Ota

Who is Ota?

Ota, also called Oda or Uta was the wife of Arnulf of Carinthia, mother of Louis the Child, and was by marriage Queen of the East Franks and Empress. She was a member of the Conradine Dynasty, the daughter of Berengar, Count of Hesse.

Very little is known of Ota. Her name features in her husband's documents at the beginning and towards the end of his reign, when she intervenes for the privileges of the Kremsmünster Abbey and the monastery of Altötting, and for the Bishopric of Worms and the Bishopric of Freising. They are believed to have married shortly before the end of 888; Arnulf intended the marriage to win him the support of the Conradine family, which ruled in Bavaria and Lorraine. She was not crowned. She is believed to have supported her husband's rule energetically.

The most notable incident involving Ota occurred in the June 899. She was accused of adultery, and was called before the Reichstag in Regensburg. She protested her innocence, and 72 noblemen swore oaths that she was so; accordingly, she was acquitted. However, the experience caused her husband, already in ill health, to die at the end of 899. Her son, Louis, who became King on his father's death, was then placed in the guardianship of Hatto I, Archbishop of Mainz, Bishop Adalbero of Augsburg, and several major nobles. Ota then disappears from history; she is spoken of as dead by 903, and is believed to have withdrawn to the lands of her family. Her property she bequeathed to the church.