Odo of Paris

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Odo von Paris (French Eudes ; * before 866; † January 1, 898 in La Fère ), King of the West Franconian Empire from 888 to 898, was the older of the two sons of Count Roberts the Brave and his second wife Adelheid von Tours . He was the first king of the Robertin line whose ancestor was his father. With his election, the West Franks (French) deviated from the ancestral Carolingian dynasty .

Life

Robert the Brave was killed in battle against the Normans in 866 . Thereupon King Charles the Bald withdrew the fiefdom of the deceased instead of recognizing a right of inheritance of the underage sons. Robert's office as commander in the area between the Seine and Loire and organizer of the Norman defense was taken over by Hugo the Abbot , a cousin of Charles the Bald from the Welfs ; he also received Robert's counties and monasteries, ousting Robert's sons. It was not until 882 or early 883 that Odo received the county of Paris after its previous owner, the Guelph Konrad, a cousin of Hugo the abbot, had died. During the siege of Paris (885-886) by Danish Vikings , Odo organized together with Gauzlin , the bishop of Paris , the defense of the city, with which he gained a great reputation. The poet Abbo of Saint-Germain, an eyewitness, proclaimed the fame of these acts of war in his verse epic On the Wars of the City of Paris ( De bellis Parisiacae urbis ). The death of Hugo the abbot on May 12, 886 enabled Odo to move into the positions of his father, which had become vacant again, the authority between the Seine and Loire and the counties of Angers , Blois , Tours and Orléans , which gave him Emperor Charles III. the fat one bestowed. In addition, like his father, he became a “ lay abbot ”, that is, he received the income from monasteries ( Saint-Martin in Tours , Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Denis ) as benefices . This made Odo the most powerful of the greats in Neustria . This was a prerequisite for his elevation to king. But he did not have the title of duke; in the imperial diplomas he appears only with his simple title of count.

After the deposition of Charles III. through his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in the Eastern Empire , the Carolingian empire was finally dissolved; Karl died in January 888, and the parts of the empire were never again united under one ruler. In western France, Charles the Simple , a son of the Carolingian Ludwig II , was able to assert a claim to the throne, but he was only nine years old, and the nobility wanted a militarily qualified ruler, after one with the militarily incapable Karl III. had bad experiences. One group opted for the Margrave Guido of Spoleto , who was raised by his Burgundian followers and (probably at the beginning of March 888) was crowned king in Langres . However, the northern French nobles made Odo of Paris king. He was crowned on February 29, 888 in Compiègne by Archbishop Walter von Sens . Guido then retired to Italy, realizing that his claim was hopeless. With that, Odo no longer had an open rival. But he had a tough adversary in the Archbishop Fulko of Reims , who made himself the advocate of the left Carolingian dynasty and, in this sense, turned to the East Frankish King Arnulf of Carinthia, who was a Carolingian. However, a victory Odo over the Normans at Montfaucon in June 888 consolidated the power of the new ruler. Odo sought an understanding with Arnulf and met with him in August 888 in Worms . He recognized an honorary priority of Arnulf, without thereby affecting the legal independence of the western empire. On November 13, 888, Odo was crowned again in Reims with a crown he had received from Arnulf. Now he was able to gain recognition of his rule from the still hesitant greats in the entire West Frankish empire; even Fulko accepted it.

Odo had a child from his wife Theoderata , who however died early. Therefore he had no heir to the throne. For this reason he systematically strengthened his younger brother Robert ; he left his previous counties to Robert after his election as king and gave him further dignities. This strengthening of the Robertine power and the otherwise arbitrary approach Odos aroused indignation in the nobility. Count Baldwin II of Flanders , who felt himself disadvantaged by a decision by Odo, rebelled. Odo entrusted the city of Laon to his cousin Waltger, who betrayed the king, went over to Baldwin and gave the city to him. Odo was so bitter about this that he had Waltger beheaded after Laon was retaken. The condemned was even denied spiritual assistance before death and a Christian burial. The harshness of this process caused much horror, and the uprising against Odo expanded. His opponents, including Fulko in particular, elevated the now thirteen-year-old Carolingian Karl ( Karl III the simple-minded ) to king on January 28, 893 . They sought support from the East Franconian King Arnulf. He initially accepted the Carolingian relative, but decided again in 895 for Odo.

In the civil war, Odo soon proved superior. When peace was made in 896/897, Karl submitted and recognized Odo as king, but Odo had to accept Karl as his future successor. The position of power of Odo's brother Robert was retained. When Odo died on January 1, 898, Charles the Simple was first generally recognized as king, but later Robert was raised to the rank of anti-king ( Robert I of France ). Odo was buried in the old royal abbey of Saint-Denis .

The historian Regino von Prüm reports that Odo was exceptionally beautiful.

swell

  • Robert-Henri Bautier (ed.): Recueil des actes d'Eudes, roi de France (888-898). Paris 1968

literature

predecessor Office successor
Charles III the thick King of the West of France
888–898 		Charles III the simple one
personal data
SURNAME Odo of Paris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eudes (French)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the west of France
DATE OF BIRTH before 866
DATE OF DEATH 898
Place of death La Fère