Otto II (Moravia)

Otto II the Black of Moravia-Olomouc, also called Otík, (Czech: Ota II. Černý, řečený Otík) (* around 1099 - † February 18, 1126 ) was Duke of Olomouc and Brno .

Otto was the younger son of Otto I the Fair of Olomouc and Euphemia of Hungary . After the death of their father in 1087, Otto and his brother Svatopluk were chased out of Olomouc in 1088, victims of the changeable alliances and rifts between the noble families of Bohemia at the time. From 1091 to 1110 he was Duke of Olomouc and in 1107 briefly Regent of Bohemia. 1108/09 he was hostage of the future Emperor Henry V. In 1109 he was proclaimed Duke of Bohemia by parts of the Bohemian nobility, but could not enforce this claim against his cousin Vladislav I , with whom he was in constant dispute. Vladislav imprisoned him from 1110 to 1113. From 1113 to 1126 he was again Duke of Olomouc and from 1123 to 1125 also Duke of Brno.

After Vladislav's death in 1125, his brother Soběslav I became Duke of Bohemia, but Otto, as the eldest member of the Přemyslid dynasty, laid claim to the succession in Bohemia according to the seniority principle and was given by the widow of Vladislav, his sister-in-law Richza (Rixa, Richinza) by Mountain Bohemia, and supported by Emperor Lothar of Supplinburg . Lothar marched into Bohemia with an army, and on February 18, 1126 there was a second battle near Chlumec near Chlumec u Chabařovic (German: Kulm) on the southern edge of the Eastern Ore Mountains . Soběslav achieved a convincing victory. Otto was killed in battle, and Lothar III. was captured. Soběslav was enfeoffed with Bohemia by the captured king before he released him.

Otto had three children with his wife Sophie von Berg, daughter of Count Heinrich I von Berg: Euphemia, Otto III. , and Svatopluk

Web links

• Petr summer; Třeštík, Dušan; Žemlička, Josef, et al .: Přemyslovci. Budování českého státu . Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, Praha 2009, ISBN 978-80-7106-352-0 , especially pp. 198-199.