Odo Arpin of Bourges
French viscount, crusader and monk
1060 CE to 1130 CE
Odo Arpin of Bourges (also Arpinus, Harpinus, or Harpin) (c. 1060 – c. 1130) is a medieval viscount, crusader and monk.
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Baldwin is able to assemble an army of eight thousand men with the arrival of a fleet of French and German crusaders.
In the subsequent Battle of Jaffa, he leads a cavalry charge that once again breaks the Egyptian lines and forces the Fatimid forces to flee to Ascalon.
Despite the loss of numerous knights, and the capture of Conrad, Constable of Jerusalem, and death of Stephen of Blois in the final charge from the doomed tower of Ramla, Baldwin is able to profit off the plunder left behind by the fleeing Egyptians.
Odo Arpin of Bourges had inherited the lordship of Dun and become viscount of Bourges between 1092 and 1095 after marrying Matilda of Sully, whose sister Alice is the daughter-in-law of Stephen, Count of Blois.
He may have shared the viscountcy with Matilda's father Gilo.
Odo at some point between 1097 and 1101 had sold his possessions in Bourges and Dun to King Philip I of France for sixty thousand shillings.
This may or may not have been done to finance his crusade.
He had participated in the Crusade of 1101, probably with Stephen of Blois, and had traveled through Constantinople, where he swore a loyalty oath to emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
Odo had been in Jaffa in 1101 and Jerusalem in 1102, and fights in the Second Battle of Ramla, where he is captured.
He is not executed because of his connection to Emperor Alexios, but is instead imprisoned in Ascalon and later Cairo; Alexios arranges for him to be released.
Baldwin has rebuilt his army, routing the Egyptian Muslims from Jaffa in 1102 and driving them south.
A contingent of Danish crusaders arrives the following year at Jaffa to assist in its defense.
Baldwin besieges Acre in 1103 without success, as it is relieved by an Egyptian fleet.
This year he also pays the ransom for Bohemond of Antioch, who is still in prison following his defeat at Melitene; Baldwin prefers Bohemond to Tancred, who rules Antioch as regent, and had also been prince of Galilee earlier in Baldwin's reign.
Baldwin is assisted in 1104 by a Genoese fleet; Acre is captured and renamed St. Jean d'Acre.