Count Otto of Duras (d. 1147) was a
Count of Duras, and ''
advocatus
During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
'' of the
Abbey of St Truiden. Duras and St Truiden are in the modern province of
Belgian Limburg
Limburg ( nl, Limburg, ; li, Limburg or ''Wes-Limburg'' ; french: Limbourg, ) is a province in Belgium. It is the easternmost of the five Dutch-speaking provinces that together form the Region of Flanders, one of the three main political and c ...
. His parents were
Count Giselbert of Duras and his wife Gertrud.
Otto married Berthe of Valenciennes, daughter of Yolande of Guelders, daughter of
Gerard I, Count of Guelders
Gerard I, Count of Guelders (c. 1060 – 8 March 1129) was Count of Guelders (Gelre in Dutch). He was the son of Theodoric of Wassenberg.
He may have been married to Clementia of Aquitaine, although that proposed marriage seems to be based on a f ...
. Yolande was first married to
Baldwin III, Count of Hainaut, and was mother to
Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut. Yolande was granddaughter of
Albert III, Count of Namur, a family with strong relations with Otto’s father.
Otto and Berthe are thought to have had one child who survived to adulthood, Otto's successor:
* Juliane (d. 1164), married first
Godfried, Count of Montaigu, Duras and Clermont, and second Enguerrand, possibly the count of Orbais.
In Sint-Truiden charter 51 (Piot Vol.2) Countess Juliane was described as Otto's ''filia'', and her Juliane's husband Count Godfried was described as his ''
gener''. This could mean "son-in-law" or "brother-in-law". (In the 19th century Wolters for example identified Juliane as Otto's sister, but this seems unlikely given the succession of the Counts of Duras.)
Juliane and Godfried had five children, the eldest of which was Gilles, Count of Montaigu, Duras, and Clermont, who married Lauretta, daughter of
Louis I, Count of Loon
Louis I (Latin ''Ludovicus'', German ''Ludwig'', Dutch ''Lodewijk''; died 11 August 1171) was the Count of Loon, now in modern Belgium, and Burgrave of Mainz, in Germany. He inherited these offices from his father. He also established the County of ...
. Their third son Conan was also Count of Duras. None of Juliane's sons had male heirs, and the family inheritance split up after their deaths.
Sources
{{reflist
*Baerten, Jean, ‘Les origines des comtes de Looz et la formation territoriale du comté’, in: ''Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire'' 43 (2 parts; 1965) 459-491, 1217-1242. On persee
part 1part 2
*Baerten, Jean, ''Het Graafschap Loon (11de - 14de eeuw)'', (Assen 1969).
pdf
*Hanon de Louvet (1941) ''Histoire de la Ville de Jodoigne''
*Piot, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Trond, Vol.2. https://archive.org/details/cartulairedelabb01sainuoft/
*C. G. Roland, Les seigneurs et comtes de Rochefort, Annales de la Société archéologique de Namur 20 (1893) https://archive.org/details/annalesdelasocie20soci/page/63
*Ulens, R., "Les origines et les limites primitives du comté de Duras" ''Bulletin de la Société Scientifique & littéraire du Limbourg'' 50 (1936) pp.49-71.
*Vaes, Jan, ''De Graven van Loon. Loons, Luiks, Limburgs'' (Leuven 2016)
*Wolters, Mathias J., ''Notice Historique sur l’Ancien Comté de Duras en Hesbaie'', Gyselinck, 1855 (available o
Google Books
*Zeller, Thibaut, "La maison de Durras en Hesbaye : les pilliers de pouvoir d’une parentèle comtale (XIe -XIIe siècles)", ''l'Annuaire d'histoire liégeoise'', 37, (2007-2008), pp.33-57.
Primary sources
*''Gestorum Abbatem Trudonensium Continuatio Tertia'': Koepker (ed.) MGH SS Vol.1
=de Borman (ed.) Vol.
Vol.2
=Lavigne (trans.) 228-229
pdf
.
Nobility in Europe