Otto der Fröhliche

Otto IV, known as “the Merry” and “the Bold,” was born on 23 July 1301 in Vienna as the youngest son of Albert I from the House of Habsburg and his wife, Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol. His brothers included Rudolf I of Bohemia, Frederick the Fair, and the Austrian dukes Leopold, Albert, and Henry. As the youngest son, Otto was initially excluded from the prospect of inheriting the family’s principal legacy. On 15 May 1325, Otto married Elisabeth of Lower Bavaria, a daughter of Duke Stephen I and Judith, Duchess of Schweidnitz. The marriage produced two sons: Frederick II, born in 1327, and Leopold II, born in 1328. In 1329, Otto was entrusted with administering the Habsburg possessions in Further Austria on the Upper Rhine. From 1330 onward, he ruled the Duchy of Austria jointly with his brother Albert. Otto assumed an important political role when Louis the Bavarian appointed him imperial vicar in 1331. After the death of Henry of Carinthia, the last representative of the Gorizia-Tyrol line of the House of Gorizia, Albert and Otto received the duchies of Carinthia and Carniola as imperial fiefs in Linz on 2 May 1335. On 2 July of the same year, Otto was elevated to the dignity of Duke of Carinthia at Zollfeld according to ancient custom. He was the first Habsburg to receive this title in the Slovenian language and took his place on the ducal throne. During his reign, Otto devoted more attention to Carinthia than to the older Habsburg duchy of Austria. He also supported religious foundations. In Styria, he founded the Cistercian monastery of Neuberg as an expression of gratitude for the birth of his first son, Frederick. In Vienna, he also had St. George’s Chapel built in the Augustinian Church. His nickname, “the Merry,” referred to his particularly sociable nature at court. After the death of his first wife, Otto married Anna of Bohemia on 25 March 1335, or, according to another dating, in February of that year. She was a daughter of John of Luxembourg and the sister of Charles IV. The marriage remained childless. Anna died in 1338, and Otto himself died on 17 February 1339 in Neuberg. He was buried in the monastery he had founded. Otto’s descendants survived him by only a short time. His two sons, Leopold and Frederick, died in 1344 several months apart, at the ages of 16 and 17 respectively. Poisoning was cited as the suspected cause of death. With their deaths, Otto’s branch of the family became extinct. The family crypt in Neuberg Monastery gradually fell into disrepair and was forgotten. It was not rediscovered and restored until 1820. On 13 March of that year, Otto’s remains, those of his two wives Elisabeth and Anna, and those of his sons were reburied in the restored crypt. Otto is also associated with a motto and the image of a winged griffin. The Latin phrase “Unguibus et rostro ac alis armatus in hostem” means, in essence, being armed against the enemy with claws, beak, and wings. Otto was remembered as the Habsburg duke of Austria, Styria, and Carinthia, as a supporter of Carinthia, and as the founder of Neuberg Monastery.