Odo, Count of Paris

Odo, or Eudes, king of the Franks from 888 to 898, was a son of Robert the Strong, count of Anjou (d. 866), and is sometimes referred to as duke of France and also as count of Paris.

For his skill and bravery in resisting the attacks of the Normans Odo was chosen king by the western Franks when the emperor Charles the Fat was deposed in 887, and was crowned at Compiègne[?] in February 888.

He continued to battle against the Normans, whom he defeated at Montfaucon[?] and elsewhere, but was soon involved in a struggle with some powerful nobles, who supported the claim of Charles, afterwards King Charles III, to the Frankish kingdom.

To gain prestige and support Odo owned himself a vassal of the German king, Arnulf of Carinthia, but in 894 Arnulf declared for Charles. Eventually, after a struggle which lasted for three years, Odo was compelled to come to terms with his rival, and to surrender to him a district north of the Seine. He died at La Fère on January 1, 898.

See E Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (Paris, 1903); and E Favre, Eudes, comte de Paris et roi de France (Paris, 1893).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.