Back أوتو الرابع Arabic اوتو الرابع ARZ دؤردونجو اتوی AZB Атон IV Byelorussian Ото IV (Свещена Римска империя) Bulgarian Otto IV an Impalaeriezh santel Breton Oton IV, car Svetog Rimskog Carstva BS Otó IV del Sacre Imperi Romanogermànic Catalan Ota IV. Brunšvický Czech Otto 4. af Braunschweig Danish
| Otto IV | |
|---|---|
| Emperor of the Romans | |
 Seal of Otto IV | |
| Holy Roman Emperor | |
| Reign | 1209–1218 |
| Coronation | 4 October 1209, Rome |
| Predecessor | Henry VI |
| Successor | Frederick II |
| King of the Romans | |
| Reign | 1198–1209 |
| Coronation | 12 July 1198, Aachen |
| Predecessor | Henry VI |
| Successor | Frederick II |
| King of Italy | |
| Reign | 1208–1212 |
| Predecessor | Henry VI |
| Successor | Henry VII[1] |
| King of Burgundy | |
| Reign | 1208–1215 |
| Predecessor | Philip of Swabia |
| Successor | Frederick II |
| Born | 1175 |
| Died | 19 May 1218 (aged 42–43) Harzburg |
| Burial | |
| Spouses | |
| House | Welf |
| Father | Henry the Lion |
| Mother | Matilda of England |
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Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218.
Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 1196. With Richard's support, he was elected King of Germany by one faction in a disputed election in 1198, sparking ten years of civil war. The death of his rival, Philip of Swabia, in 1208 left him sole king of Germany.
In 1209, Otto marched to Italy to be crowned emperor by Pope Innocent III. In 1210, he sought to unite the Kingdom of Sicily with the Empire, breaking with Innocent, who excommunicated him. He allied with England against France and participated in the alliance's defeat at Bouvines in 1214. He was abandoned by most of his supporters in 1215 and lived the rest of his life in retirement on his estates near Brunswick. He was the only German king of the Welf dynasty.
- ^ Although Frederick II was crowned King of the Romans, King of Sicily, King of Jerusalem and Holy Roman Emperor, he was never crowned King of Italy at Pavia, Monza or Milan during his lifetime – see Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages, (1906), pp. 143, 147; and Kington-Oliphant's, History of Frederick the Second, Emperor of the Romans, Vol I, (1862), p. 195, which specifically state that the Milanese refused to crown Frederick with the Iron Crown. Neither is his coronation as King of Italy mentioned in any modern source, such as Abulafia's, The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. V: c. 1198 – c. 1300, (1999)