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The Norman Conquest: a family affair |
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Making enemies in Kent
Dover Castle was the "lock and key of England" |
Odo’s tyrannical behaviour made him many enemies in Kent, and it was only a matter of months before his severity drove the county into open revolt in 1067. This revolt, the first major rising under the Normans, was focused around Dover, the centre of Odo’s oppressions. The Kentish rebels appealed to Eustace of Boulogne for help, and together they launched a failed attempt on Dover castle. Eustace had been involved in a quarrel with the citizens of Dover on a previous occasion, and so the rebels’ appeal to him suggests just how desperate they were to be liberated from Odo.
Odo’s position as Earl of Kent brought him - almost inevitably - into conflict with the Archbishop of Canterbury, another strong landholder in the area. The Archbishop Lanfranc resented Odo’s encroachments upon his “patch”, and this personal feud eventually made its way into the law courts, with the two men vying for control of Kentish land at trials like that of Penenden Heath, which lasted for three days.
Odo quarrelled with the Archbishop of Canterbury |
The feud even led to bloodshed, and the Earl Waltheof, a client of Lanfranc, was beheaded by a group of men led by Odo. Though this dispute had roots in controversies which predated the Norman invasion, it is still symptomatic of Odo’s character, and desire to eradicate competing authorities within his Earldom of Kent.
Odo certainly seems to have had a great desire for power. His main powerbase was in Kent, but as Count Palatine he possessed power over all other earls and magnates in England. He was one of William’s most trusted deputies, and in the king’s absence acted as regent, alongside William fitz Obern until 1071 and later alone.
Odo seems to have carried out his tasks with relish, creating resentment across the country. Orderic Vitalis said that Odo and fitz Obern “oppressed all the inhabitants of high and lower degree” and “heaped shameful burdens upon them”.
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