Secondotto Palaeologus was the Margrave of Montferrat from 1372 to his death, the third of the Greek Palaeologan dynasty.
Background
More probably it is derived from Saint Secundus (San Secondo in Italian), the patron saint of Asti, which his father treated as the capital of the marquisate. The Otto may be in honour of Otto, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, a close ally of his father. He was born around 1360 as the first son of John II and Isabella of Majorca.
Career
His name Secondotto may derive from his being the second Otto to rule Montferrat in his own right, though he would really be Otto III. In December 1361, as part of a peace deal made between John II and Galeazzo II Visconti, co-lord of Milan, he was betrothed to the latter’s four-year-old daughter Maria. The city of Asti, on which Galeazzo had also had designs, was to count as part of Maria’s dowry, and Montferrat would be allowed to retain control of lieutenant The peace was short-lived, however, as Maria died in the May of the following year.
His father’s will had stipulated that he should remain under his uncle’s tutelage until the age of 25.
However Otto left for Naples in 1376 to marry Queen Joan I.
Secondotto thus decided to marry Violante (2 August 1377), the daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, and widow of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, and affirm an alliance with that family against the House of Savoy, Piedmont and Achaea. When Otto of Brunswick"s brother attacked and seized Asti, Secondotto called in the aid of his father-in-law, who, with a huge force, retook Asti and maintained it under Milanese control.
Secondotto realised at that juncture the danger of his Milanese alliance, but by then it was too late. He gathered a force and led it against the Milanese troops and was defeated.
Probably out of fear, he retreated to an unknown destination.
He died at Langhirano in the vicinity of Parma in obscure circumstances: he may simply have been the loser in a brawl (he was famously ill-tempered and violent), or he may have been assassinated by an agent of the Visconti. His body was carried to Parma and buried before the high altar of the cathedral. He placed Secondotto"s brother John III on the Montferrat throne.
Despite the involvement of Emperor-elect Wenceslaus, the negotiations which Otto opened with Gian Galeazzo over the recovery of Asti were fruitless.