Otto the Merry

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Otto the Merry (ideal portrait in a manuscript around 1560)
Otto the Happy in: Old and New Vienna. History of the imperial city and its surroundings 1880

Otto IV., The Merry ( cheerful , Latin iucundus ), also called the Bold (Latin Audax ), (born July 23, 1301 in Vienna , †  February 17, 1339 in Neuberg ) was Duke of Austria , Styria and Carinthia .

Life

Otto came from the Habsburg family . He was the youngest son of Albrecht (V. von Habsburg, I. as German King) and his wife Elisabeth from the house of the Gorizia-Tyroleans Meinhardiner .

His brothers were Rudolf Kaše, King of Bohemia , the German counter-king Friedrich the Fair , the Dukes of Austria Leopold the Glorious and Albrecht the Wise, and Henry the Meek (non-ruling Duke of Austria).

As the youngest son, Otto was initially excluded from the rule. In 1325 he married Elisabeth von Niederbayern (1305-1330), daughter of Stephan I, Duke of Niederbayern , and Judith, Duchess of Schweidnitz. In 1329 he was then given the management of the Habsburg possessions on the Upper Rhine ( Upper Austria ) . From 1330 Otto ruled the Duchy of Austria with his brother Albrecht . In 1331 Otto was appointed imperial vicar by Ludwig the Bavarian . After the death of Heinrich of Carinthia , the last of the Gorizia-Tyroleans, Albrecht and Otto, Ludwig the Bavarian gave the duchies of Carinthia and Carniola as imperial fiefs in Linz on May 2, 1335 .

On July 2, 1335, Otto was the first Habsburg to be installed as Duke of Carinthia according to the old custom in the Slovene language on the Duke's chair on the Zollfeld and for most of his government cared more about Carinthia than about Habsburg Austria. He founded the Neuberg Monastery in Styria (as a pledge for the birth of his first son Friedrich) and the St. George's Chapel in the Augustinian Church in Vienna . In February 1335 he married his second wife in Znojmo Anne of Bohemia (1319 / 23-1338 / 40), daughter of the Luxembourger John of Bohemia , sister of Charles IV . In 1337 he founded the Societas Templois, a knight society for trips to Prussia . His nickname refers to his sociable court life.

Otto died in 1339 and was buried in the Cistercian monastery in Neuberg, which he founded . In 1344 his two sons, Leopold and Friedrich, died within a few months at the age of 17 and 16 - poisoning was suspected at the time. With that, his trunk died out.

The Neuberg crypt fell into disrepair and was forgotten until it was found again in 1820. They were restored and the bones of Otto, his two wives Elisabeth and Anna and his two sons were buried in the renovated crypt during a solemn funeral service on March 13, 1820.

progeny

Two sons emerged from her marriage to Elisabeth von Niederbayern :

Motto

Around a winged griffin the motto: Unguibus et rostro ac alis armatus in hostem ("Armed with claws and beak and wings against the enemy.")

Otto in legend and legend

Philipp Frankfurter created a literary monument to Otto von Austria in his book Die geschicht und histori des pfaffen von Kalenberg , although it cannot be ruled out that his role was already given in his sources. As Duke Otto the Merry, who has his court in Vienna, Otto von Austria, together with his wife Elisabeth, is an important reference person for the legendary Pfaffen vom Kahlenberg .

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto the Fröhliche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article Elisabeth von Niederbayern , in: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.), Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 84.
  2. ↑ Wurzbach: Anna of Böhmen .  No. 20. In: Biographical Lexicon. 6th part. Vienna 1860, p. 149 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Gundaker von Thernberg ("Pfaffe vom Kahlenberg") , on www.gedaechtnisdeslandes.at, accessed on October 10, 2018
  4. ↑ Wodarz-Eichner: Fool's Wisdom in Priestly Robes : On the Interpretation of the Late Medieval Schwankromans "Die geschicht und histori des pfaffen von Kalenberg" (= cultural historical research. Ed. Von Dietz-Rüdiger Moser. Volume 27). Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag 2007, ISBN 9783831606603 , especially pp. 85–93
predecessor Office successor
Friedrich I, the handsome Duke of Austria
(together with Albrecht II )
1330–1339 		Albrecht II.
Heinrich of Carinthia Duke of Carinthia
(together with Albrecht II )
1335–1339 		Albrecht II.
personal data
SURNAME Otto the Merry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otto IV .; Otto the Bold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Austria, Styria and Carinthia
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1301
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 1339
Place of death Neuberg an der Mürz