Odo the Great

Odo the Great
Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony
Reign	679/688 - c. 735
Predecessor	Lupus I of Aquitaine
Successor	Hunald
Born	c. 650/660
Died	c. 735
Spouse	Waltraud
House	Maison de Gascogne

Odo the Great (also called Eudes or Eudo) (died c. 735), was the Duke of Aquitaine by 700. His territory included the Duchy of Vasconia in the south-west of Gaul and the Duchy of Aquitaine (at that point located north-east of the river Garonne), a realm extending from the Loire to the Pyrenees, with capital in Toulouse. He fought the Carolingian Franks and made alliances with the Arabs to combat them. He retained this domain until his abdication in 735.

His earlier life is obscure, as are his ancestry and ethnicity. One theory suggests that he was of Roman origin as contemporary Frankish chroniclers refer to his father as an enemy Roman. Several Dukes of Aquitaine have been named as Odo's father: Boggis or Bertrand (to whom errant historians ascribed descent from the Merovingian Charibert II based on the forged Charte d'Alaon), or Duke Lupus I, who was not Merovingian at all. According to the spurious Charte d'Alaon, Hubertus was one of Odo's brothers.

Odo succeeded to the ducal throne maybe as early as 679, probably the date of the death of Lupus, or 688. Other dates are possible, including 692, but he was certainly in power by 700.

The historian Jean de Jaurgain cites him as fighting in 711 against the Visigoth Roderic in Pamplona. In 715 he declared himself independent during the civil war raging in Gaul. It is not likely that he ever took the title of king.

In 718, he appears raising an army of Basques ("hoste Vasconum commota") as an ally of Chilperic II of Neustria and the Mayor of the Palace Ragenfrid, who may have offered recognition of his kingship over Aquitaine. They were fighting against the Austrasian mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, but after the defeat of Chilperic at Soissons that year, he made peace with Charles by surrendering to him the Neustrian king and his treasures.

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