Otto
"der Erlauchten" (Otto, Oddo) Otto
"der Erlauchten" (Otto, Oddo)Otto was probably the count Otto who appears in a document of king Ludwig in 877 [Waitz (1885), 10, citing Orr. Guelf. IV, 377]. He appears to have succeeded as duke of Saxony on the death of his brother Bruno in 880. He died in 912 (see below), and was succeeded by his son Heinrich, who became king of Germany.
Date of Birth: Say 830×840.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
If Otto's mother Oda really was
born as early as 806, then a birth for Otto in the range given
would be likely enough. If Oda was actually born later, then some
adjustment in these dates might be needed [see the page of Oda].
Date of Death: 30 November 912.
Place of
Death: Unknown.
Sources give the year either as
912 ["Otto, dux Saxonum, obiit." Regino, Chronicon
(cont.), s.a. 912 (p. 155); "Oddo comes obiit."
Ann. Corbeienses, s.a. 912, MGH SS 3: 4; "Ob.
Otto comes" Ann. Nec. Fuld., s.a. 912, MGH SS
13: 190], as 913 ["Otto ducum praecipuus, ..., onus
limosae molis abiecit." Ann. Quedlinburg.,
s.a. 913, MGH SS 3: 52], or as 914 ["Otto comes
Saxonicus obiit." Ann. Hildesheim., s.a. 914,
MGH SS 3: 52; similarly Ann. Weissemb., s.a. 914 ("dux");
Ann. Lamberti, s.a. 914, MGH SS 3: 53; Ann.
Ottenburani, s.a. 914, MGH SS 5: 4; "Oido Saxonicus
comes mortuus est." Ann. Altahenses Maiores,
MGH SS 20: 785; "Otto magnificus Saxonum dux vita
discessit." Ann. Saxo, s.a. 914, MGH SS 6:
593; "Otto dux magnus obit." Ann.
Magdeburg., s.a. 914, MGH SS 16: 142]. See the detailed
comments in favor of 912 by Waitz [Waitz (1885), 195-6].
Necrologies and Thietmar give the day as 30 November ["II.
k. [Dec.] ... Oddo com. pat. Heinrici reg. Saxon." Calend.
Merseb., 126; "ii. [kal. Dec.] Otto comes pater
Heinrici regis." Kal. nec. Weissenburg., Fontes
rerum Germ., 4: 314; "Post haec Ottone 2. Kal.
Decembris carnis universae viam intrante, ..."
Thietmar, Chron., i, 4, MGH SS 3: 736]. The date of 26
June has sometimes been given in confusion with another Otto [see
Waitz (1885), 196].
Father: Liudolf, d. 12 March 865×6, count/duke of eastern Saxony.
Mother: Oda, d. [17 May?] 913.
Spouses: Hadwig, d. 24
December, prob. 903.
["Temporibus quondam regis
Francorum Conradi, dux in tota Germania princeps extiterat nomine
Otto, genere secundum seculi dignitatem nobilissimus, opibus
pullens, et cunctos honore praecellens, quia virtutibus erat
praeditus, cuius coniugium veneranda matrona Haduwich subierat
moribus non dissimilis. His filiae procreantur et tres filii, ...
horum unum nomine Heinricum maiori sustulit excellentia, ..."
Vita Mahthildis reginae antiquior, c. 1, MGH SS 10;
"... extitit in partibus Germaniae dux quidam Otto
nomine, ... Cui Hathuwic, matrona venerabilis, coniugali
copulabatur vinculo. Quibus duo gignebantur filii, ... Maior natu
vocabatur Thancmarus, et alter Heinricus." Vita
Mahthildis reginae, c. 1, MGH SS 4: 284; "Hic
nobilissimo Ottonis et Hathui stemmate editus, ..."
