Odo the Good Marquis

Odo (or Eudes) the Good Marquis (fl. 11th century) was an Italo-Norman nobleman who ruled an unknown region of southern Italy. He married Emma, a daughter of Robert Guiscard, and they had at least three sons, Tancred and William, both famous crusaders, and Robert, as well as a daughter (name unknown) who married Richard of Salerno. Odo is known only in connection to his wife and sons.

There are many sources that identify Tancred's father as a margrave (marchio or marchisus, whence marquis)—which is enough to confirm that he was an Italian—but do not name him. Many further identify a brother named William who was also a "marquis's son". According to William of Tyre, "Tancred [was] the son of William the Marquis" (Tancredum Wilhelmi marchisi filium), but the Latin word filium (son) is probably an error by later copyists where originally it read fratrem (brother). That Tancred possessed a brother named William is affirmed by the Gesta Dei per Francos, which records a "William, son of the marquis, brother of Tancred" (Wilhelmus, marchisi filius, frater Tancredi) among the followers of their uncle, Bohemond of Taranto, on the First Crusade. In that same document Tancred is referred to only as "the marquis's son" (marchisi filius). Robert the Monk, listing the crusaders who accompanied Bohemond, mentions "the most noble princes, namely Tancred, his [i.e., Bohemond's] nephew and the marquis's son. . ." (nobilissimi principes, Tancredus videlicet nepos suus and marchisi filius), confirming his father's rank but not his name. The archbishop Baldric of Dol records, with more proper Latin, that Tancred was Robert Guiscard's grandson and the son of a marquis (marchionis filius). He also calls Tancred's brother William a marquis (marchisus). Guibert of Nogent, expressing some doubt that he has all his information correct, says that Tancred was the son of a certain marquis, accompanied his uncle Bohemond on the First Crusade, and that his brother William accompanied Hugh the Great (Tancredum marchionis cuiusdam ex Boemundi, nisi fallor, sorore filium; cuius frater cum Hugone magno praecesserat, cui Guillelmus erat vocabulum).

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