Otto I. (Hesse)

Otto I (* around 1272; † January 17, 1328 in Kassel ) was a son of Landgrave Heinrich I of Hesse and his wife Adelheid of Braunschweig .

government

After the death of his father, Otto ruled over the "Land an der Lahn" (the "Ober lant" and later Upper Hesse ) from 1308 , which included the area around Marburg , Gießen , Grünberg and Alsfeld . His half-brother Johann received the "nider lant" (later Lower Hesse ), the area on the lower Fulda , Eder , Schwalm , Werra and the upper reaches of the Weser with the Kassel residence. After Johann's death in 1311, Otto also inherited his part of the landgraviate and thus reunited it in one hand. He resided alternately in Marburg and Kassel.

Otto led a long feud against the Archbishop of Mainz, Matthias von Buchegg , who contested the inheritance of his half-brother Johann, who died in 1311, the partial Landgraviate of Niederhessen , as a failed Mainz fiefdom. In 1327 Mainz took the city of Gießen with the help of Trier troops , but revolts by the citizens made it possible for Otto to quickly bring the city back under his control. Only after Otto's death and the victory of his son Heinrich II near Wetzlar and on the mediation of King John of Bohemia in 1328 was the feud settled.

Several documents have been received from Otto for the city of Kassel, in which he confirmed various rights and freedoms for the city.

Otto took decisive action against the staple rights of the city of Münden , which had a detrimental effect on Kassel. When the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg demanded the stacking right for half of all the salt that passed through Münden, Otto insisted on the same right for goods from Münden that were to pass through Kassel.

According to some sources, Otto I tried to introduce primogeniture for his sons and the House of Hesse . So was his son Louis the Burg Grebenstein and his son Hermann , the castle Nordeck as paréage . Both committed themselves to be celibate, but Ludwig ignored this. To prevent the division of the country through a second marriage, Otto I is said to have recommended his successors not to marry appropriately. According to Wilhelm Dilich , it read about it literally: “Accordingly, to prevent several disputes, this Otto made a constitution and decree that from now on the eltist son should be the sole ruling prince among his descendants and that he be a landgrave and lord of Hessenland and gracious lord. The other brothers, however, called Landgraves of Hesse and noble Junkers, who also made a maintenance with the advice of friends on their own according to the country's opportunity and the country should not be divided. "

Otto died on January 17, 1328 in Kassel. He was buried in the Ahnaberg monastery.

family

With his wife, Adelheid von Ravensberg († 1335/39), daughter of Otto III. von Ravensberg , he had five children:

• Heinrich II. , "The Iron" (* before 1302; † 1376), 1328–1376 Landgrave of Hesse
  • Otto II, "the Schütz" (* before 1322; † December 1366), married Elisabeth in 1338, daughter of Dietrich VII. Von Kleve . The marriage remained childless. From 1339 he was co-regent of his father and imperial governor in Mühlhausen . Otto died in 1366 and his early death gave rise to the suspicion that he died of a poison attack.
  • Judith, died as a child
  • Adelheid (* 1324; † 1371), wife of Casimir III since 1341 . from Poland
  • Elisabeth († March 7, 1390), married to Duke Ernst von Braunschweig († 1367) on October 4, 1341 , mother of Otto von Braunschweig . She died in Göttingen in 1390 and was buried in Hanover.
  • Margaretha († 1353), was a nun in the Haydau Monastery from 1339 .
• Otto (* 1301; † 1361), from 1331 Archbishop of Magdeburg
• Ludwig (* 1305; † around 1345), received Grebenstein Castle as a paragium after his brother's primogeniture . Around 1340 he married Elise (also Elisabeth or Margaretha), daughter of Count Simon II of Sponheim .
  • Otto (* 1338, † 1357) was destined for the clergy and was brought up in Magdeburg, where he was to succeed his uncle Otto as Archbishop of Magdeburg. He died young. Allegedly, he fell victim to a poison attack, which was caused by the abbot Heinrich VII von Kranlucken of the Fulda monastery .
  • Hermann II , "the scholar" (* approx. 1342; † 1413), succeeded his uncle Heinrich II as Landgrave of Hesse.
  • Agnes (* 1342; † December 25, 1394), was abbess in the St. Catherine's Monastery in Eisenach , where she also died.
• Hermann († between 1368 and 1370), after the primogeniture of his brother Heinrich II. Received Nordeck Castle as Paragium , and in 1349 Grebenstein Castle as well. In a document of July 31, 1368 he is mentioned as living, another document of July 12, 1370 described him as "Seyligin" (blessed, ie he was dead).
• Elisabeth († after 1354), married to Duke Rudolf II of Saxony-Wittenberg since 1346 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ December 18, 1324, appointment of a judge in questions of the Mainz fiefdom of Landgrave Otto. Regest no. 808. Regest of the Landgraves of Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
2. ↑ January 2, 1325, Archbishop Matthias von Mainz appoints Ulrich von Bickenbach as judge. Regest no. 812. Regests of the Landgraves of Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
3. ^ Johanna Elisabeth Wigand, History of the Regents of Hessen-Cassel (pages 8 and 9), Cassel 1882, facsimile edition, Historische Edition Dieter Carl, Vellmar 2001, ISBN 3-9807814-0-2

Web links

• Historical background
• genealogy
• Hessen, Otto I. Landgrave of. Hessian biography. (As of February 2, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

literature

• Eckhart G. Franz : The House of Hesse. Kohlhammer Urban, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 978-3-17-018919-5 , pp. 20-22.

predecessor	Office	successor
Heinrich I.	Landgrave of Hesse ( Upper Hesse ) 1308–1328	Henry II
Johann	Landgrave of Hesse ( Lower Hesse ) 1311–1328	Henry II