Talk:Odo of Bayeux

Odo, Earl of Kent
"Odo, earl of Kent (d. 1097), bishop of Bayeux and magnate, was the son of Herluin de Conteville (d. c.1066)..." is the style given to him by: David Bates, "Odo, earl of Kent (d. 1097)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 accessed 23 Aug 2010 (Odo (d. 1097): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20543)

Both cited article also give him this title Britannica says "French Odon de Bayeux, also called Earl of Kent" and William Henry  Ireland, (1829). England's Topographer: or A New and Complete History of the County of Kent p. 652 says "Bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent". So I am moving the article to Odo, Earl of Kent as that is the title used in all three sources and the current article title is not. -- PBS (talk) 04:32, 23 August 2010 (UTC)


 * He was aka Eudus, and Bishop of Baiux.
 * Robert and the revolt is at pp. 433-466. I will add the ref. Chaosdruid (talk) 20:34, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

A Breton Charter of 1050
According to Cawley's "Medieval Lands" (http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BRITTANY.htm#_Toc359762267), `"Comes Eudo et nepos eius Gaufridus, Robertus vicecomes et frater eius Eudo…Guichomarus filius Alani vicecomitis…" witnessed a charter dated to 1050 relating to the abbey of Saint-Georges de Rennes[849].'

"Comes Eudo" is Odo, Count of Penthièvre, double-cousin of Robert I, Duke of Normandy. From 1040 into the 1050s, Count Odo was Duke Regent of Brittany. Since there is a distinct lack of matching candidates from Brittany at this time for "Viscount Robert and his brother Odo", they would seem to be the teen-aged half-brothers of Duke William II of Normandy (William the Conqueror), Count Odo's nephew (of a sort). If this identification of the two witnesses is correct, then this charter predates the elevation of Robert from Viscount to Count of Mortain (variously claimed to be 1049 or 1055) and his brother's appointment as Bishop of Bayeux (said to have been in 1049).

Count Robert of Mortain maintained interests in Brittany and had many Breton tenants in England, whereas Bishop Odo of Bayeux had some canons from Brittany: at least the brothers Thomas (later Thomas I Archbishop of York) and Samson (later Bishop of Worcester), plus, allegedly, a son of Count Odo named Richard. The brothers may even have had some Breton ancestry, if the assertion made by some authors that they had a sister with the distinctively Breton name "Muriel" is correct. (Some, e.g. Patricia Stephenson in "New Light on the Bayeux Tapestry", tentatively identify her with the "Poetess Muriel" of Wilton Abbey). This charter seems to confirm that the brothers personally had an early political connection with Brittany.

Are there scholarly discussions of this charter? Zoetropo (talk) 07:42, 31 August 2015 (UTC)


 * scholarly discussions of that charter will be hard to hard to come by (just like any other), but still someone may know. Dont hold your breath, good luck.--JoshNEWK1998 (talk) 21:36, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Influence on Dungeons & Dragons
I'm not editting this into the article as I don't know that these sources are robust enough for wikipedia, but I thought I'd share this.

In various older verions the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons clerics are prohibited from using 'edged weapons' and must use clubs and maces instead of swords, axes, etc. The in-game explanation is that as devout, religious figures they opposed violence and bloodletting, but made some sort of exception for bashing heads in. The real world inspiration is Odo of Bayeux, who Gary Gygax understood to have a similar religious prohibition against swords and favour for clubs. A weird little legacy for Odo in the 20th & 21st centuries.

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/15358/why-cant-clerics-use-sharp-weapons https://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-class-clerics-blood-swords-mace-blunt/ 2A01:4B00:D107:9400:CDAC:5CF:E829:9600 (talk) 09:30, 7 February 2024 (UTC)