Otto I, Count of Burgundy

Otto I (between 1167 and 1171 – 13 January 1200) was Count of Burgundy from 1190 to his death and briefly Count of Luxembourg from 1196 to 1197. He was the fourth son of Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, by his second wife Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy,[1] daughter of Count Renaud III.[2]

Otto I
Count of Burgundy
A Painting of Othon Ier de Bourgogne - (Son of the German Emperor Barbarossa)at the St Jean Cathedral of Besançon.
Born	Between 1167 and 1171
Died	13 January 1200
Buried	St Stephen's Cathedral (Citadel of Besançon)
Noble family	Hohenstaufen Dynasty
Spouse(s)	Margaret, Countess of Blois
Issue Joanna I, Countess of Burgundy Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy
Father	Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy

Reign

Upon the death of his mother in 1184, his father granted him the Burgundian county, elevating him to the rank of a Count palatine (Freigraf). Haughty Otto however soon entered into several feuds: not only with the Anscarid lords of Auxonne and Mâcon, who claimed late Beatrice's heritage, but also with the Counts of Montbéliard, the French Odo III, Duke of Burgundy and Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen. In the course of negotiations in 1195, he killed Count Amadeus of Montbèliard with his own hands,[3] followed by the assassination of Alsatian Count Ulric of Ferrette in 1197[3] and the execution of a brother of Konrad von Hüneburg, Bishop of Strasbourg, in 1198.

Otto's coat of arms (right), Georg Rüxner c. 1530, 17th century reprint

When Henry IV, Count of Luxembourg died without male heirs in 1196, his county escheated to the Emperor and Henry VI enfeoffed his brother Otto. Theobald I, Count of Bar, who had married Ermesinde, daughter of late Count Henry IV, negotiated the renunciation of Luxembourg with Otto the next year.

Meanwhile, Count Palatine Otto's regional conflicts had become a severe threat to the power politics of his Hohenstaufen relatives. After Philip of Swabia had been elected King of the Romans in 1198, rivaling with the Welf duke Otto of Brunswick, he tried to settle the numerous quarrels picked by his brother. In 1200 Otto was assassinated at Besançon, his death came in useful to many political actors.

Otto was buried at St Stephen's Cathedral, today the site of the Citadel of Besançon.

Family

Otto had married Margaret, daughter of Theobald V, Count of Blois, in 1192.[4] After her husband's death her brother-in-law King Philip enfeoffed her with the Burgundian county, as regent for her minor daughter Joanna I. Upon Joanna's death in 1205, Otto's second daughter, Beatrice II, became countess and Philip had her marry Otto I, Duke of Merania.[5]

References

1. Gislebertus of Mons 2005, p. 55.
2. Bouchard 1987, p. 276.
3. Allemand-Gay 1988, p. 31.
4. Bumke 1991, p. 76.
5. Sturner 1992, p. 295.

Sources

• Allemand-Gay, Marie-Thérèse (1988). Le pouvoir des comtes de Bourgogne au XIIIe siècle (in French). 368. Annales Litteraires de l'Universite de Besancon.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Bouchard, Constance Brittain (1987). Sword, Miter, and Cloister: Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198. Cornell University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Bumke, Joachim (1991). Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages. Translated by Dunlap, Thomas. University of California Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Gislebertus of Mons (2005). Chronicle of Hainaut. Translated by Napran, Laura. Boydell Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Sturner, Wolfgang (1992). Friedrich II:Teil 1 Die Konigscheffschaft in Sizilien un Deutschland 1194-1220 (in German). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Otto I, Count of Burgundy House of Hohenstaufen Born: c.1167-1171 Died: 13 January 1200
Preceded by Frederick	Count of Burgundy 1190-1200	Succeeded by Joan I
Preceded by Henry IV	Count of Luxemburg 1196-1197	Succeeded by Ermesinde and Theobald