Bishop Odo of Bayeux: the BRUTAL Half Brother of William the Conqueror
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มี.ค. 2021
- Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, was perhaps the most feared and hated man in England during the late 1060 and throughout the 1070s, with a black and brutal reputation as his half-brother's enforcer.
Odo was a close advisor and half-brother of King William the Conqueror, playing an important role before, during and after the Norman Conquest of 1066, even being famously present at Hastings itself.
In this biographical video, we look at Odo's long and colourful life, a life darkened by violence, avarice and ambition, which would see him scheme at the centre of Anglo-Norman politics for almost half a century.
Battle of Hastings: www.youtube.com/watch?v=usJLW...
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William II may have accidentally triggered the First Crusade when he invaded Normandy in early February 1091. The Norman populace lined the roads to cheer his, mainly English, army on. Philip I of the (West) Franks was so alarmed by a locally popular but foreign military at his doorstep that he sent Pope Urban II (Odo of Chatillon) to negotiate a peace and partition. This may have planted the seed of this Pope's idea to deflect European attention from mutual conflict to a holy crusade that would unite them under his banner.
The Contevilles (Herluin and his sons Robert of Mortain and Odo of Bayeux) had a close, long-term relationship with the Dukes of Brittany. Herluin may have been a blood relative to the 10th century Counts of Ponthieu, Haelchod and his son Herluin. (These are P-Celtic, perhaps Brythonic, names.) Conteville is on the Seine near Rouen but it had a shrine to St Samson and ecclesiastically it was administered under the Diocese of Dol in Brittany. Some time before 1050, Robert and Odo had witnessed a charter issued at Rennes by Count Eudon, Alan Rufus's father: Eudon was Regent of Brittany at the time.
Odo is found next to Alan Rufus and Duke William in 2 scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry (Harold's Oath and the 'Norman Last Supper'). Odo's rallying of 'the boys' occurs soon after Alan's confrontation of Earl Gyrth.
In 1080, Odo harried the North a second time, no doubt causing Alan's land values in Yorkshire to plummet.
In 1082, Odo's attempted expedition to Italy caused William to abandon his campaign in Maine, leaving Alan Rufus and 200 knights, including Anvrai the Breton and William de Warenne, to maintain the Siege of Sainte Suzanne unaided _for years_ at the cost of many ransoms, lives and dire injuries: knights from all parts of France assailed them continually, Anvrai was killed and de Warenne was shot by a crossbow bolt.
Despite those harms, when the Englishmen in Kent demanded the hanging of Odo after the Rebellion of 1088, it was surely Alan Rufus who persuaded William II to spare his life. (William and Alan both issued charters at Rochester around that time.)
In January or February of 1088, Alan invited the royal court up to York to attend the consecration of St Mary's Abbey, of which he was the 'constructor'.
In March, in the weeks before the Rebellion erupted, rumours spread that William de St Carilef (St Calais), Bishop of Durham, was plotting to betray the king. These rumours were, I am sure, initiated by a jealous Odo. The king confronted Bishop William who denied being disloyal, but it was agreed that he and his men should go into exile in Normandy.
The Rebellion interrupted those plans, and when the king literally had his back to the walls of London, it was Bishop William who went into the City to persuade the officials to open the gate and shelter the king and his entourage.
William II authorised Alan Rufus to seize the rebels' estates, Archbishop Thomas of York led an army against the rebels in the North, and Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, led the local Fyrd in a crushing victory over the army of Roger II de Montgomery. Roger had no choice but to sue for peace, but it was suspected that he continued to aid the rebels secretly, as he had sons among them.
During the king's march against the rebels in Surrey and Kent, Bishop William absconded from the royal army and went north to secure Durham and to undertake a raid against Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, in which he duffed cattle and captured some of Geoffrey's men. The king saw this as proof of disloyalty, so in August, when the rebellion had finally been quashed, he sent Alan Rufus with Roger de Poitou, Odo of Champagne and Walter d'Aincourt to Durham to arrest Bishop William. Instead of starving the bishop out of Durham castle and dragging him to prison, Alan and his colleagues used their deputed royal authority to approve a reissue of the March agreement.
