| Otto de la Marck | |
|---|---|
| |
| Margrave of Lower Mark | |
| Reign | 1463 - 1485 |
| Predecessor | Andres Heinrich Engelbert de la Marck |
| Successor | Agnes of Hesse |
| Born | 1434 Saxe-Wittenberg |
| Died | 1489 |
| Died | Thuringia |
| Issue | Shadrach Eberhard |
| Father | Henry IV of Saxony |
| Mother | Blanche of Geneva-Lenzburg |
Otto de la Marck was the Margrave of Lower Mark from 1463 until 1485. A controversial figure, he was known as Otto the Terrible in Germany, and later nicknamed Otto Kapuze. He was the son of Henry IV, Duke of Saxony, and was born with severe ptosis, which rendered him effectively blind. He was named after Otto von Lenzburg, his relative, who later became Pope Victor. In 1448, Bonne de la Marck, Princess of Finland, had received the County of Lower Mark. She was succeeded by her son, Andres Heinrich Engelbert. Following Andres's death, the Duke of Saxony Henry forcibly confiscated the County from Andres's infant son (who would later become Henry, King of Denmark), on the grounds that his parents were first cousins and their marriage had never been given papal dispensation for incest, and therefore their son was illegitimate. Henry awarded the Duchy to his son, Otto. Otto spent time in Switzerland, becoming friends with the Count (later Duke) of Lenzburg, and became rabidly pro-Swiss.
When the Lenzburg-Premyslid War broke out, he was put in charge of the Saxon army that marched to the Swiss Confederacy to aid the Lenzburgs. Following Saxony's invasion, Otto's nephew Duke Engelbert II of Saxony called for Otto to come back, writing increasingly desperate letters to him as the Thin White Duke ravaged the Duchy of Saxony, but Otto refused, regarding his nephew as weak and the preservation of Saxony and Mark a lost cause. He sent orders back to his own Margraviate instructing its army to join his troops in Switzerland; this left Lower Mark practically defenseless and it surrendered, allowing Hesse, which governed Upper Mark, to invade and conquer it. Otto was put in charge of defending Switzerland from Rapperswill Castle.
Near the end of the war, he fell from a horse on his way to church, breaking his leg. Hearing that the Swiss government had surrendered, he attempted to join the Central Council to negotiate peace, but was captured by enemy troops on his way there and subjected to torture, his suicide attempt failing. He died under questioning. Following his death, Lower Mark was united with Upper Mark under Agnes, Duchess of Hesse. Otto's son Shadrach de la Marck was an adventurer and contestant in the King of Switzerland Competition. Another son, Eberhard, remained Catholic and in Switzerland, and was the great-grandfather of Eberhard de la Marck the Younger. Otto's nephews and nieces included Engelbert II of Saxony, Edmund Alwin, Duke of Saxony, Ernest of Wasaborg, Louise the "Wanderer's Widow" and August Hagel.
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