Otto "the Merry", Duke of Austria (23 July 1301-17 February 1339) was Duke of Austria and Styria from 1330 to 1339, succeeding Frederick the Fair and preceding Albert II of Austria, and Duke of Carinthia from 1335 to 1339, succeeding Henry of Bohemia and preceding Albert.
Biography[]
Otto was born on 23 July 1301 in Vienna, Duchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire, the youngest son of Albert I of Germany and Elizabeth of Carinthia; his older brothers were Rudolf I of Bohemia, Frederick the Fair, Leopold I, Duke of Austria, and Albert II of Austria. Otto was married to Elizabeth of Lower Bavaria in order to end the Habsburg-Wittelsbach rivalry, and in 1329 he was appointed the governor of Swabia. The next year, he would become the joint ruler of the Duchy of Austria with his brother Albert, and in 1335 Emperor Louis IV of Germany granted him the Duchy of Carinthia on the death of his uncle Henry of Bohemia, and he ruled Austria and Carinthia until his death at Neuberg Abbey, Styria in 1339.