Thietmar, Chron., i, 2, MGH SS 3: 735]
Children:
As noted above, Otto and Hadwig
had three sons and at least two daughters. Widukind gives the
names of the three sons ["Igitur patre patriae et magno
duce Oddone defuncto, illustri et magnifico filio Heinrico totius
Saxoniae [ipse] reliquit ducatum. Cum autem ei essent et alii
filii, Thancmarus et Liudulfus, ante patrem suum obierunt."
Widukind i, 21 (p. 25)].
Thankmar, d. bef. 30 November 912.
Thankmar died before his father [Widukind
i, 21 (p. 25, see above)]. The Vita Mathildis calls him
the eldest [Vita Mathildis reginae, c. 1, MGH SS 4: 284
see above)].
Liudolf, d. bef. 30 November 912.
Liudolf died before his father[Widukind i,
21 (p. 25, see above)].
Heinrich I,
d. 2 July 936, king of Germany, 919-936;
m. (1) Hatheburg, (d. 21 June?), daughter of Erwin, count of Merseburg.
m. (2) ca. 909, Mathilde, d. 14 March 968, daughter of
count Dietrich.
Oda, living 30 December 952;
m. (1) 897, after Easter, Zwentibold, d. 13
August 900, king of Lorraine;
m. (2) 900, Gérard/Gerhard, d. 22 June 910,
count.
Regino states that Oda, wife first of king
Zwentibold and then of count Gérard, was daughter of a count
Otto ["[Zuendibolch ...] Eius hortatu ad Ottonem comitem
missum dirigit, cuius filiam nomine Odam in coniugium exposcit.
Ille petitionibus eius gratanter assensum prebuit eique filiam
tradidit, quam post pascha celebratis nuptiis sibi in matrimonium
sociavit." Regino, Chronicon, s.a. 897 (p.
145); "Ludowicus in regnum rursus accersitur, et a
comitibus Stephano, Gerardo et Matfrido circa Mosam isdem
Zuendibolch in prelio interficitur Idus Augusti. Eodem anno
Gerardus comes Odam uxorem eiusdem Zuendibolch regis sibi in
matrimonium copulat." Regino, Chronicon, s.a.
900 (p. 148)]. It has been generally argued that this count Otto
was Otto of Saxony [e.g., Krüger (1893), 47-50; Parisot (1898),
537 n. 2; Hlawitschka (1968), 59-60]. This is confirmed by an act
of Otto I dated 30 December 952, which shows that he gave to St.
Moriz in Magdeburg some property in Deventer which had been given
to him by his amita Uota ["... in loco Dauindre
..., quod nobis nostra amita mulier deo nobisque devota nomine
Ûota tradidit" MGH DD O I, 241 (#159)]. This proves
that king Otto I had an amita (paternal aunt) named
Uota/Oda, thus a sister of his father Heinrich I. Instead of Gerhard,
Decker-Hauff would identify Oda's second husband as the
"Konradiner" count Gebhard, father of duke
Hermann I of Schwaben (Swabia) and count Udo [Decker-Hauff
(1955), Table II, opposite p. 280]. There is no good reason to
accept this.
Possible daughter:
Liutgard, d. 21 January 923, abbess of
Gandersheim, 919-923.
Liutgard was the fourth abbess of
Gandersheim, who is conjectured to have been a member of this
family [Althoff (1976), 400, n. 1; Hlawitschka (1987), 94; both
cite Götting (1973), 291, not seen by me; Hlawitschka (1987),
26, 94 evidently accepts the relationship]. Although I have not
seen Götting's work, it is not hard to guess that the basis of
the conjecture is the fact that the first three abbesses of
Gandersheim were sisters of Otto, and that Otto had a sister
named Liutgard. While proof is lacking, the conjecture is very
reasonable. As noted above, the daughters were said to be in the
plural ["His filiae procreantur ..." Vita
Mahthildis reginae antiquior, c. 1, MGH SS 10; see above],
so there was certainly at least one daughter besides Oda.
Illegitimate daughter:
NN, fl. 933;
m. Wido, count in Thüringen.
