Otto IV
(born
c.
1175/82?died May 19, 1218, Harzburg Castle,
Lower Saxony
[Germany]) was a German
king
and
Holy Roman emperor
, candidate of the German anti-Hohenstaufen
faction
, who, after struggling against two
Hohenstaufen
kings, was finally deposed.
A member of the
Welf dynasty
, Otto was a son of
Henry the Lion
of Brunswick and Matilda, daughter of
Henry II
of England. Brought up at the court of his uncle
Richard I
of England, Otto was made earl of York in 1190 and count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine in 1196. Under both kings Richard and John, English diplomatic and financial help were to be of great assistance to Otto in his struggles with the Hohenstaufens.
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When the Hohenstaufen
emperor
Henry VI died in September 1197, his heir,
Frederick II
, was an infant. Therefore the German princes favouring the Hohenstaufens elected Frederick’s uncle,
Philip of Swabia
, as German king in March 1198. The opposing party, led by Archbishop
Adolf
of
Cologne
, however, elected Otto in June 1198.
War ensued between the two
factions
. In 1201 Otto obtained the support of Pope
Innocent III
after agreeing to the papacy’s territorial claims in central Italy. In 1204, however, some of Otto’s chief supporters in
Germany
, including Archbishop Adolf, went over to Philip’s side. When, in early 1208, Otto held only the Welf allodial lands (hereditary possessions independent of any higher lord) in Brunswick, even Pope Innocent recognized Philip as king.
When in June 1208 Philip was murdered by a German count to whom he had refused to give one of his daughters in marriage, many of Philip’s former supporters made overtures to Otto, who agreed to a new election. Chosen king at Frankfurt in November 1208, he strengthened his position by his betrothal to Philip’s 10-year-old daughter Beatrix the Elder. The
pope
recognized Otto again after the king reaffirmed the papacy’s claims in central Italy.
When in August 1209 Innocent received him at
Viterbo
, Italy, Otto refused to
concede
to the church all the lands that the papacy had been claiming from the empire. He agreed, however, not to claim suzerainty over Sicily, of which the young
Frederick
of Hohenstaufen had in 1198 been crowned king as a vassal of the papacy, because the pope’s policy aimed at preventing a reunion of the German and Sicilian crowns. Otto was crowned emperor in
Rome
on October 4, 1209.
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Soon, however, it became evident that Otto did not intend to keep his word. After occupying Tuscany, he invaded the mainland part of Frederick’s kingdom of Sicily. Disregarding his
excommunication
by Innocent, Otto in November 1210 conquered southern Italy. By the time
Apulia
had fallen, an assembly of princes at Nurnberg declared him
deposed
and invited Frederick to take his place.
When Otto returned to Germany in March 1212, in order to retain the support of at least part of the Hohenstaufen faction, he married Philip’s daughter Beatrix, but he lost that support when she died within three weeks of their marriage. Frederick, who arrived in Germany in September 1212, soon prevailed in the southern duchies, but Otto and his supporters held out against him in the lower Rhine district and northeastern Germany. In alliance with his uncle, King John of England, Otto then invaded France, which supported Frederick. Disastrously defeated at the
Battle of Bouvines
(July 27, 1214), Otto was deserted by nearly all his supporters. He was formally deposed as king in 1215. By the time of his death, three years later, his power was
confined
again to his Brunswick dominions.