Odo I (1060 – 1101/2 Tarsus), also known as Eudes, surnamed Borel and called the Red, was duke of Burgundy between 1079 and 1102. Odo was the second son of Henry of Burgundy and grandson of Robert I. He became the duke following the abdication of his older brother, Hugh I, who retired to become a Benedictine monk at Cluny.[1]
He participated in the French expedition to the Iberian peninsula, started after the Battle of Sagrajas and ending with little accomplished in the failed Siege of Tudela in 1087.[2] Later, he participated in the Crusade of 1101, where he died, while in Asia Minor, in 1101/2.[a][4]
An incident is reported of Odo by an eyewitness, Eadmer, biographer of Anselm of Canterbury. While Saint Anselm was progressing through Odo's territory on his way to Rome in 1097, the bandit, expecting great treasure in the archbishop's retinue, prepared to ambush and loot it. Coming upon the prelate's train, the duke asked for the archbishop, whom they had not found. Anselm promptly came forward and took the duke by surprise, saying "My lord duke, suffer me to embrace thee." The flabbergasted duke immediately allowed the bishop to embrace him and offered himself as Anselm's humble servant.[citation needed]
Barton, Simon (2015). "Spain in the Eleventh Century". In Luscombe, David; Riley-Smith, Jonathan (eds.). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 4, C.1024–c.1198, Part II. Cambridge University Press.
Bouchard, Constance Brittain (1987). Sword, Miter, and Cloister: Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980–1198. Cornell University Press.
Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1997). The First Crusaders 1095-1131. Cambridge University Press.
Gwatkin, H.M., Whitney, J.P. (ed) The Cambridge Medieval History: Volume II—The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1926.