The historian Widukind mentions this sister
of the king [Heinrich I] in connection with the Hungarian
invasion of 933 ["Qui autem in oriente remansit
exercitus audivit de sorore regis, quae nupserat Widoni Thuringo
- erat namque illa ex concubina nata -, quia vicinam urbem
inhabitaret, ..." Widukind, i, 38 (p. 48); Hlawitscka
(1987), 94 n. 35].
Probable daughter:
NN,
m. Siegfried, d. ca. 937, count.
Widukind refers to Siegfried as "gener
quondam regis", apparently referring to Heinrich I
["Sigefridus vero, Saxonum optimus et a rege secundus,
gener quondam regis, tunc vero affinitate coniunctus, eo tempore
procurabat Saxoniam, ..." Widukind, ii, 2 (p. 57);
"Illo quoque tempore defunctus est Sigifridus comes, ..."
(ca. 937), ibid., ii, 9 (p. 61)]. Hlawitschka states that since
Siegfried's brother Gero died in 965 and since his father
Thietmar died in 932, chronological considerations indicate that
Siegfried's wife was a younger half-sister of Heinrich
[Hlawitschka (1987), 95 n. 39]. Althoff objected that there was
no way to rule out the possibility that quondam rex
referred to Konrad I instead of Heinrich I [Althoff (1989), 457].
However, it seems very unlikely that this was intended to refer
to Konrad I [Hlawitschka (1989), 464]. The statement comes at a
point in Widukind's narrative when Heinrich I had just died and
Otto I had just become king. In such a context, a reference to
the late king would almost certainly be referring to the recently
deceased king, i.e., Heinrich I. In classical Latin, the word gener
means "son-in-law", but in medieval Latin it usually
means "brother-in-law".
Falsely attributed wife
(mythical): Liutgard, daughter of Arnulf, emperor.
See the page of Heinrich
I for the details.
Conjectured daughter (improbable):
NN;
m. Louis, d. after 929, count of Thurgau, son of Rudolf I, king of Burgundy.
This theory is part of an elaborate series
of conjectures, involving several families over several
generations, the goal of which was to speculate on the ancestry
of Adélaïde, wife of Lambert, count of Chalon [Settipani (1994), 44-53]. The
supposed link is mainly based on the fact that Louis had a son
named Henry/Heinrich.
Falsely attributed
daughter (probably mythical):
Baba;
m. Heinrich, d. 28 August 886, marquis of Neustia.
An eleventh century catalogue of kings and
emperors states that Baba, daughter of duke Otto, was the mother
of Adalbert (of Babenberg), and that Babenberg was named after
Baba ["... Otto dux. Hic habuit filium qui vocabatur
Heinricus humilis et filiam Babam nomine, matrem Adalberti, de
cuius nomine idem mons Babenberc dictus est." Regum
Imperatorum Catalogus, MGH SS 10: 137]. A genealogical table
in Ekkehard's Chronicon Wirziburgense shows "Adalbertus
quem Ludewicus decollavit" as son of "Baba"
who is sister of "Heinricus rex" and daughter
of "Otho dux" [Ekkehard, Chron.
Wirziburgense, MGH SS 6: 28], and Ekkehard makes a similar
statement in his universal chronicle, without the daughter's name
["... Adelbertus ..., filius sororis Heinrici ducis sed
postea regis, nepos Ottonis ducis Saxoniae, ..."
Ekkehard, Chron. Univ., s.a. 901, MGH SS 6: 174]. The
Saxon Annalist makes a similar statement ["His
temporibus Adalbertus magnus heros, cuius pater Heinricus dux,
mater Baba dicebatur, idemque sororis filius Heinrici postea
regis, nepos vero Ottonis Saxonum ducis, cum fratribus suis ..."
