Otto Herzog von Sachsen the Illustrious

  General Notes:

Buried: Gandersheim monastery church, Gandersheim, Niedersachsen, Germany

Otto or Oddo (died 30 November 912) was a Saxon nobleman; by later authors, he is often called Otto the Illustrious. The younger son of Liudolf, Duke of Saxony and his wife Oda, Otto presumably became duke of Saxony shortly before his death, but no details are known.

According to Widukind of Corvey, Otto was offered the kingship of the East Franconian Kingdom in 911 and did not accept it, but the truthfulness of this report is considered doubtful. Otto's wife was Hathui, daughter of Henry, Duke of Austria. He is named as count of South Thuringia in 888, and as count of the Eichsfeld in 908; he was also lay abbot of the Monastery of Hersfeld. Otto is buried in the monastery church of Gandersheim. His son Henry, later to be King Henry the Fowler, succeeded him as duke of Saxony.
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The Germanic Thuringians appeared after about AD 350 and were conquered by the Huns in the second quarter of the 5th century; but by 500 they had established a large kingdom stretching from the Harz mountains to the Danube. As a result of the defeat of their king, Irminfrid, at Burgscheidungen on the Unstrut River by the Frankish kings Theodoric I and Chlotar I in 531, their territory was reduced to the Harz mountains and Thuringian Forest region and was governed by Frankish dukes. In the early 8th century the duchy was divided into countships to reassert royal authority, and St. Boniface converted the Thuringians to Christianity. In 908 the Thuringian March (frontier district), set up by Charlemagne against the Slavs, was seized by Otto, duke of Saxony, whose son, Henry I, duke and German king, halted a Magyar invasion of Thuringia at Riade in 933 and strengthened the defenses of the region. After the Saxon royal dynasty had died out in 1024, the Ludowing family, through Louis the Bearded, controlled Thuringia. Louis' grandson was made landgrave of Thuringia by King Lothair III in 1130.

[source: Ketil Ken Nygaard's Genealogy, http://nygaard.howards.net/]

Otto married Hedwige, daughter of Arnulf King of Germany and Oda von Bayern, on an unknown date.