Countess Ottilie of Nassau-Siegen (before or on 18 April 1437 – July 1493), German: Ottilie Gräfin von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Gräfin zu Nassau, Vianden und Diez, was a countess from the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau, and through marriage respectively Countess of Katzenelnbogen and Countess of Tierstein.
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Biography
Ottilie was born before or on 18 April 1437, possibly in Breda, as the only daughter of Count Henry II of Nassau-Siegen and his first wife Countess Genoveva of Virneburg.
Ottilie married in 1449/1450 to Count Philip the Younger of Katzenelnbogen (1427 – 27 February 1453), the eldest son of Count Philip the Elder of Katzenelnbogen and his first wife Countess Anne of Württemberg.
Following the death of her father in 1451, Ottilie claimed his part of the County of Diez as her inheritance. This led to a conflict with her paternal uncle Count John IV of Nassau-Siegen, who had succeeded his brother in all his possessions and was granted the County of Diez as a fief by Archbishop James I of Trier on 4 November 1451. The conflict was complicated further due to the fact that another part of the County of Diez belonged to Ottilie's father-in-law Philip the Elder of Katzenelnbogen.
Ottilie remarried on 3 June 1475 to Count Oswald I of Tierstein (c. 1423 – before 1488). Oswald was governor in the Alsace, the Sundgau and the Breisgau and councillor in Lorraine and the Electorate of Cologne.
In 1479 Count Philip the Elder of Katzenelnbogen died without male issue. He was succeeded by his daughter Anne and her husband Landgrave Henry III the Rich of Hesse-Marburg. Ottilie's daughter, Ottilie of Katzenelnbogen, however, also immediately laid claim to the County of Katzenelnbogen. On 6 May 1482 Ottilie of Katzenelnbogen renounced her claims to the counties Katzenelbogen and Diez and received financial compensation.
In 1481 Ottilie's first cousin Count John V of Nassau-Siegen fully succeeded in enforcing the still unfinished settlement of Ottilie's claims to the County of Diez. In 1485 Ottilie's second husband, Oswald I of Tierstein, attempted to murder John V of Nassau-Siegen because of his dissatisfaction with the marriage grant and the settlement of the inheritance. The Rentmeister of Siegen, Heinrich Weiß, was able to prevent the attempt. The settlement was finally confirmed in 1510.
Ottilie died in July 1493.
Issue
First marriage
From Ottilie's first marriage to Count Philip the Younger of Katzenelnbogen only one daughter was born:
Ottilie of Katzenelnbogen (c. 1451 – 15 August 1517), married in Koblenz on 19 December 1468 to Margrave Christopher I of Baden (13 November 1453 – Hohenbaden Castle, 19 April 1527).
The wedding of Ottilie and Christopher was a double wedding, as on the same day and location Christopher's sister Cimburga of Baden married Count Engelbert II the Illustrious of Nassau-Breda, the eldest son of Count John IV of Nassau-Siegen.
Literature
Demand, Karl E. (1955). "Die letzten Katzenelnbogener Grafen und der Kampf um ihr Erbe". Nassauische Annalen (in German). Vol. Band 66. Wiesbaden: Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung. pp. 93–132.