Odo I, Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark

Odo (or Hodo) I (also Huodo or Huoto) (born ca. 930; died 13 March 993) was the Margrave of the Saxon Ostmark from 965 until his death.

Odo was, if the onomastics are correct, the son of Hidda and Christian of Thuringia. Odo held the county of Serimuntgau which Thietmar I of Meissen, a known son of Hidda, had held. He was buried in Nienburg, a monastic foundation of Thietmar's. This too provides evidence of their probable relationship.

In 965, Gero the Great, a likely uncle of Odo, died and his great march, the marca Geronis, was divided into five smaller marches. Odo received the so-called marca Orientalis or Eastern March.^[1] Odo was also later granted the countship of the gau of Nizizi. Odo first appeared with the title marchio (margrave) only in 974, though he had held marcher territories (officially as a county) since 965. In that same year (974), Odo was made Count of Nordthüringau.

Odo made war on Mieszko I of Poland, but the Emperor Otto I, from his seat at far-off Mezzogiorno, ordered Odo and Mieszko to cease until he himself could arbitrate their dispute.^[2] Thietmar of Merseburg, apparently quite gladly, relates that Odo's reputation with Mieszko was such that the duke of Poland "would not have dared while wearing his fur coat to enter a house where he knew the margrave to be, or to remain seated when the margrave stood up."^[3] In 979 (or 972), Odo, intending to compel Mieszko to pay tribute for the territory between the Oder and the Warthe, invaded that region, but was defeated on 24 June 979 (or 972) at the Battle of Cedynia.^[4]

Odo left a son, Siegfried, who became a monk at Nienburg, but left the monastery on his father's death to claim his inheritance. In this he failed, though he was a count in 1018 and he allied with Mieszko II of Poland in 1030.

Sources

• Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991.
• Thompson, James Westfall. Feudal Germany, Volume II. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1928.
• Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Nobility of Meissen.

Notes

1. ^ Reuter, 257.
2. ^ Ibid.
3. ^ Ibid. 264.
4. ^ Thompson, 640.

Preceded by Gero

Margrave of the Ostmark 965–993

Succeeded by Gero II