During the ensuing treason trail at Old Sarum, when Bishop William's legalistic defence was torn to shreds by Lanfranc, Alan revealed this, and the king hit the roof. There ensued a passionate but friendly debate between Lanfranc and Alan in which Lanfranc argued that Alan was released from the agreement by a strict application of the letter of the law because Bishop William had breached its terms. Alan responded that, despite that, he still could not break faith with Bishop William even if the king insisted on it, as then the king too could never place trust in his advice again.
The king forbade anyone, Earl or Bishop, from visiting Bishop William in his imprisonment at Wilton Abbey. However, Alan visited him anyway. Although the Bishop had abused everyone during the trial, including the king and the archbishop, he now addressed Alan respectfully as 'my Lord Earl'. The Bishop pleaded with Alan to go behind the king's back, to release him and arrange for a ship to carry him and his men to Normandy, 'from any port between Exeter and Sandwich'. Alan declined, saying that the king himself would eventually come around to these terms.
It took until nearly Christmas, but the king did indeed finally agree, and William de St Calais sailed from Southampton and joined the court of Duke Robert 'Curthose' in Rouen, where he frequently contradicted Bishop Odo, which stymied the Duke and caused paralysis of the ducal government. (I find this rather suspicious.)
Law and order within the duchy broke down. A majority of the citizens of Rouen rebelled in late 1090 and drove Robert out of the capital. A sally by his 22-year-old brother Henry and his knights from Rouen castle defeated the rebellion, and Henry cast its leader, a wealthy Breton merchant named Conan Pilates from the tower, an event remembered as 'Conan's Leap'.
Robert re-entered Rouen, but instead of thanking Henry, he exiled him to Henry's estates in the Cotentin where the wily Henry made alliances with the Bretons of Lower Normandy and Upper Brittany. (This would prove valuable in his later struggles against Robert.)
William II meanwhile had bribed a number of castellans in Normandy to go over to his side. In late January 1091, he and Alan Rufus were at Dover, no doubt making final preparations for the fleet that would sail in early February. It landed a large army, mainly comprised of Englishman, which marched through Upper Normandy to the cheers of crowds lining the roads. When Robert's loyalists besieged some of the rebel castles, St Calais interceded with Robert to raise the sieges.
Very soon, Upper Normandy fell, and with Lower Normandy dominated by Henry and the Bretons, Duke Robert was in dire straits.
The presence of the English military on the Seine, and the popular support they received, also alarmed Philip I, King of the (West) Franks. Philip sent for Pope Urban II who was a Frenchman (personal name Odo de Chatillon) and sent him on a diplomatic mission to William II to persuade him to cease conquering. Several wealthy counties of Upper Normandy were ceded to the English, and then William II and Robert Curthose made peace with each other.
Odo of Bayeux must have felt very down at this point: he had been comprehensively out-manoeuvred, and had lost his political power bases in both England and Normandy.
Later in 1091, St Calais was permitted to return to England and he regained the bishopric of Durham.
Herluin is my 26x great grandfather. I’m from Massachusetts so I found that interesting… for me anyway lol
He can only be judged as a 'Norman'. That familial culture was brutal and treacherous to everyone, including themselves, all the way to Sicily.
Always wanted to learn more about Odo! Such an interesting character in history. Thanks for satisfying my thirst for knowledge :D
My Ancestor, Robert De Bourge, or Deburgo, half brother of William. All complicated history.
According to Orderic Vitalis, King William was in France, completing yet another contest for control of Maine against the Count of Anjou, when Odo was preparing his journey to Italy. William was building a camp at Beugy for a siege of the last and most formidable Castle, that of Sainte Suzanne, when news came from England. William hastily took most of his army, leaving only 200 household knights, led by Alan Rufus, to prosecute the siege. Sainte Suzanne however was defenders by Viscount Hubert with 300 men, and more and more knights soon flooded in from Aquitaine, Burgundy and all points between, intending to test their mettle against King William's best. They ambushed the Normans while they were foraging. At first they held them for ransom, but then they started killing them. Orderic says the besiegers held out for 4 years, but as their losses grew, William eventually compromised, granting Hubert land in England to bribe him into becoming a vassal.
