11th century), sometimes called Odobonus,[1] was a Norman or Lombard nobleman who ruled an unknown region of southern Italy.
[2] The only source to give Tancred's father the name Odo is Orderic Vitalis, who, like Ralph of Caen, believes him to be a brother-in-law and not son-in-law of Guiscard.
In one passage he writes that, seeing his end coming, "the magnanimous Robert [Guiscard], duke, count, etc., called around him Odo the Good, the marquis, his sister's [husband], and other relatives and nobles".
[1] Paulin Paris suggested that Tancred's father's real name was the Arabic Maḳrīzī, corrupted into Marchisus.
The rank of marquis was unknown in Normandy at the time and this suggests that Odo was Italian, possibly a Sicilian or Lombard,[5] although the title was most common in northern Italy.
The archbishop Baldric of Dol records, with more proper Latin, that Tancred was Robert Guiscard's grandson and the son of a marquis.
[j][2] There are other sources pertinent to the identity of Tancred's father, since they mention his relation to Bohemond through the latter's sister Emma.
Albert of Aix, a contemporary, confirms that Tancred was a son of Bohemond's sister,[k] but does not mention either his father or brother.