso Township, Kayah, Myanmar ...

Hoya, Germany Hoya () is a town in the Nienburg (district), District of Nienburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the left and right bank of the Weser, approx. 20 km north of Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Nienburg, and 15 km southwest of Verden ...

) was the last ruling Count of Hoya.

Life

Otto was the third son of Count Jobst II and his wife Anna of Gleichen. At first, he was

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Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and Verden. After the childless death of his older brother Albert II in 1563, Otto VIII and his brother

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, took up government of the county. Otto married in 1568 to Agnes of

Bentheim-Steinfurt Bentheim-Steinfurt was a historical county located in northwestern North Rhine-Westphalia in the region surrounding Steinfurt, Germany. Bentheim-Steinfurt was a partition of Bentheim-Bentheim, itself a partition of the County of Bentheim. Bentheim- ...

, the widow of Count

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of Rietberg, who was also the mother of Armgard, who was the wife of Otto's brother Eric. After Eric also died childless in 1575, Otto ruled the county alone. "Otto, Count of Hoya and Burghausen," signed the

Formula of Concord Formula of Concord (1577) (German, ''Konkordienformel''; Latin, ''Formula concordiae''; also the "''Bergic Book''" or the "''Bergen Book''") is an authoritative Lutheran statement of faith (called a confession, creed, or "symbol") that, in its t ...

of 1577, and the

Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since t ...

of 1580.See the

, pp. 16 and 764 Otto VIII died childless on 25 November 1582 at

. He was buried in the church of St. Martin in Nienburg; his tomb is located in the hall below the tower. With his death, the House of Hoya died out, and the county fell back to the

Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig und Lüneburg), or more properly the Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was a historical duchy that existed from the late Middle Ages to the Late Modern era within the Holy Roman ...

as a possession of Frederick Ulrich first and then of William August.

References

* Heinrich Gade: ''Historisch-geographisch-statistische Beschreibung der Grafschaften Hoya und Diepholz'', Nienburg, 1901 * Wilhelm Hodenberg (ed.): ''Hoyer Urkundenbuch'', Hannover, 1848–1856 * Bernd Ulrich Hucker: ''Die Grafen von Hoya'', Hoya, 1993 * Museum Nienburg: ''Die Grafschaften Bruchhausen, Diepholz, Hoya und Wölpe'', Nienburg, 2000

Footnotes

Counts of Hoya 1530 births 1582 deaths 16th-century German people Burials at St. Martin Church, Nienburg {{Germany-noble-stub