Odo I, Count of Orléans

Who was Odo I, Count of Orléans?

Odo I was the Count of Orléans following the final deposition of Matfrid until his own deposition a few years later.

He belonged to the Udalriching family and was a son of Adrian, who had also held the county of Orléans, and possibly of Waldrada, a Nibelungid. Odo first appears as an imperial legate to the Eastern Saxons in 810, when he was captured by the Wilzi. In 811, as count, according to the Annales Fuldenses, he signed a peace treaty with the Vikings.

According to the Vita Hludowici, in 827, he was named to replace the deposed Matfrid in Orléans. Odo, along with Heribert, a relative, possibly his cousin, were exiled in April 830 by Lothair I and Orléans confiscated. Matfrid was reinstated.

In 834, while fighting Matfrid and Lambert I of Nantes, partisans of Lothair, Odo was killed as were his brother William, Guy of Maine, and Theodo, abbot of Saint Martin of Tours.

Odo's wife was Engeltrude or Ingiltrud. Their eldest daughter Ermentrude married Charles the Bald of West Francia. He left a son William who was executed by his own brother-in-law in 866.