(Redirected from Odo II of Blois)
Original coat of arms of the county of Blois.
'Odo II' (;
983 –
15 November 1037),
Count of Blois,
Chartres,
Châteaudun,
Provins,
Rheims, and
Tours from
1004 and
Count of Troyes and
Meaux (as Odo I) from
1022, was the son of
Odo I of Blois and Bertha, daughter of
Conrad of Burgundy. His career was spent in endless feudal warfare with his neighbours and suzerains, whose territories he tried to annex, and in a quest for a crown in
Italy and
Burgundy. He was uncharacteristically warlike even for his era and he solidified a large principality on the
Loire in central France by his aggressive policies.
His first wife was Matilda, a daughter of
Richard I of Normandy and his second wife
Gunnora. After her death in
1006, Odo started a quarrel with his brother-in-law,
Richard II of Normandy, over the
dowry: part of the town
Dreux.
King Robert II, who had married Odo's mother, imposed his arbitration on the contestants in
1007, leaving Odo in possession of
Dreux.
He tried to overrun the
Touraine, but was defeated at the
Battle of Pontlevoy by
Fulk III of Anjou and
Herbert I of Maine on
6 July 1016. War continued with Anjou and Odo attempted to take
Saumur in
1025 but failed.
In
1023, he seized control of Troyes after the death of his cousin
Stephen I withour heirs. From there he attacked
Ebles, the
archbishop of Reims, and
Theodoric I, the
duke of Lorraine. Only an alliance between the king and the
Emperor Henry II could stop Odo. He was forced to relinquish the county of Rheims to the archbishop.
He was offered the
crown of Italy by the
Lombard barons, but the offer was quickly retracted in order not to upset relations with the king of France. In
1032, he invaded the
Kingdom of Burgundy on the death of
Rudolph III. He retreated in the face of a coalition of the
Emperor Conrad II and the new king of France,
Henry I.
He died in combat near
Bar-le-Duc during another attack on Lorraine. By his second wife, Ermengarde, daughter of
Robert I of Auvergne, he had four children:
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Theobald III, who inherited the county of Blois and most of his other possessions
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Stephen II, who inherited the counties of
Meaux and
Troyes in
Champagne
#Bertha, who married
Alan III.
#Almodis, who married
Geoffrey II of Preuilly