
Otto I (born 954, died 31 October or 1 November 982) was the
Duke of Swabia
The Dukes of Swabia were the rulers of the Duchy of Swabia during the Middle Ages. Swabia was one of the five stem duchy, stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. The most no ...
from 973 and
Duke of Bavaria
The following is a list of monarchs during the history of Bavaria. Bavaria was ruled by several dukes and kings, partitioned and reunited, under several dynasties. Since 1918, Bavaria has been under a republican form of government, and from 19 ...
from 976. He was a member of the
Ottonian dynasty
The Ottonian dynasty () was a Saxons, Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman emperors, especially Otto the Great. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German ...
, the only son of Duke
Liudolf of Swabia and his wife Ida, and thus a grandson of the Emperor
Otto I
Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), known as Otto the Great ( ) or Otto of Saxony ( ), was East Francia, East Frankish (Kingdom of Germany, German) king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the eldest son o ...
and his Anglo-Saxon wife
Eadgyth. His sister
Mathilde was the abbess of
Essen Abbey
Essen Abbey () was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany.
A chapter of male priests were also attached to the abbey, under a dean. In the medieval period, the abbess ...
.
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
Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), 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.
Otto II was ...
, born late in 955. The latter regarded him as both "nephew and brother" (''nepos ac frater''). 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. 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. The
Duchy of Carinthia
The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies.
Car ...
and the
March of the Nordgau
The Margraviate of the Nordgau (Modern , ) or Bavarian Nordgau () was a medieval administrative unit ('' Gau'') on the frontier of the German Duchy of Bavaria. It comprised the region north of the Danube and Regensburg (Ratisbon), roughly covered ...
were also taken from Henry, but were not bestowed on Otto, thus their history is separate from that of Bavaria from this point on. 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
Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north.
Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...
. The army of Bavarians that was ambushed by
Boleslaus I of Bohemia near
Plzeň
Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...
while on its way to join the emperor at this time may have been sent by Duke Otto.
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
Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...
. 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
Aschaffenburg (; Hessian: ''Aschebersch'', ) is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg, despite being its administrative seat, is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg.
Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...
, which Otto had generously endowed. His death is noted in the contemporary Abingdon version of the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons.
The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...
'': "And then, as he went home, his
he emperor'sbrother'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".
Otto's sister Mathilde endowed a precious (jewelled cross), the
Cross of Otto and Mathilde, which is kept in the
Essen Cathedral Treasury; the siblings are pictured on it. Otto never married and left no children.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Otto I, Duke Of Swabia And Bavaria
954 births
982 deaths
10th-century dukes of Bavaria
Ottonian dynasty
Dukes of Swabia
Military personnel killed in action
People from the Holy Roman Empire