Otto I, Duke of Swabia and Bavaria

Duke Otto and his sister, Detail on an ottonian cross

Otto I, Duke of Swabia and Bavaria (955–982) was the son of Liodolf of Swabia and his wife Ida, and thus a grandson of the Emperor Otto I and his Anglo-Saxon wife Eadgyth (and, through Eadgyth, the great-grandson of Alfred the Great). His sister Mathilda was abess of a canoness monastery in Essen.

He was Duke of Swabia from 973 to 982 and was made Duke of Bavaria in 976, after Henry the Wrangler lost his Bavarian possessions for rebelling against the emperor Otto II. He was a confidant of Otto II in the War of the Three Henries, and in 982 accompanied him on his Italian campaign against the Arabs. He survived the defeat of the Imperial army near Crotone on July 13, 982 and a subsequent ambush by an Arab force. Otto assigned him to take the news of the campaign back to Germany, but he died en route on November 1, 982 in Lucca. He was buried in Aschaffenburg.

His sister Mathilda endowed a precious crux gemmata (jewelled cross) which is still kept in the treasury of Essen cathedral for his remembrance, the siblings are pictured on it.

Otto I, Duke of Swabia and Bavaria House of Saxony (Liudolfing) Died: 982
Preceded by Burchard III	Duke of Swabia 973–982	Succeeded by Conrad I
Preceded by Henry II	Duke of Bavaria 976–982	Succeeded by Henry III