Fourth Generation  

11. Comte Odo II de BLOIS de Blois, Champagne and Chartres [123764] (Queen Consort Berthe de WELF of the Franks³, Conrad I of Burgundy (King)², Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy & Italy (King)¹) was born in 983 in Blois Loir-et-Cher Centre-Val de Loire France and died on 15 Nov 1037 in Bar le Duc Meuse Grand Est France at age 54.

General Notes: Wikipedia says of Odo,
Odo II (French: Eudes) (983 \endash 15 November 1037) was the count of Blois, Chartres, Châteaudun, Beauvais and Tours from 1004 and count of Troyes (as Odo IV) and Meaux (as Odo I) from 1022. He twice tried to make himself a king: first in Italy after 1024 and then in Burgundy after 1032.

Odo II was the son of Odo I of Blois and Bertha of Burgundy.[1] 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.[2]

About 1003/4 he married Maud, a daughter of Richard I of Normandy.[3] After her death in 1005,[1] 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 a second wife, Ermengarde, daughter of William IV of Auvergne [fr].[4]

Defeated by Fulk III of Anjou and Herbert I of Maine at the Battle of Pontlevoy in July 1016, he quickly tried to overrun the Touraine.[2] After the death of his cousin Stephen I in 1019/20, without heirs he seized Troyes, Meaux and all of Champagne for himself without royal approval.[5] From there he attacked Ebles, the archbishop of Reims, and Theodoric I, Duke of Lorraine. Due to an alliance between the king and the Emperor Henry II he was forced to relinquish the county of Rheims to the archbishop.

He was offered the crown of Italy by the Lombard barons, but the offer was quickly retracted in order not to upset relations with the king of France. In 1032, he invaded the Kingdom of Burgundy on the death of Rudolph III.[6] He retreated in the face of a coalition of the Emperor Conrad II and the new king of France, Henry I.[7] In 1037 he took advantage of Conrad II's absence in Italy to invade the Duchy of Lorraine, but he died in the rout after being defeated by the forces of Gothelo I, Duke of Lorraine, in the Battle of Bar-le-Duc.[

Odo married Ermengarde d'AUVERGNE [123765]. Ermengarde was born in 970 in Auvergne Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes France and died on 10 Mar 1040 in Aquitane France at age 70.

Children from this marriage were:

   15    i. Gilbert de BLOIS de Venables [123766] was born in 1010 in Venables Eure Haute-Normandie France and died in 1072 in Northwich Cheshire England at age 62.

+ 16    ii. Comte Thibaut de BLOIS de Blois & Champagne [123753] was born in 1012 in Champagne Ardeche Rhône-Alpes France and died on 29 Sep 1089 in Epernay Marne Champagne-Ardenne France at age 77.

   17    iii. Comet Etienne II de BLOIS de Blois, Champagne & Troyes [123767] was born about 1015 in Blois Loir-et-Cher Centre-Val de Loire France and died on 19 May 1048 in France aged about 33.

   18    iv. Berthe de BLOIS [123768] was born about 1015 in Blois Loir-et-Cher Centre-Val de Loire France and died on 14 Apr 1085 in Chartres Eure-et-Loir Centre-Val de Loire France aged about 70.

   19    v. Almodis de BLOIS [123769] was born in 1020 in Blois Loir-et-Cher Centre-Val de Loire France and died in 1087 in Preuilly-sur-Claise Indre-et-Loire Centre-Val de Loire France at age 67.

   20    vi. Emma de BLOIS [123770] was born in 1022 in Blois Loir-et-Cher Centre-Val de Loire France and died in 1074 in France at age 52.

   21    vii. Herbert de BLOIS [123771] died on 26 Mar 1051.

   22    viii. Comte Sephen II de BLOIS de Champagne [123772] died in 1048.

   23    ix. Comte Enguerrand de BLOIS de Ponthieu [123773] was born in 1034 in Blois Loir-et-Cher Centre-Val de Loire France and died on 22 May 1060 at age 26.