Otto I, Count of Savoy

Otto I
Count of Savoy and Margrave of Turin
Count of Savoy
Reign	1051 or 1056 – c. 1057 or 1060
Predecessor	Amadeus I
Successor	Peter I
Spouse(s)	Adelaide of Susa
Issue Peter Amadeus Otto Bertha Adelaide
Noble family	House of Savoy
Father	Humbert I of Savoy
Mother	Ancilla of Lenzburg
Born	c. 1023
Died	c. 1057/1060
Religion	Roman Catholic

Otto (French: Odon, Oddon, Othon); Italian: Oddone; c. 1023 – c. 1057/1060)^[1] was count of Savoy from around 1051 until his death. Through marriage to Adelaide, the heiress of Ulric Manfred II, he also administered the march of Susa from around 1046 until his death.

Family

He was a younger son of Humbert the White-Handed and his wife Ancilla of Lenzburg. Through Humbert's service to the German emperors, the family was granted the counties of Maurienne, Aosta and Sapaudia (Savoy), all at the expense of local bishops or archbishops. Otto inherited the family's realms after the death of his brother Amadeus c. 1051.^[2]

In 1046, he married Adelaide, heiress of the march of Susa and county of Turin.^[3] They had five children:

• Peter (d.1078)
• Amadeus (d.1080)
• Otto^[4]
• Bertha (d.1087), wife of Henry IV of Germany
• Adelaide (d.1080), married Rudolf of Swabia

Rule

Through his marriage to Adelaide, Otto obtained extensive possessions in northern Italy. Thereafter, the House of Savoy concentrated their expansion efforts towards Italy instead of north of the Alps as they had done before. Savoy's lands occupied much of modern Savoy and Piedmont, although several other small states could be found between them. In the 1050s, Otto allowed coins to be minted at Aiguebelle. The archbishop of Vienne, Léger, who had sole right of minting in the region, complained to Pope Leo IX, so Otto forbade further coining at Aiguebelle.^[5]

References

• C.W. Previté-Orton, The Early History of the House of Savoy (1000-1233) (Cambridge, 1912), accessible online at: archive.org
• S. Hellmann, Die Grafen von Savoyen und das Reich: bis zum Ende der staufischen Periode (Innsbruck, 1900), accessible online (but without page numbers) at: Genealogie Mittelalter
• B. Demotz, Le Comté de Savoie du XIe au XVe siècle: Pouvoir, Château et État au Moyen Âge (Geneva, 2000).
• G. Sergi, 'Oddone di Moriana-Savoia,' in “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani” – Volume 79 (2013)

External links

• Oddo, Graf von Savoyen (1051-1059) (in German)
• Othon de Savoie (in French)
• Cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands Project on Otto of Savoy, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy

Notes

1. Hellmann, Grafen, p. 17
2. Hellmann, Grafen, p. 13
3. Previté-Orton, Early History, p. 221
4. Otto is sometimes said to be Bishop Otto III of Asti (r.c.1080-c.1088), but this identification is uncertain. See L. Vergano, Storia di Asti, part I. (Asti, 1951)
5. Hellmann, Grafen, p. 15; Demotz, Le Comté, p. 24