Odo of Bayeux

Biography

Odo was William's younger half-brother, whom the duke made Bishop of Bayeux while Odo was still a youth. A worldly, ambitious, and warlike prelate, he fought at Hastings — wielding, by tradition, a mace rather than a sword so as to avoid the canonical ban on a churchman shedding blood. He is widely believed to have commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry, the embroidered chronicle of the conquest, for his cathedral. After the conquest Odo became Earl of Kent and one of the richest and most powerful men in England, often acting as regent when William was in Normandy — but also notorious for rapacity and oppression. His overreaching ambition eventually led William to arrest him, and he later rebelled against William's son. He died in 1097 on his way to join the First Crusade. Through the Tapestry, Odo did as much as anyone to shape how the conquest would be remembered.

Key Battles