Odilo, Duke of Bavaria

Who was Odilo, Duke of Bavaria?

Odilo was an Alamannic nobleman, a son of Gotfrid of the house of the Agilolfings. He ruled Thurgau until 736, when with the death of Hugbert of Bavaria the older line of the Agilofing became extinct and he inherited the rulership of Bavaria, which he held until his death in 748.

Odilo presided over the establishment of bishoprics in Bavaria in 739, when the dioceses of Regensburg, Freising, Passau, and Salzburg were established by St. Boniface, followed in 741 by Würzburg.

In 741, Odilo married Hiltrud, daughter of the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel, but a year later he found himself at war with Martel's sons Carloman and Pepin the Short. Odilo had to accept Frankish overlordship over Bavaria, but remained duke. After his death, Grifo, half-brother of Carloman and Pepin, sought to establish his own rule in Bavaria, but was defeated by Pepin who installed Odilo's infant son Tassilo III as duke of Bavaria.

Odilo is accepted as the founder of the abbeys Niederaltaich, Mondsee, and a number of others. He ordered that the Lex Baiuvariorum, the tribal law of the Bavarii, be written down.

Odilo and Hiltrud were the parents of Tassilo III.

Odilo was buried in Gengenbach Abbey.