Ann. Saxo, s.a. 902, MGH SS 6: 590]. These accounts were
perhaps based in part on a statement of the historian Widukind
that Adalbert was a nepos ex sorore of Heinrich I
["Nam cum bellum esset Cuonradi regis Cuonrado patri et
Adelberto Heinrici ex sorore nepoti, primum interfectus est
frater Adelberti; postea in ultionem fratris Cuonradus quoque
occisus est ab Adelberto, ..." Widukind, i, 22 (pp.
26-7)]. Now, Adalbert was not a nephew of Heinrich I, for the
best estimates we have of their respective ages would place
Adalbert a generation earlier than Heinrich. Thus, if Widukind's
statement was based on accurate information, the word nepos
has to be interpreted with the more general meaning of relative
[see the page of Hadwig for more on this]. As for the name of Baba, in contrast
to the statement that Babenberg was named after her, it is much
more likely that the name Baba was an invention of some early
author based on the location of Babenberg. [See Waitz (1885),
208; Hlawitschka (2006), 46]. In an unconvincing argument,
Decker-Hauff attempts to keep Baba as a daughter of Otto by
making her the second wife of Heinrich, and daughter of Otto by
an otherwise unknown first marriage [Decker-Hauff (1955),
298ff.].
Falsely attributed
daughter:
Adelheid;
m. Liutpold, duke of Bayern (Bavaria).
Waitz attributes this falsehood to Aventin
[Waitz (1885), 228 n. 1].
Althoff (1976) = Gerd Althoff, "Unerkannte Zeugnisse vom Totengedenken der Liudolfinger", Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 32 (1976): 370-404.
Althoff (1989) = Gerd Althoff, "Die Thronbewerber von 1002 und ihre Verwandtschaft mit den Ottonen", Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 137 (1989), 453-9.
Calend. Merseb. = Ludwig Hesse, "Calendrium Merseburgense", Zeitschrift für Archivkunde, Diplomatik und Geschichte 1 (1834): 101-150.
Decker-Hauff (1955) = Hansmartin Decker-Hauff, "Die Ottonen und Schwaben", Zeitschrift für Württemburgische Landesgeschichte 14 (1955), 233-371.
Fontes rerum Germ. = Johann Friedrich Boehmer, Fontes rerum Germanicarum, 4 vols. (Stuttgart & Tübingen, 1843-68).
Götting (1973) = Hans Götting, Das Bistum Hildesheim I: Das reichsunmittelbare Kanonissenstift Gandersheim (Germania sacra NF 7, 1973). [I have not seen this work.]
Hlawitschka (1968) = Eduard Hlawitschka, Lotharingen und das Reich an der Schwelle der deutschen Geschichte (Schriften der MGH 21, Stuttgart, 1968).
Hlawitschka (1987) = Eduard Hlawitschka, Untersuchungen zu den Thronwechseln der ersten Hälfte des. 11. Jahrhunderts und zur Adelsgeschichte Süddeutschlands (Sigmaringen, 1987).
Hlawitschka (1989) = Eduard Hlawitschka, "Nochmals zu den Thronbewerbern des Jahres 1002", Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 137 (1989), 460-7.
Krüger (1893) = Emil Krüger, "Ueber die Abstammung Heinrich's I. von den Karolingern", Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 9 (1893): 28-61.
MGH DD = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata series.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Parisot (1898) = Robert Parisot, Le Royaume de Lorraine sous les Carolingiens (1898, reprinted Geneva, 1975).
Regino, Chronicon = Friedrich Kurze, ed., Reginonis abbatis Prumiensis Chronicon cum continuatione Treverensi (MGH SRG, Hannover, 1890).
Settipani (1994) = Christian Settipani, "Les origines maternelles du comte de Bourgogne Otte-Guillaume", Annales de Bourgogne 66 (1994), 5-63.
Waitz (1885) = Georg Waitz, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reichs under König Heinrich I. (3rd, ed., Leipzig, 1885).
Widukind = Georg Waitz & Karl Andreas Kehr, eds., Widukindi monachi Corbeiensis Rerum Gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres (4th ed., MGH SRG 55, Hannover & Leipzig, 1904).
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 3 April 2011.