As for Odo's ambition, had he gone to Italy, it is quite possible that the Normans of the South would have rejected him, as Bohemond's lieutenant, the Constable of Apulia, was none other than Alan Rufus's brother Brian of Brittany, who had relinquished his extensive lands in southwest England and East Anglia soon after winning many victories against English armies in 1069. The Normans asserted that the Bretons lacked the stomach to cross the mountains and attack the people of Chester. We know that Alan Rufus shielded many English from Norman depredations, and held the king accountable for the Harrying of the North. If Brian was of similar sentiment, he may have departed England in disgust. Odo's part in the massacres of innocents would not have endeared him to Brian, whom Anna Comnene described in the Alexiad as the bravest and most honourable of the 'Franks'.
Welcome to History Hub! Thanks for the view. :)
This channel needs more subs. Just subbed. Please keep it up, theres not enough medieval history on youtube especially regarding the characters. I'm reading The Normans by David Douglas right now I think and this helps reinforce the information amazingly since its detailed
In 1097, William II appointed Turold de Brémoy as Bishop of Bayeux in succession to Odo. It was not until 1099 that Turold took possession of the bishopric, and his tenure was disrupted when, in 1105, Henry burnt Bayeux town and its cathedral. Turold resigned after the battle of Tinchebray, retiring to the abbey of Bec where he remained until his death in 1146.
Thank you!
Church Warriors had to use 'Clubs' or 'Maces' in battle - as being Church men - they couldn't draw blood
The words of William's deathbed confession, '... especially in Yorkshire' suggest that Alan Rufus was present. Robert of Mortain waited at King William's deathbed until after William junior was sent to England, before pleading for Odo's release one last time. The younger William was probably accompanied by Alan Rufus who was next found in York, busy with St Mary's Abbey. Had he remained in Rouen, I suspect he would have advised against releasing Odo.
The balance of current understanding is that the Bayeux Tapestry was woven in the workshops of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, which answered to Lanfranc, not to Odo. One of St Augustine's senior monks, who became abbot, was Scolland, former treasurer and head of illuminated manuscripts at Mont St Michel on the Breton-Norman border. Scolland's family held an 'honour' in Lower Normandy but were ethnic Bretons. Another member of the Scolland family became steward of Richmond castle, built by Alan Rufus and held by his heirs for much of the next few centuries: Scolland's Hall is named after this steward.
Alan Rufus appears at least 15 times on the Bayeux Tapestry, in his roles as emissary to Count Guy, captain of Duke William's palace guard, companion of William and Odo, witness to King Edward's funeral, and a knight commander at the battle of Hastings. From scene 10 to scene 53 (and quite possibly in scene 56), the BT follows Alan Rufus's journeys across France, to England, back to Normandy, and back to England again for the fateful battle. Only Earl/King Harold and Duke William appear more often.
It's strange how many churchmen of the last 2000 years (of all traditions) would not only have refused to follow Jesus had they been in 1st century Judaea/Israel/Palestine/Jerusalemshire, they would quite happily have tortured him or fed his followers to the lions if they had been given the chance. St. Paul and Emperor Constantine certainly widened the reach of the religion!
Put it this way, Odo's rule of England in 1067 caused so much unrest that William had to rush back from Normandy to deal with it. I'm sure Odo deflected blame to the English and to his own subordinates, the polar opposite of Alan Rufus's response to William II's anger during the treason trial of Bishop William of Durham when Alan immediately protected his colleagues by taking full ownership of any and all faults.
The Rebellion of 1088 involved a lot more fighting than the siege at Pevensey where William de Warenne was fatally wounded. Geoffrey of Coutances rebelled in the North, Roger de Montgomery in the West Midlands, and many other of the principal barons joined the uprising. Even London refused to admit a desperate William II. What they didn't account for were Archbishop Thomas of York raising an army, Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester leading the local Fyrd to victory over Montgomery, Bishop William of Durham persuading the Londoners to shelter the king, and Alan Rufus being granted royal authority to seize their lands.
