Otto, Count of Cleves

Who is Otto, Count of Cleves?

Otto was Count of Cleves from 1305 through 1310.

Otto was the eldest son of Dietrich VII, Count of Cleves and his first wife Margaret of Guelders.

He married first Adelheid van der Marck, daughter of Engelbert I, Count of the Mark and secondly Mechtildis of Virneburg, a niece of Heinrich II of Virneburg.

They had one daughter Irmgard, who married Adolph II of the Marck and later John IV of Arkel.

When he died in 1310 he was succeeded by his brother Dietrich VIII.

The County of Cleves was a comital polity of the Holy Roman Empire in present Germany and the Netherlands. Its rulers, called counts, had a special and privileged standing in the Empire. The County of Cleves was first mentioned in the 11th century. In 1417, the county became a duchy and its rulers were raised to the status of Dukes.

Its history is closely related to that of its neighbours: the Duchies of Jülich, Berg and Guelders and the County of Mark. In 1368, Cleves and Mark were united. In 1521 Jülich, Berg, Cleves and Mark formed the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg. The territory was situated on both sides of the river Rhine, around its capital Cleves and roughly covering today's districts of Cleves, Wesel and the city of Duisburg.