Otto III, Count of Waldeck
Otto III. of Waldeck to Landau (* around 1389, † 1458/1459 ) was the second reigning Count of existing since 1397 "older Landauer line " of the house Waldeck. He was the son of Count Adolf III. of Waldeck, the founder of the older Landauer line, and his wife Agnes of goats grove.
Life
Otto III. resided, like his father, in Landau in Landau castle. His reign coincided with the suppression of Kurmainz and consolidation of the Landgrave's supremacy in Central and Lower Hesse, and his official acts were under the compulsion of circumstances caused thereby. Almost immediately after his father's death and his own accession to the throne he wore on October 8, 1431 Castle and Town Landau with all accessories to the Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse as a fief, and got it from this as a hereditary fief for himself and his sons John and Henry back. The previous policy of Waldecker Count - like the Ziegenhainer - to maneuver to protect its own independence between Hesse and Kurmainz was, according to the Mainz defeats at Fritzlar in July and at Fulda in August in the Main hissing Hessian War of 1427 and the Peace of Frankfurt no longer possible in December 1427 after itself Mainz had nearly all his possessions in Lower and Middle Hessen by Landgrave fief to take.
The in 1431 by Otto III. changes made to Landgrave Ludwig pledge of the village Ehringen ( in the years 1455, 1472 and 1534 several more times increased) later led to much controversy between Waldeck and Hesse and only ended in a 1635 adopted and 1648 confirmed the Peace of Westphalia comparison by Waldeck sovereign rights to Hesse relinquished all other rights (mills, church rates, etc.) but still retained.
On August 30, 1438 and extended Otto renewed his feud order to Landgraf Ludwig; this he undertook a possible attempt Waldecker his relatives to apply their rule another prince to sell or pledge to refuse his consent. At the same time he borrowed the Landgrave 3100 Rhenish gold florins, for which he of the Office Hofgeismar ( the city was still main hissing ) and the castle Schöneberg pledged. Otto's son Otto IV held these pledges even in 1495, when he died himself.
After the extinction of the house goats grove with Count Johann II and the immediate, but still controversial to 1495 seizure of the two counties goats grove and Nidda by Landgrave Ludwig Otto renounced III. , Whose sister Elizabeth was the last Ziegenhainer Count widow, and his son Otto IV on September 30, 1455 all written and oral form before an arbitral tribunal under the chairmanship of landgräflich - Hessian Marshal Johann von Meisenbug to the counties goats grove and Nidda, and the castle and dominion Lißberg, apparently after receiving a severance; both expressed, get 1,000 florins and the village Twiste and an annual cash payment by Landgrave and 1000 florins borrowed to have - a comparatively small return for the renunciation of inheritance claims on the two counties.
Domestically, is remarkable for Otto's reign, that he cared about the caring mentioned in Mengeringhausen of a " Süstern " (sisters) group Beguines justified Begijnhof and these economically strengthened.
Family
Otto III. married in 1424 Anna of Oldenburg and had with her three sons, John, Henry and Otto ( † 1495 ). The two older ones are called in the first Hessian fief letter on October 8, 1431 as Mitbelehnte, but are not mentioned in the deed of gift dated 30 August 1438 and were thus already died. Otto IV succeeded his father as the reigning Count of Waldeck to Landau.