Otto I, Duke of Carinthia

Otto of Worms
Duke of Carinthia
Otto dux, Chronica sancti Pantaleonis, Cologne, c. 1237
Spouse(s)	Judith of Carinthia (?)
Issue Henry of Speyer Pope Gregory V Conrad I, Duke of Carinthia
Father	Conrad, Duke of Lorraine
Mother	Liutgarde of Saxony
Born	c. 948
Died	4 November 1004 (aged 55–56)
Buried	Bruchsal (?)
Religion	Catholic

Otto I (c. 948 – 4 November 1004), called Otto of Worms, a member of the Salian dynasty, was Duke of Carinthia from 978 to 985 and again from 1002 until his death.

Life

Otto was born in 948, the only son of Conrad the Red, Duke of Lotharingia since 944, and Liutgarde of Saxony, daughter of Emperor Otto I. As a grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto was born into a life of power. His mother died five years after he was born, at age 21, and Otto lived much of his early life in his grandfather's court till his death in 973 at age 61, when Otto was 25. His maternal uncle, Otto II, ascended the Imperial throne.

Otto of Worms is first documented as a count in the Nahegau about 956, he also held the Speyergau and Wormsgau, as well as several other counties in the area. In 978, when he was 30 years old, his uncle Emperor Otto II appointed him Carinthian duke and Margrave of Verona, after his Luitpolding predecessor Henry the Younger had unsuccessfully rebelled against the Imperial authority during the War of the Three Henries and was deposed. In 985 however, Emperor Otto's widow Theophanu, in order to gain support for the succession of her minor son Otto III, restored Carinthia to the Luitpoldings, and Otto again lost his duchy. He could at least retain the ducal title as "Duke of Worms", received the Kaiserpfalz of Lautern and seized large estates of Wissembourg (Weißenburg) Abbey in compensation.

Upon the death of Duke Henry II of Bavaria in 995, Otto at first received the March of Verona back, while Carinthia passed to Henry's son Duke Henry IV of Bavaria. When Emperor Otto III had died in 1002, Otto of Worms and Henry IV of Bavaria were candidates for the election as King of the Romans; Otto withdrew and received the Duchy of Carinthia from the newly elected king Henry (then Henry II of Germany) in return. Nevertheless he was forced to cede his Rhenish possessions to his long-time rival Bishop Burchard of Worms.

Otto died two years later, he was succeeded as Carinthian duke by his son, Conrad.

Family

Otto married Judith (died 991), probably a granddaughter of Duke Arnulf the Bad of Bavaria. They had the following known children:

• Henry of Speyer (died before 1000), Count in the Wormsgau
• Brun (died 999), ruled as Pope Gregory V from 996
• Conrad I, Duke of Carinthia (1004–1011)
• William, Bishop of Strasbourg (1028–1047)