Odo (Fr. Eudes) of Burgundy, count of Nevers (1230-1266), was the eldest son of Hugh IV, duke of Burgundy. Perhaps to fulfill a vow made by his father, in the autumn of 1265 he led a force of fifty knights to the Holy Land, one of the last barons to do so. Among them was Erard of Valery who had participated in the first crusade of King Louis IX of France and who was renowned as one of the best knights of France.
Odo and his force helped to safeguard the city of Acre (mod. ‘Akko, Israel) when the Mamluk sultan Baybars I made a demonstration before it on 1 June 1266. He died in Acre on 4 August 1266, aged thirty-six, leaving all his goods to hospitals and religious institutions, and for the payment of his retinue. He was buried in the church of St. Nicolas in Acre and soon people came to venerate his tomb. The author known as the Templar of Tyre described him as “a holy man from the high barons of France” [Cronaca del Templare di Tiro (1243-1314), trans. Laura Minervini (Napoli: Liguore, 2000), p. 104]. The poet Rutebeuf wrote a Complainte du comte Eudes de Nevers (1266-1267), lamenting the loss of a valiant and wise knight and grieving that Acre was now without its defender.
-Jacques Paviot
Bibliography
Grousset, Rene, Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jerusalem, vol. 3 (Paris: Plon, 1936).
Petit, Ernest, Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne de la race capetienne, 9 vols. (Paris: Picard, 1885-1905).
Richard, Jean, Saint Louis, roi d’une France feodale, soutien de la Terre sainte (Paris: Fayard, 1983).
World History
