Odon of Bayeux

Odon de Conteville known as Odon of Bayeux , sometimes fore-mentioned Eudes (v. 1030 or a. 1035 - January 1097, Palermo), was noble a Norman which thanks to its relationship with William the Conqueror became bishop of Bayeux, then one of the richest and powerful men of the lately conquered England . Acting as regent of England on several occasions, lasting the abscences of the king, it was also Count de Kent. He is most probably the silent partner of the Tapisserie of Bayeux.

Biography

Before the conquest

He was the son of Herluin, Viscount of Conteville, and Arlette of Cliff. He was thus the uterine half-brother of William the Conqueror, and the brother of Robert de Mortain.

He receives évêché of Bayeux at the end of 1049 or at the beginning of 1050. Guillaume of Poitiers recognizes that he is well in lower part of thirty years the venerable age at this time. So that this nomination does not make scandal, Odon had had to receive an important education. Because of the disorders in Normandy during all the minority of the duke Guillaume Bastard the (later the Conqueror ), it is very probable that it was withdrawn with the guard of his parents and envoy to study elsewhere.

Its nomination, like that of Robert de Mortain with the County of Mortain a few years later, is due to the will of the duke Guillaume to place right-hand men at the stations - keys of the duchy. After the disorders of its minority concluded by the victory from the Valley-be-Dunes (1047), he wanted to consolidate his authority on the Basse-Normandie, and in particular to put the hand on the very important one évêché bayeusien.

The reorganization of the diocese had been started under its predecessor, powerful the Hugues II of Bayeux. Thanks to him, the episcopal inheritance, usurped at the time of Scandinavian colonization, had been recovered, and the construction of a new cathedral had begun.

It takes part in the council of Lillebonne during which the barons of the duchy are consulted on the project of invasion of England. It promises there to contribute for 100 ships to the fleet which will unload on the other side of the channel. It accompanies his half-brother Guillaume in his Conquête by England (1066).

Conquest of England

The Tapisserie of Bayeux shows it in Haubert pretense to fight at the time of the Bataille of Hastings. This led historians (of which Edward Augustus Freeman) to suppose that it took share with the famous battle, exchanging a sword against a mass not to make run blood, and thus not go against the canonical laws.

However, the Latin comment of this panel of the Tapestry, Difficulty Odo Eps. Baculum Tenens Confortat Pueros (Here the Odon bishop, holding the baculus , encouraging the men) suggests rather than it orders and encourages the troops since the back. The stick ( baculus ) that it is due to the hand is similar to that which the duke Guillaume holds in three other panels as a sign of command and authority. Wace, writing at the end of the 12th century, interprets also the scene in this way. However, Guillaume of Poitiers reports that Odon and Geoffroy de Montbray, the bishop of Coutances, were there to only help by their prayers, and that they did not carry weapons. This comment suggests that the implication of Odon in the battle was perhaps exaggerated by these sources closely related to Bayeux.

Reward

Its fast creation like Count de Kent at the beginning of the year 1067, and its responsibilities for Co-regency with Guillaume Fitz Osbern indicate that the Conqueror intended well to see his half-brother taking a big part in the government of the kingdom.

It obtains vast grounds through all England which, to the drafting of the Domesday Book in 1086, bring back more 3 000 £ per annum. It is thus richest of the hold-in-chief of the kingdom, the only one approaching its richness being his brother Robert. It has 439 manors in 22 counties. He is also guard of the Château of Dover.

Policy

He does not play of discernible role in the few years which follow the conquest. In 1075, it carries out an army with Geoffroy de Montbray to face Ralph de Gaël, the count de Norfolk and Suffolk, at the time of the Révolte of the counts.

It is known for its displacements in all the kingdom, in which, openly in the name of the king, it regulates some of the very many conflicts of tenure of small grounds. The regency or Co-regency of the Royaume of England is regularly entrusted to him at the time of the presence in Normandy of the Conqueror. But it does not have independence with respect to him, and does not have any particular capacity contrary to the Count Palatines of the Welsh border. In 1072, he sees his claims on grounds of Kent rejected by a royal agent, with the profit of his enemy Lanfranc.

Disgrace

In 1082, for dubious reasons, the Conqueror decides to get rid of him. He is stopped and imprisoned without explanation to Rouen, its English possessions are confiscated. The monk Orderic Vital is the only one to give some explanations in connection with this sudden disgrace. But its version is fuzzy. On the island of Wight, Odon gathered an army with an aim of organizing a military forwarding in Rome. It intended to benefit from the difficulties of the pope of the moment Gregoire VII to seize the papal throne. But one does not see in what this project could irritate Guillaume. Orderic Vital puts then in the mouth of the king of true reproaches: Odon is shown to have oppressed England, by multiplying the exactions and by stripping the poor. But then, does François Neveux, why Guillaume is astonished decide to stop his brother in 1082 whereas these objections were already old?

The arrest of Odon thus remains rather obscure.

End-of-life

It passes to the 5 last years of the reign of his half-brother in prison His brother Robert obtains with difficulty his release on the bed of died of the Conqueror, in 1087. Although restored by its nephew William Rufus in his former possessions, it is one of the instigators of the Rébellion of 1088, aiming at reunifying the Duché of Normandy and the Royaume of England under a single government, that of Robert Courteheuse. The failure of the revolt involves its banishment of England, and the loss of all its grounds.

It spends its last years in its Diocèse of Bayeux. In 1096, he answers the call of the First crusade, accompanied by his nephew, the duke Robert Courteheuse, oldest son of the Conqueror. He dies at the beginning of 1097 with Palermo (Sicily) on the way of the Holy Land, whereas he returns visit to Roger '' Large the '', Norman count of Sicily.

A contrasted image

Odon of Bayeux is known to be the prototype of the Normand : ambitious, brutal, and energetic. It acquired a bad reputation, of cruel and vicious man, liking the lust. It stripped many people to distribute their goods to others. The ecclesiastical capacity also did not appreciate it, because it incarnated all that the popes reformists hated: laic, not indicated by the Church, exerting a secular office, diverting the resources generated by its diocese and assoiffé of being able and richness. As at its contemporaries Geoffroy de Montbray and Yves III of Bellême, the religiosity was erased rather quickly under the features of the large temporal lord.

However, it worked admirably for its diocese, reorganizing it, and extending its chapter. It financed the rebuilding of the Cathédrale of Bayeux, which was devoted in 1077, and of the episcopal palate. It bought many grounds for its cathedral, and with orée of the 12th century, the pledged manpower of évêché was three times more important than any other évêché Norman. No Norman ecclesiastic had as many knights at his disposal.

He is the very probable silent partner of the Tapisserie of Bayeux with which he decorated the cathedral. He sponsored also many Clerc S which was formed partly in the school cathedral. Some occupied of the very important stations. Among them three appear archbishops of York: Thomas Ier (1070-1100), Thomas II (1109-1114), and Thurstan (1114-1140); Samson, bishop of Worcester (1096-1112); Guillaume of Saint-Calais, bishop of Durham (1080-97), probable supervisor and compiler of the Domesday Book, adviser of William Rufus, Vital of Savigny, founder of the Order of Savigny and Guillaume de Rots, abbot of Fécamp.

Orderic Vital summarizes this portrait contrasted by writing that “the defects, in this man, were frays with the virtues”.

Descent

It had an illegitimate son, Jean of Bayeux († 1131). According to Vital Orderic, it lived at the court of Henri I {{er}} Beauclerc, where it was appreciated for his eloquence and its probity

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