Otto IV. (Waldeck)

Otto IV von Waldeck zu Landau (* around 1440 ; † October 14, 1495 on the Wetterburg near Arolsen ) was the third and last ruling count of the so-called "older Landau line" of the Waldeck family, which had existed since 1387 . He was a grandson of Count Adolf III. von Waldeck († 1431), the founder of the older Landau line, and the third and only surviving son of Count Otto III. von Waldeck († 1458/59) and his wife Anna von Oldenburg († 1438 (?)); his older brothers Johann and Heinrich had already died between 1431 and 1438 without being married and without descendants.

Life

Otto resided in Landau Castle in Landau . He was involved in a number of armed conflicts. Otto IV supported the Landgrave Ludwig II of Hesse in his penalties against the Hanseatic city of Einbeck in 1461 and 1479 and against the Cologne city ​​of Volkmarsen in 1476. From 1464 to 1471 Otto stood on the side of the Landgrave in the Hesse- Paderborn feud with Bishop Simon III. from Paderborn . In 1469 Otto fought against the bishop's brother, Bernhard von der Lippe , after he had invaded the Waldeck area.

In 1474 he was again with Bishop Simon III. von Paderborn involved in armed conflicts. The Paderborns had devastated the Waldecker Land, and Otto marched in return to Lichtenau , conquered the city, and withdrew with considerable booty and a number of prisoners. Bishop Simon then again called his brother Bernhard to help, who on February 1, 1475 besieged the Waldeck town of Mengeringhausen with a substantial contingent ; with Bernhard were u. a. Count Johann I von Rietberg and the Counts and Lords of Hoya , Schauenburg and Diepholz . Otto rushed to the town's aid with his people. However, his 75-year-old relative Wolrad von Waldeck managed to visit Bishop Simon in the enemy camp and to persuade him to settle, so that the siege was lifted and the feud ended.

In the same year 1475 Otto got into a feud with Johann I von Rietberg and his allies, who attacked the small town of Rhoden and took prisoners and cattle with them. Otto then allied himself with the city of Korbach , attacked the village of Erwitte and neighboring villages with sword and fire on Whit Monday 1476 , and returned home with rich booty. In 1482 Otto denied a feud with Johann, Gottschalk and Heinrich von Harthausen and their allies from the Westphalian aristocracy, as well as another with Stephan von der Malsburg , and in 1484 he was in a feud with Philipp von Urff and Eberhard Schenk zu Schweinsberg .

Otto is also known for having the monasteries under his rule reformed in order to put a stop to the moral decline that became visible there:

• In the Volkhardinghausen monastery he carried out a fundamental reform from 1461 to 1469, handed it over to the Augustinian Canons in 1465 and arranged for it to be affiliated with the Windesheim congregation . The new Augustinian Canons came from Möllenbeck Monastery , which had only recently been reformed , and Volkhardinghausen experienced a new heyday.
• In 1487 Otto IV and his relatives Philip II von Waldeck-Eisenberg and Heinrich VIII von Waldeck-Wildungen called the Franciscan Observants to Korbach with papal approval to establish a monastery there.
• In 1492 Otto IV handed over the Aroldessen monastery to the Antonite monks of Grünberg (Hesse) , which led to the monastery's rapid growth.

family

Otto married Mechthild (Metha) von Neuenahr on January 17, 1464, but she died the following year. He then married Elisabeth von Tecklenburg († around 1499) in 1465. With this he had a child, the daughter Eva (* 1466), who was engaged to Count Bernhard von der Lippe, but died of the plague in Brobeck Castle in 1489 and was buried in the Aroldessen Monastery before the marriage .

With Anna von Hohenfels he had an illegitimate son, Arndt, to whom he bequeathed 300 gold florins in his will.

death

Otto IV von Waldeck died on October 14, 1495 at the Wetterburg. His grave slab is in the monastery chapel in Volkhardinghausen. With him, the older Landau line of the Waldeck family died out, and his county fell to his relatives Philip II of Waldeck-Eisenberg and Heinrich VI. of Waldeck wilds , which they divided among themselves. Philip II also received the sum of money that Otto had as a pledge on Castle Schöneberg and the Hofgeismar office , with the obligation to redeem the pledged village of Ehringen with it . In his will, drawn up on October 11, 1495, Otto also decreed that the Volkhardinghausen monastery should be given 100 gold gulden from his silver utensils, the observant monastery in Korbach 100 gold gulden for church building, his chancellor Volmar Lösten 25 gold gulden, and the mother of his illegitimate son, Anna from Hohenfels, 80 gold guilders. He bequeathed the Wetterburg to his wife Elisabeth as a widow's residence.

Web links

• Johann Adolph Theodor Ludwig Varnhagen, Basis of the Waldeckische Landes- und Regentengeschichte, second volume, Speyer'sche Buchhandlung, Arolsen, 1853 (pp. 10–17)

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Most genealogical tables put his birth in the year 1440/41, but at the same time the date of his mother's death in 1438. In Gerhard Menks Waldeck's contribution for today's Hesse (2nd edition, Wiesbaden, 2001, ISBN 3-927127- 41-8 ) gives the family table in the appendix 1448 as the year of birth, which is very unlikely, because there are no indications that Otto IV. Came from a second marriage of his father, and Otto ruled independently and not under the rule from 1458/59 Guardianship, was therefore of legal age or was recognized as of legal age.
2. ↑ Landau: Geschichte Hessens , p. 210.
3. ^ Franziskus Lubecus, Reinhard Vogelsang: Göttinger Annalen: from the beginnings to the year 1588, 1994, p. 221
4. ↑ Jürgen Römer: Waldeckisches Klosterleben (lecture on April 2, 2005 in Korbach at the annual general meeting of the Association for the History and Antiquity of Westphalia, Dept. Paderborn)

predecessor	Office	successor
Otto III.	Count of Waldeck zu Landau 1459 - 1495	-