Alan, as Earl of Richmond, Earl of East Anglia, a principal magnate in Lincolnshire, and master of the Channel ports, had gone against the Norman tide by retaining many of the old English lords, and this investment now paid dividends. By July, English ships had intercepted Duke Robert's advance fleet, capturing most of its vessels and destroying the others. This discouraged him from sailing to England in person.
Well done!
Weirdly was just thinking how I wished to know more about odo last night
In Eudon's charter of the 1040s, the Conteville brothers witness as "Viscount Robert and his brother Odo", implying that Robert was the elder.
Eudon was a double cousin of Duke Robert 'the Magnificent'. French historians call Eudon 'Odo of Penthievre'. It's conceivable that Herluin may have named his sons after these men.
Odo is also the name of a character on the tv show Star Trek DS9
In the movie, Odo could not carry a sword into battle because of his status as a Bishop.
Which, what movie
Odo and the Rebels...band name
greed and lust for power, not an effective leader of men
Odo is apparently my 25x great-step uncle lol
sounds like Odo was the true bastard
A teenage bishop, my favorite kind.
He's just like any modern politician 💯
You mean the Based half brother
Based on what? 😎
So from everything I have learned about William, he was a hard, and sneaky Man himself. I feel like anyone that wanted to succeed had to be a lot more than a little bit devious. (Trump would have been at the very top of power back then) LoL. Don’t get me wrong , I love William, he did a lot of things that we consider cruel, but as I said that was the way of the World back then. So speaking about Odo, he was a product of his times and William probably saw to much of himself in him so he had to get rid of him before Odo took to much of Williams Power. Just my thoughts on the matter
5:33 The Bayeux Tapestry does indeed show the Breton knights engaging Earls Leofwine and Gyrth. Indeed, it shows Alan Rufus on horseback confronting an axe-wielding Earl Gyrth just as a soldier on foot is about to drive his sword into the Earl's back.
According to the Carmen, after Duke William lost his horse, he and Earl Gyrth faced each other in single combat and William slew Gyrth. So you'd expect King William to hold all of Gyrth's estates, or at least the lion's share. However, Domesday Book records that the most valuable manors went to William _de Briouze_, one of the Bastard's bodyguards, the next most valuable were held by Judith of Lens (daughter of Countess Adelaide and Lambert of Lens) after her husband Earl Waltheof was executed, and the third most valuable suite of manors were granted to Alan Rufus. Of Earl Gyrth's properties, King William's best was ranked about seventh in valuation.
The implication is that William de Briouze is Gyrth's slayer depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, and that it was Alan Rufus's intervention that distracted the Earl from his assault on Duke William.
The notion that the Bretons fled the ferocity of the English shield wall is given in one Norman source, but another states that it was the Normans who fled in panic. In fact, the BT depicts Odo admonishing the fleeing Norman cavalry to return to the fray a little after the Bretons had, at great cost to themselves, overrun the Earls and all their men.
Alan Rufus is earlier shown in the BT as the captain of Duke William's palace guard and a close confidant of William and Odo, so it's probable he was not embedded with the Bretons.
In the Channel crossing, a vessel displays two white (Breton) shields at its prow. It's likely that Alan's brother Brian of Brittany led the left battalion with its Bretons, Angevins, Poitevins and men of Maine. Brian is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as fighting two battles in one day in Devon against the sons of Harold and their Irish allies, and was claimed (by his nephew Earl Alan III of Richmond) to have been made Earl of Cornwall.
William of Poitiers is no help in identifying the Breton leaders at Hastings, as he assiduously avoids naming any Bretons at all, though he mentions Aimery ('Haimo') of Thouars, a wealthy Spanish War crusader and one of their associates.
William de Briouze , an ancestor of Robert de Brus perhaps ?
Odo should’ve been the king
Weren’t the Normans originally Vikings? They certainly behaved like a bunch of self important warlords.
Yes, William was descended from Rollo, the original Count of Rouen, with later Counts taking the title Duke and expanding the duchy from the 911 boundaries.
Odo for American President, Oops I think his Descendants already have been since George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Nixon ,George Bush family SNR and JNR obviously