Fan Casting Otto IV, Earl of York in Robin Hood and the House of Plantagenet (TV-Series)

Son of Henry the Lion and the late Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony, grandson of Eleanor of Aquitaine, nephew of King Richard, Prince John, Joan and Geoffrey, future Holy Roman Emperor. Richard’s favorite nephew and a vital placeholder in the Plantagenet line. Raised at the English court as the King's foster son, the teenage Otto was granted the Earldom of York in 1190 to act as a royalist check against Prince John. Though local resistance has largely kept him from his northern revenues, he remains a disciplined presence within the regency. For Otto, loyalty to Richard is a calculated investment; he treats the English power struggle as a proving ground, sharpening the political and military skills he intends to use to one day seize the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire.