452 – Odo? Oh Yes.

Welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie, and this is episode 452.

Odo?

Oh, yes.

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Somewhere around the time that William I was bursting out of his tomb like a roasted chestnut, and William II was making it rain with his dead dad's money, well, something was turning in Western culture as a whole.

You see, down in Italy, the papacy were doing things that were,

well,

increasingly concerning.

You see, that same summer, Pope Victor III held a synod in Benevento.

And much of this was pretty run-of-the-mill papacy stuff for this period.

The church was still mad about lay investiture, which was the whole basis of that entire conflict with Emperor Henry.

They were still really mad at Emperor Henry's anti-Pope, Clement III.

And on a more personal note, Pope Victor was absolutely livid with Hugh of Lyon and Abbot Richard because they hadn't supported his election to the papacy.

And Victor had a pretty typically medieval popely response to these problems.

He condemned them.

All of them.

Lay investiture was condemned.

Clement was excommunicated, again, and Hugh and Richard were declared anathema, which was basically excommunication plus.

Anathema is essentially the religious declaration of, you can't sit sit with us.

And the idea was that it would protect Christendom from dangerous heresy.

As for what that dangerous heresy was,

well, like I said, Victor wasn't pleased about their lack of support.

But as Victor continued his airing of grievances, somewhere I think a carpenter was muttering about how no one ever listens to him because if they did, they'd be turning the other cheek instead of, you know, spanking some cheeks.

Anyway, the reason the Synod of Benevento matters has nothing to do with the Mean Girls Snub Fest.

It was actually the other part of the Synod, the part where the church gave explicit support for an invasion.

Again.

If you remember back, William's conquest of England was sort of a pilot program for the church.

They had this new idea where perhaps the church could wield greater power, specifically direct worldly power, over all the kingdoms and empires it had under its influence.

Under the watchful eye of Hildebrand, who became Pope Gregory VII, the church didn't just want to be the gatekeepers of the VIP section of the afterlife.

They also wanted to overthrow leaders and install their own hand-picked people in their place, kind of like a medieval CIA.

And that dream didn't die with Pope Gregory VII.

Victor picked up the torch and ran with it.

He threw the support of the church behind an invasion into North Africa that was led by Pisa and Genoa.

And the aim was to conquer the people that the Western Europeans knew as the Saracens.

This whole affair is referred to as the Madia campaign.

But, much like the conquest of England, the players and motivations make this event much more a proto-crusade.

The church wasn't quite to the point of launching a full-fledged holy war, but they were practicing.

And three days after issuing that decree, along with all of those very satisfying condemnations, Pope Victor III fell ill and died.

He was about 61 years old.

And somewhere, that carpenter was muttering about how these priests wouldn't know a divine omen if it slapped them on all four of their cheeks.

Now, Victor held on just long enough to let the other holy men know who he thought should be the next pope.

And you'd think that given that he was struck dead after being pope for a mere 14 months, maybe they'd take his advice with a grain of salt.

But no.

The assembled cardinals were sure that this guy definitely knew God's plan, and they proclaimed Bishop Odo as the next pope.

No, not that Odo.

It was Bishop Odo of Ostia who was now being elevated to the position of the highest hat in the land.

And if you're not familiar with his name, that's understandable.

But you might know him by his other name, his papal name, Pope Urban II,

the guy who launched the First Crusade.

The world was about to change forever.

And all of this occurred at roughly the same time as Rufus' coronation and his cash-based charm offensive.

There were also some major events in Normandy that were also happening at this point that were also going forward to influence just about basically everything.

You see, the truth is, the Normans weren't particularly good at succession, even at the best of times.

This was a ridiculously self-serving bunch, and Norman history is pretty much just one long string of rebellions, assassinations, and very suspicious deaths.

And almost always, those threats came from within the family.

So, even if Rufus and Robert had been on good terms, which, you know, they weren't, nothing about their culture would have suggested that either of them would be all that safe now that they were taking power.

I mean, even if they left each other alone, God knows what the rest of the family would be up to.

Making matters worse, the nobility of Normandy were absolutely sick of William's tyranny.

He had spent decades seizing lands, garrisoning his troops anywhere he wanted, and basically doing all those things that always rub people the wrong way.

And on top of this, there was a very special element of William's tyranny that was very problematic to this very special time and this very special place that was 11th century Normandy.

During his tenure, William had banned private wars, and that meant Norman aristocrats couldn't just launch wars against each other willy-nilly.

Yeah, you heard that right.

The one good policy that William instituted was also the one that was making the Normans absolutely lose their shit.

They wanted to fight each other and steal each other's stuff and they didn't want some stupid Duke telling them they couldn't.

But now William was dead and Robert was Duke.

And William had spent the last two decades telling anyone who would listen that Robert was weak, empathetic, and basically a worthless leader.

I mean, this guy was even trash talking Robert on his deathbed.

And that doesn't just make William a bad father.

It also meant that poor Short Pants was coming into his reign with a weak reputation.

And you can see the impact of all of that in the very first moments of that reign.

Orderick, like a medieval TMZ, never misses an opportunity to use his ink to spill some tea, especially about Robert.

And when something goes wrong, he places the blame squarely on that eldest son's lap.

In fact, Orderk opens up his record about Robert's reign by by telling us this, quote, his son Robert then became, in name at least, Duke of Normandy and Lord of Maine.

But, abandoning himself to sloth and indulgence, his government was never remarkable for virtue and justice, end quote.

And that doesn't sound great.

However, if Orderic was being completely honest, he might also mention that Normandy was in a hell of a state here for reasons that were completely independent of Robert.

To start, when William died, there were a lot of Norman nobles who also kicked the bucket at around the same time.

And Orderic gives us a long list of them.

Though interestingly, he doesn't tell us how they died.

But I will point out, Normandy was at war at the time.

So I could probably make some guesses here.

But...

Regardless of how it happened, losing a chunk of nobles on top of losing the Duke has instability written all over it.

And remember, Normandy was also very different from England.

England, for decades now, had been victim to intense levels of violence and political purges.

And as a consequence, it now largely lacked strong local leaders.

There were a few earls that you could describe as strong, but they also tended to be Normans, and specifically, Normans with property in Normandy.

So they were more of Robert's problem than Rufus's.

So while Rufus could easily be seen as the most powerful figure in England, that was largely because almost all of his most powerful vassals were much more concerned with what was happening on the continent.

And Robert, by comparison, was surrounded by highly ranked nobles who were local and had castles and armies and cash.

And because they hadn't been allowed to to launch private wars under William, they also had the Norman version of cabin fever.

In fact, Orderic tells us, quote, the unarmed population shuddered with alarm while the powerful gave full vent to their towering ambition without any check, end quote.

He tells us the story of Robert of Boulem, a major Norman noble who was on the road when he first heard of William's death and of Robert's ascension.

In response, he turned his horse and he rode hard to his castle at Alencon, and, upon arrival, he kicked the Ducal Guard right out of there, and then he moved on to the next castle, doing the same, and then the next.

Robert of Bolem didn't want ducal garrisons on his lands watching his behavior, nor enforcing peace.

He actually didn't want them in neighboring lands either.

As Orderic tells us that Bolem also attacked royal garrisons in, quote, not only his own, but in those of such of his neighbors as he condescended to consider his equals.

All these he either got into his power by introducing his own adherents or raised to the ground to prevent them from offering him any resistance thereafter, end quote.

And Robert of Bolem wasn't the only one with this brilliant idea.

Count William of Evreux, William de Bretuy, and Ralph of Conch all did the same, along with quote, all the rest.

And this last phrase makes me think that Orderic just gave us the big marquis names, but the whole region was being set upon by its own nobility.

And so, once they seized the castles and ousted the ducal garrisons, each of these noblemen was able to

prosecute with impunity his infernal feuds with his neighbors, and those whose territories bordered his own.

In this manner the Norman lords drove out the royal garrisons from their castles and alternatively ravaged the country, which was rich and flourishing with their bands of their own retainers.

The wealth which had been plundered from the English and other nations was thus deservedly lost by rapine and violence.

⁇

So basically, England had been looted by these guys, and now they were looting each other back in Normandy and stealing the stuff that had originally been English.

And you would reasonably think that the Norman lords here were the ones to blame for this outbreak of new brutality.

Boulem, Evreux, Bretuis, Conch, all those guys, along with their compatriots, were clearly the source of this calamity.

Or maybe you could blame William for setting up a situation where the Norman nobility felt that this kind of behavior would be in their best interests.

But obviously, not Robert, right?

I mean, Robert wasn't even in the duchy when all of this went down.

He was in the court of King Philip, though he did likely hightail it back to Normandy as soon as he learned that the old bastard gave up the ghost.

But even going as fast as he could, it would have been too late because pretty much in the blink of an eye, ducal power had been reduced within Normandy and the whole duchy was destabilized.

So yeah, it doesn't seem logical to set this calamity at the feet of Robert Curthose.

But Orderic disagrees.

Now, this was definitely the fault of short pants.

Though at the same time, Orderick does concede that Robert was, quote, personally brave and daring and had many merits, end quote, which is also something that Malmsbury confirms.

But unlike Malmsbury, within each of Robert's merits, Orderk also sees weakness.

He tells us that Robert was a good speaker, but he was also inconsiderate in conducting his affairs.

He was generous with both his oaths and his gifts, but he wasn't seen as reliable.

He was compassionate, but he was also, quote, too gentle and easy in executing justice on offenders, end quote.

He was affable, and based on advice and counsel, he might change his policy positions, which honestly just sounds like all positives to me, but Orderk thought this was very bad.

And honestly, my favorite part of this is how Orderk describes Robert as both being affable and inconsiderate.

And then he buttons it up with this comment, quote, he was held in contempt by the evil-minded, end quote.

And given how contemptuous Orderick was of Robert, that phrase feels like a cell phone.

But I should mention at this point that Orderick was writing this at a point when England was being ruled by a certain brother of Robert's.

A brother who might not have been all that fond of Robert.

A brother who

had a reputation for being cruel and ruthless when he was angered.

So I wonder if that played a role in how Orderick tells us this tale.

But then again, Malmsbury was also riding under that same king, and he didn't ruthlessly drag Robert every chance he got.

He tells us that Robert was gentle, and also that his, quote, youthful follies had been corrected by many adversities, end quote.

So maybe Orderk just really didn't like Robert, you know, personally.

Either way, though, I think what Orderk is ultimately trying to get at here was that Robert was a nice guy, and he was probably a bit too easily taken advantage of.

And honestly, based on the record, he does seem to have been pretty nice, at least as far as nice went for an 11th century Norman noble.

I do question Orderk's characterization of Robert being unreliable, though.

For example, Rufus broke his father's dictates pretty much immediately when he re-imprisoned the pardoned Englishman.

But Robert followed his father's wishes to the letter.

He released King Harold Godwinson's son, Ulf, from prison.

He also released King Malcolm III of Scotland's son, Duncan, from prison.

And according to Malmsbury, he even went a step beyond his father's wish and knighted them both before they left.

We're not told specifically why Robert gave them both a knighthood, but given all they've been through, it kind of seems like the honorable and chivalric thing to do, you know?

It also seems like the actions of a pretty reliable guy.

And actually, despite all that had happened between Robert and William, and despite how he desperately needed funds for his early reign, Orderk tells us that Robert delivered an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and gems to a goldsmith for the creation of a monument that would be built to stand over William's tomb, just as his father had wished.

In fact, you can still visit Bill's tomb today, which, thanks to Robert's efforts, is just about as tacky and ostentatious as Donald Trump's bathroom.

So yeah, I think he was probably pretty reliable, but reliability wasn't going to cut it.

Because Robert was a new duke that the Norman nobility didn't fear.

And Orderic blames this on Robert's, for lack of a better term, reasonableness, which, you know, says more about the Norman nobility than it does about Robert.

But that also actually doesn't seem likely.

I mean, William wasn't exactly nice, and the Norman nobility totally rebeled against him repeatedly.

just as they had done with most of his predecessors.

But whomever's fault it was, the cold hard reality here was that Robert was surrounded by ambitious and avaricious rivals who had fighters in the field.

And so in an attempt to gain control of the situation, Robert had done what Rufus had done in England.

He took command of his treasury and he began distributing it to the barons, magnates, and other high-ranked figures.

Now, Thanks to his brother Henry collecting his 5,000 pound inheritance from that same treasury, the funds in Normandy were somewhat less abundant than they'd been previously.

But whatever, payments were being made, and just like the payments in England, they were officially offered for the benefit of saving the bastard's soul.

But functionally, they were a political bribe.

Now thankfully, while four of Robert's most powerful magnates had shown worrying signs of rebellion, at this point, they were completely content to just fight among themselves rather than fighting against Robert.

In fact, most of Robert's barons had already given him homage, and his ascension to the ducal throne of Normandy and the County of Maine went off without a hitch.

No one objected.

So, not all of this here was bad news.

And given Robert's purported temperament and his experience with his father, you could actually imagine that he might have sympathized with any Norman lords who were straining under William's domineering rule, and he might have understood why they were now acting out rashly in the aftermath.

After all, when Robert finally got out from under his father's control, he basically did the medieval equivalent of running away to the circus.

So maybe he got it.

Or maybe he disapproved of their behavior, but he also didn't feel strong enough to directly challenge it.

It's hard to know for sure.

What we can know, though, is that at the end of the day, Robert dealt with the sudden explosion of internal wars pretty well.

I mean, he must have, because no one was fighting against him.

Instead, many of the most powerful Norman nobles were joining him in court.

When we look at the witness lists from this early part of his reign, we can see Count Robert of Moulin, Henry de Beaumont, and also our old friend Ivo de Talabois.

All of them were there at court.

And do you remember Ivo?

He was the guy who hired that exhibitionist witch.

Though I don't know if Ivo brought any of his eccentric elderly lady friends with him this time.

And also joining them in court was Robert's uncle, Count Robert of Mortain,

and also his other uncle, Bishop Odo.

Our Odo.

Now, despite being a convicted criminal, Bishop Odo had a ton of influence in England and Normandy.

And like all political power, the real source of Bishop Odo's power was that people didn't want to cross him because he was perceived as powerful, regardless of whether or not he had access to any official power at the moment.

When Odo first walked into Robert's court, he had nothing.

All of his lands and titles had been stripped by William.

All he had was his reputation, which was pretty much the exact opposite reputation that Robert had.

I mean, this man had personally conducted a second genocidal campaign upon Northumbria.

This man's actions as regent were so brutal that the English nobility went to court to beg them to put a stop to all the rape and murder, and Odo ignored them.

This man was so unscrupulous that even his own brother, who was no saint, ended up condemning him and chucking him in prison.

Odo's reputation, the real source of his power, was that he was a ruthless killer and was a known commander of other ruthless killers.

And the calculation here was clear.

Robert was in a tight political spot.

He needed as many supporters as possible, and he also needed to project strength.

And Uncle Odo was just the guy to do it for him.

So, Robert restored his sketchy murder uncle to all of his Norman possessions, and he welcomed him back into the ducal inner circle.

And just like that, Odo was back in the nobility and was a high-ranking member of the council.

And Orderic, for one, could not be happier.

In the record that he leaves us, this monk waves away the fact that Odo was more of a soldier than a priest, and he grudgingly admits that Odo had at least one bastard son.

And then he quickly moves on to speak for literally pages praising the guy.

Why?

Well, because Odo built a bunch of religious buildings and he blinged them out.

