Odo of Paris

Biography

Odo — son of Robert the Strong, Margrave of Neustria, who had died fighting the Vikings in 866 — was Count of Paris in 885 when the largest Norse fleet in history arrived to besiege the city. He was 25 years old. He held Paris for a year. The defense of the 885-886 siege is one of the great defensive achievements of the Viking Age. Odo coordinated the military and ecclesiastical resources of the city under repeated Norse assaults, holding the two bridges — the bridges were the key, since they blocked the Seine to Norse passage upstream — against fire ships, siege towers, diversionary flooding attempts, and direct infantry assault. Bishop Gozlin organized the civilian population; Odo organized the soldiers. When Gozlin died of illness in April 886, Odo took sole command. In the autumn of 886, Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fat arrived with a relief army — and paid the Vikings to leave, allowing them to sail upriver to raid Burgundy rather than attacking them. Odo was furious. The betrayal of his defense by the emperor who should have relieved him discredited the Carolingian dynasty so thoroughly that when Charles died in 888, the West Frankish nobility elected Odo king rather than another Carolingian. He was the first non-Carolingian king of France, and his family — the Robertines — eventually became the Capetian dynasty that ruled France for 800 years.

Key Battles