OTHO IV. (c. 1174-1218), Holy Roman emperor, the second son of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, of the house of Guelph, was born about 1174. After the banishment of his father to England in 1180, Otho was educated at the court of Richard I., whose sister Matilda was Otho’s mother. Otho distinguished himself in the war between England and France, and in 1196 Richard I. made him duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou. In 1197, when the majority of the German princes, disregarding the previous election of Frederick II., offered the crown to Philip of Swabia, a party in the Rhine country, headed by the archbishop of Cologne, set up Otho as anti-king, and he was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. The result was a civil war which lasted about ten years, Philip being supported by most of the German princes and by the king of France, Otho by the kings of England and Denmark. For some time Pope Innocent hesitated to take part with either side, but at last he declared for Otho, who promised to make over certain fiefs claimed by the holy see. Notwithstanding the pope’s aid, Otho’s cause did not prosper; but in 1208 Philip was murdered by Otho of Wittelsbach, and then Otho IV. was universally acknowledged as king. On the 27th September 1209, at Rome, he was crowned emperor by the pope, to whom he had made new and more important concessions. Otho gave deadly offence to Innocent by seizing Ancona and Spoleto, which had been united to the papal territories; and, when the emperor, having conquered Apulia, was about to cross to Sicily, the pope excommunicated him, released the German princes from their oath of allegiance, and recognized the right of Frederick II. to the throne. In 1212 Otho returned to Germany, where he acted with so much vigour that he seemed to be capable of ...