Ancestral Trails 2016 » Otto von SAXONY IV (1199-1218)

Personal data Otto von SAXONY IV 

• He was born in the year 1199 in Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany.

  Attention: Age at marriage (July 2, 1212) below 16 years (13).

  Attention: Age at marriage (July 22, 1212) below 16 years (13).

• Title: Holy Roman Emperor, Count of Poitou
• (Ancestry) : House of Welf.
• He died on May 9, 1218 in Harzberg, Westphalia, Preussen, Germany, he was 19 years old.
• He is buried May 1218 in Braunschweig Cathedral, Braunschweig, Germany.
• A child of Heinrich III The LION and Matilda PLANTAGENET

Household of Otto von SAXONY IV

(1) He is married to Marie de BRABANT.

They got married on July 2, 1212 at Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany, he was 13 years old.

• The couple has common ancestors.



(2) He is married to Beatrix von HOHENSTAUFEN.

They got married on July 22, 1212 at Nordhausen, Thüringen, Germany, he was 13 years old.

• The couple has common ancestors.



Notes about Otto von SAXONY IV

Otto IV (1175 - May 19, 1218) was one of two rival kings of Germany from 1198 on, sole king from 1208 on, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until he was forced to abdicate in 1215. The only German king of the Welf dynasty, he incurred the wrath of Pope Innocent III and was excommunicated in 1210.

Otto was the third son of Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, and Matilda Plantagenet. His exact birthplace is not given by any original source. He grew up in England in the care of his grandfather King Henry II. Otto was fluent in French as well as German. He became the foster son of his maternal uncle, Richard I of England. In 1190, after he left England to join the Third Crusade, Richard appointed Otto Earl of York. The authenticity (or authority) of this grant was doubted by the vassals of Yorkshire, who prevented Otto taking possession of his earldom. Still, he probably visited Yorkshire in 1191, and he continued to claim the revenues of the earldom after becoming king of Germany, although he never secured them. Neither did he succeed in getting the 25,000 silver marks willed to him by his uncle in 1199.

In 1195, Richard began negotiations to marry Otto to Margaret, daughter and heiress of King William the Lion of Scotland. Lothian, as Margaret's dowry, would be handed over to Richard for safekeeping and the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland (Carlisle) would be granted to Otto and turned over to the king of Scotland. The negotiations dragged on until August 1198, when the birth of an heir to William rendered them unnecessary. Having failed in his efforts to secure Otto an English earldom or else a Scottish kingdom, in September 1196 Richard, as duke of Aquitaine, enfeoffed Otto with the county of Poitou. There is some disagreement over whether Otto received Poitou in exchange for or in addition to the earldom of York.

Otto was in Poitou from September 1196 until mid-1197, when he joined Richard in Normandy to confer over the appointment of bishops to the vacant sees of Poitiers, Limoges and Périgueux. He then participated in the war against Philip II of France on the side of Richard. In October he returned to Poitou. The German historian Jens Ahlers, taking into account Otto's life prior to 1198, considers that he might have been the first foreign king of Germany.

Otto was related to every other King of Germany. He married twice:

1209 or 1212 to Beatrice, daughter of the German King Philip and Irene Angelina.
May 19, 1214, in Aachen to Marie, daughter of Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and Maud of Boulogne.
He had no children from either Beatrice or Marie.
SOURCE: Wikipedia

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Timeline Otto von SAXONY IV

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