Odo the Great
Odo the Great | |
---|---|
Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony | |
Reign | c. 700–735 |
Predecessor | Lupus I of Aquitaine |
Successor | Hunald I |
Died | 735 to 740 |
Issue | Daughter Lampegia married a Berber leader.[n 1][1][2] |
Odo the Great (also called Eudes or Eudo) (died 735–740), was the
Early life
His earlier life is obscure, as are his ancestry and ethnicity. One theory suggests that he was of Roman origin as contemporary Frankish chroniclers refer to his father as an enemy Roman. was one of Odo's brothers.
Odo succeeded to the ducal throne maybe as early as 679 (probable date of the death of Lupus) or 688. Other dates are possible, including 692, but he was certainly in power by 700.
Early leadership
The historian
. In 715 he declared himself independent during the civil war raging in Gaul. It is not likely that he ever took the title of king.In 718, he appears raising an army of
Between Umayyads and Franks
Odo was also obliged to fight both the Umayyads and the Franks who invaded his kingdom. On 9 June 721 he inflicted a major defeat upon Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani at the Battle of Toulouse,[8] the first major battle lost by the Muslim Umayyad forces in their military campaign northwards, claiming the lives of thousands of Umayyad soldiers. The victory was celebrated with gifts from Pope Gregory II, who declared the Aquitanian duke a champion of Roman Christianity and solidified his independence.
In order to help secure his borders against the Umayyads, he married his daughter Lampegia, to the Muslim Berber rebel lord Uthman ibn Naissa, called "Munuza" by the Franks, the deputy governor of what would later become Catalonia.
Battles of Garonne, Tours and death
In 731, the Frankish leader Charles Martel, after defeating the Saxons, turned his attention to the rival southern realm of Aquitaine, denounced Odo's alliance with
Meanwhile, the
In 732, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi's troops raided Vasconia, advanced towards Bordeaux and ransacked the city.[10] Odo engaged them but was defeated by the Umayyads near Bordeaux. Following the defeat, Odo re-organised his scattered forces, and ran north to warn Charles Martel, Mayor of the palaces of Neustria and Austrasia, of the impending threat and to appeal for assistance in fighting the Arab–Berber advance, which he received in exchange for accepting formal Frankish overlordship. The duke, aged almost 80, joined Charles Martel's troops and was to form the Frankish army's left flank, while the Umayyads and the multinational army commanded by Charles built up their forces somewhere between Vienne and the river Clain to the north of Poitiers in preparation for the so-called Battle of Tours[11] (732, or possibly 733).[9]: 90–91
Odo led his forces to play a major role in defeating the Umayyad army when they broke into the main Cordovan camp and set fire to it, sparking confusion and wreaking havoc with the enemy's rearguard.[11] The alliance defeated the Umayyads at the Battle of Tours in 732, and expelled them from Aquitaine.
After the battle, Charles headed back north to his domains in Francia—Neustria and Austrasia—and duke Odo was left as ruler in Aquitaine and Vasconia. Duke Odo abdicated or died in 735 and was succeeded by his son
The name of the character of king Yon de Gascogne in the 12th-century tale The Four Sons of Aymon is probably a corruption of Odo.[12]
Notes
- ^ Isidore Pacensis, no. 25, cols. 1245.ff., 'Et quia filiam suam dux Francorum nomine Eudo causa foederis ei in coniugio copulandam ob persecutionem Arabum differendam iam olim tradiderat ad suos libitus inclinandam, dum eam tardidat de manu persequentium liberandam, suam morti debitam praeparat animam.'
References
- ^ Buckler, F.W. (1931). Harunu'l-Rashid and Charles the Great. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Medieval Academy of America. p. 6, n. 5.
- ^ Breysig, Theodore (1869). "714–741. Die zeit Karl Martells (Annales Fuldenses, n. 6, a. 725)". Jahrbücher des fränkischen reiches. Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot: 63.
- ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe, Transl. Michael Idomir Allen (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), 29–30.
- ^ a b John S., Romanides (25 March 2016). "Franks, Romans, Feudalism and Doctrine – Part 11: An Interplay between theology and Society".
- ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe, p. 35.
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family who forged Europe, p. 35–36.
- ISBN 0-631-19405-3.
- ^ ISBN 0-631-19405-3.
- ^ David Levering Lewis, God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570–1215, (W.W. and Norton Company, 2008), 166.
- ^ a b "Batalla de Poitiers". Auñamendi Entziklopedia. Eusko Ikaskuntza. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- ^ Julien Bellarbre, "La « nation » aquitaine dans l’historiographie monastique du sud de la Loire (VIIIe–XIIe siècles)", Revue de l'IFHA, 6 (2014), retrieved 21 May 2018.
Sources
- Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages, 476–918. London: Rivingtons, 1914.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Odo, king of Aquitaine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 4. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the