Born around 983,[1] Odo II was the son of Odo I of Blois and Bertha of Burgundy.[2] He was the first to unite Blois and Champagne under one authority although his career was spent in endless feudal warfare with his neighbors and suzerains, many of whose territories he tried to annex.[3]
About 1003/1004 he married Maud, a daughter of Richard I of Normandy. After her death in 1005, and as she had no children, Richard II of Normandy demanded a return of her dowry: half the county of Dreux.[4] Odo refused and the two warred over the matter.[4] Finally, King Robert II, who had married Odo's mother, imposed his arbitration on the contestants in 1007, leaving Odo in possession of the castle Dreux while Richard II kept the remainder of the lands.[4] Odo quickly married, Ermengarde, daughter of William IV of Auvergne [fr].[4]
Bradbury, Jim (2007). The Capetians: Kings of France 987–1328. Hambledon Continuum.
Breese, Lauren Wood (1977). "The Persistance of Scandinavian Connections in Normandy in the Tenth and Early Eleventh Centuries". Viator. 8. University of California Press: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies: 47–62.
Evergates, Theodore (2007). The Aristocracy in the County of Champagne, 1100–1300. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hallam, Elizabeth M; Everard, Judith (1980). Capetian France 987–1328. Routledge.
Halphen, Louis (1964). "France in the Eleventh Century". In Gwatkin, H.M.; Whitney, J.P.; Tanner, J.R.; Previté-Orton, C.W. (eds.). Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. III. Cambridge at the University Press. pp. 99–132.
Lex, Leonce (1892). Eudes, comte de Blois (in French). Dufour-Bouquot.
Previté-Orton, C.W. (1912). The Early History of the House of Savoy. Cambridge University Press.
Norgate, Kate (1890). "Odo of Champagne, Count of Blois and 'Tyrant of Burgundy'". The English Historical Review. 5, No. 19, (July).
