Otto, Duke of Lower Lorraine
Encyclopedia
Otto was the duke of Lower Lorraine from 993 until his death. He was the son of Charles
Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine
Charles of Lorraine was the son of Louis IV of France and Gerberga of Saxony and younger brother of King Lothair. He was a sixth generation descendant of Charlemagne...

, son of King Louis IV
Louis IV of France
Louis IV , called d'Outremer or Transmarinus , reigned as King of Western Francia from 936 to 954...

, and his first wife, a daughter of Robert de Vermandois, count of Meaux and Troyes
Count of Champagne
The Counts of Champagne ruled the region of Champagne from 950 to 1316. Champagne evolved from the county of Troyes in the late eleventh century and Hugh I was the first to officially use the title "Count of Champagne". When Louis became King of France in 1314, upon the death of his father Philip...

.

When his father left the duchy to fight Hugh Capet for the throne of France in 987, he became regent in Lower Lorraine
Lower Lorraine
The Duchy of Lower Lorraine or Lower Lotharingia , established in 959 was a stem duchy of the medieval German kingdom, which encompassed part of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, the northern part of the German Rhineland and a part of northern France east of the Schelde river.It was created out...

 when still apparently under twenty. Charles was defeated definitively in 991 and died two years later a prisoner in Orléans
Orléans
-Prehistory and Roman:Cenabum was a Gallic stronghold, one of the principal towns of the Carnutes tribe where the Druids held their annual assembly. It was conquered and destroyed by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, then rebuilt under the Roman Empire...

. Otto then succeeded into the full dukeship. In 1002, at the death of the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

 Otto III, he was one of the loyal nobles who accompanied his body from Paterno
Paterno
Paterno may refer to:* Paterno, Basilicata, Italy* Paternò, Catania, Sicily, Italy* Paterno Calabro, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy* The Paterno, a Manhattan apartment building* Monte Paterno, a mountain-People:...

 to Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

. According to the Chronica of Sigebert de Gembloux, he died in 1006, but he seems to be alive as late as 1012, when Count Godfrey II of Verdun
Godfrey II, Duke of Lower Lorraine
Godfrey II , called the Childless, son of Godfrey I, Count of Verdun, was the count of Verdun from his father's death in 1002 and duke of Lower Lorraine after the death in 1012 of the Carolingian Otto, who left no sons....

 succeeded to the duchy.

His wife is unknown and had no known issue.

Otto was one of the last legitimate male-line descendant of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 and thus the Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...

 dynasty. His cousin, Arnulf, archbishop of Rheims, was illegitimate. The counts of Vermandois were direct male-line descendants of Charlemagne through Bernard
Bernard of Italy
Bernard was the King of the Lombards from 810 to 818. He plotted against his uncle, Emperor Louis the Pious, when the latter's Ordinatio Imperii made Bernard a vassal of his cousin Lothair...

, king of Italy
King of Italy
King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire...

, illegitimate son of Pepin of Italy. Although Otto was seemingly the last legitimate Carolingian, there remained illegitimate male lines, possibly also others than just the Vermandois.

Source

  • Settipani, Christian
    Christian Settipani
    Christian Settipani is the Technical Director of an IT company in Paris and a genealogist and historian.He has a Master of Advanced Studies degree from the Paris-Sorbonne University and is currently preparing his doctoral thesis, while he often gives lectures to students undergraduates at the...

    . La préhistoire des Capétiens: 481-987. 1993. ISBN 2950150934
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