For Orderk, Odo was a really solid dude, and quote, the buildings he erected are proof of this, with the splendid vessels, investments in gold and silver, which his liberality furnished for the use of the churches and the clergy, end quote.

You know, sometimes I get the sense that Orderk would have really loved MTV's cribs.

But while Duke Robert Curt Hose had gained the support of his uncles, Odo and Robert of Mortain,

his generosity would soon be tested by another family member, his littlest brother, Henry.

Henry's presence in Normandy at this point in time is a bit of a surprise.

You'd honestly think that he'd be on the first ship to England.

After all, he'd been raised in England, and his balcony-pissing co-conspirator was ruling in England.

And to top it off, Henry had a claim on his mother's English estates.

Probably, you know, that claim might have been forged, but then again, even a forged claim is better than no claim at all.

So yeah, you'd expect him to be on a ship toot suite.

But instead, he was in Normandy talking to Robert about the future.

You see, the thing you might not know about Henry, and the thing that Henry's brothers definitely didn't know about Henry, was that he was just as ambitious as they were.

And actually, I think you could argue he was a great deal more ambitious.

But, as the fourth son and the third surviving son, he was about as far from the throne as a prince could be.

But then again, Henry had something going for him.

He was clever, and he correctly identified that his brothers, well,

they had a lot of gifts, I'm sure, but they couldn't match his guile.

And as they were distracted by their own personal rivalry, they didn't seem to notice the threat that Henry posed.

Instead, they were both seeking to curry his support in their fight.

And Henry carefully played one brother against the other, while simultaneously avoiding being directly allied with either.

American listeners might have noticed how megacorporations often fund both our Democratic and Republican parties, all while carefully avoiding being associated as all-in for either.

It's a dangerous game, but the benefits are nearly endless.

They get influence over lawmakers, and the lawmakers, who have been miraculously funded into razor-thin margins of each other, focus almost all their attention on fighting each other, all while continuing to curry favor favor from those large corporations.

That's Henry.

And right now, Henry saw an opportunity.

Robert needed friends, and he was also running low on cash in pursuit of those friends.

Quote, Robert, Duke of Normandy, distributed his wealth among his knights with a liberal hand, attaching to his person a number of young aspirins to arms who coveted his favor and rewards, end quote.

Now, this was pretty much what was expected of a new Norman duke.

And you'll note that it was also what Rufus was doing across the channel.

The difference here was that the leadership in England was largely decapitated and disempowered, while in Normandy there was an abundance of powerful nobles.

And all of that meant that Robert had a lot more people he'd need to pay.

Especially since they were nobles who were already in the field fighting and stealing from each other.

Orderig tells us, quote, endeavoring to please all, he gave, promised, or yielded what everyone asked.

His prodigality led him daily to lessen the domains of his ancestors, absurdly granting whatever was demanded of him so that he impoverished himself while he augmented the power of those who'd injure him, end quote.

And on the one hand, I can see why Orderk was not thrilled with Robert's behavior, and he saw it as weakness.

Short Pants does seem like the world's biggest people pleaser here.

And the records do give us the impression of someone trying to buy his way out of the mess that he was in.

But on the other hand, I honestly don't know what else he could have done here.

Was he supposed to launch a war against Balem, Evroux, Boitui, and Conch, not to mention however many lesser lords that have followed their lead?

And if he did get embroiled in a civil war like that, what would Fulk of Anjou do in response?

I'm guessing he'd invade, you know, considering it was Fulk.

So yeah, I can totally see why Orderick didn't like what Robert did, but also why Robert did it.

But at the end of the day, this was getting really expensive.

And according to Orderk, Robert's treasury was being run dry by the whole affair.

And I'm guessing that ostentatious tomb, his father demanded, hadn't exactly been cheap either.

And apparently, Robert was the only one who chipped in to get it done.

And that...

Brings us back to Henry.

You see, part of the reason that the Norman treasury was looking so dire these days was due to that 5,000 pound withdrawal that Henry had recently made.

And Robert could really use those funds right now.

And the funny thing about all of this is that Henry, for his part, was actually mad as hell that he'd been given 5,000 pounds.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing.

But Henry was clever.

He was educated.

And he knew that in the medieval feudal system, money wasn't the source of power.

Land was.

Cash on its own would dwindle.

There wasn't a way to make it grow.

It could only be spent.

And eventually, it would all be gone.

So if he wanted his wealth and power to grow, if he wanted to get ahead in this economic system, he needed to be able to profit from the wealth that was produced by others.

And in feudalism, that meant holding land and titles.

So when Robert asked asked Henry to loan him some cash, or, you know, maybe chip in a little for dad's tomb because it was really expensive, Henry made a counteroffer.

He would give Robert £3,000 to help him secure his grip on the duchy.

But he would like something in return.

You know, nothing major.

He just wanted to govern the Padgi, basically the counties, of Coutons and Auvranche.

Oh, and also Mont Saint-Michel.

Oh, and also all of the lands in Normandy that were held by Earl Hugh of Chester.

You know, look, let's just make this easy.

I want to govern the district of the Coutanton and the Avranchin.

You know, not a big deal.

But it was a big deal because he was asking for about a third of Normandy.

And Robert said yes.

And look, I know I've been defending Robert a lot here, but this move is a lot harder to defend.

At best, I can imagine that maybe Robert trusted his younger brother, and so having him govern over such a large chunk of Normandy was seen as essentially a loyalty stopgap, and it might have felt preferable dealing with him rather than that whole greedy nest of vipers that made up the rest of Norman nobility.

But that's my most charitable view.

And even then, at the same time, this involved overhauling a chunk of the Norman hierarchy and basically demoting a lot of powerful people.

Because now all of these nobles would be expected to answer to Count Henry rather than directly to Duke Robert.

And Earl Hugh of Chester and the warlike Bishop Joffrey of Coutance were not pleased about this change.

So this was not great.

But then again, Robert was probably hoping that Henry would be able to handle these discontented nobles.

I mean, after all, it was his job now.

And so, at the end of the day, Robert had spent a huge amount of his treasure and had delegated a sizable chunk of his direct authority.

But he had gained the support of pretty much all of his family and most of his nobles, which, for a Norman Duke, is pretty impressive.

Meanwhile, Rufus, across the channel, was a bit of an odd man out here.

And that was a problem for Rufus.

Because as far as Robert was concerned, Rufus had stolen that kingdom.

The empire should never have been broken up.

All of it should have gone to the eldest, him,

and his supporters agreed.

Right on queue, a bunch of those same supporters left his court and headed for England.

His uncle, Robert of Mortain, some of his supporters like Henry de Beaumont and Ivo de Talabois, and also his other uncle, Odo.

They all headed off for the court of King Rufus, who at this point was so concerned about the security of his reign that he didn't even dare leave London for Christmas.

And as we talked about last episode, that's when Odo pressed his advantage and he regained his lands in England.

But Rufus may have caught the threat in Odo's eyes, or maybe he was just trying to woo him back from Robert, since he was officially a member of Robert's council.

Either way, Henry of Huntingdon tells us that Rufus made Odo, quote, justicier and ruler of all England, end quote.

Now, this was almost certainly a mistake in the record, since no one else makes this claim, and ruler of all England would have been, you know, pretty noteworthy.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if Rufus did offer his uncle some degree of authority within England in order to placate his thirst for power.

Either way, though, the battle lines were forming, and both Robert and Rufus were desperately working at gaining as many allies as possible before the fighting inevitably began.

And Odo was particularly gifted at wielding insecurity in order to turn a profit.

And so was Henry.

In fact, Henry was already making his own plans to cross the channel next summer.

After all, land, not cash, is how you get power.

And Rufus had plenty of land.

He just lacked friends.

But maybe something could be worked out.

You know, in exchange for their mother's English properties.

War was coming.

And in Norman-controlled lands, loyalty was a seller's market.

I'm a savage.

Your classic bougie ratchet.

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