Odo the Great

[3] His territory included Vasconia in the south-west of Gaul and the Duchy of Aquitaine (at that point located north-east of the river Garonne), a realm extending from the Loire to the Pyrenees, with the capital in Toulouse.

He also played a crucial role in the Battle of Tours, working closely with Charles Martel, whose alliance he sought after the Umayyad invasion of what is now southern France in 732.

In 718, he appears raising an army of Basques ("hoste Vasconum commota") as an ally of Chilperic II of Neustria[5] and the Mayor of the Palace Ragenfrid, who may have offered recognition of his kingship over Aquitaine.

The victory was celebrated with gifts from Pope Gregory II, who declared the Aquitanian duke a champion of Roman Christianity and solidified his independence.

In order to help secure his borders against the Umayyads, he married his daughter Lampegia to the Muslim Berber rebel lord Uthman ibn Naissa, called "Munuza" by the Franks, the deputy governor of what would later become Catalonia.

In 731, the Berber lord was subject to the attack of an expedition led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, overcoming and killing the rebel leader, and capturing Odo's daughter, who was sent as prisoner to a harem in Damascus.

Following the defeat, Odo re-organised his scattered forces, and ran north to warn Charles Martel, Mayor of the palaces of Neustria and Austrasia, of the impending threat and to appeal for assistance in fighting the Arab–Berber advance, which he received in exchange for accepting formal Frankish overlordship.

[9]: 90–91 Odo led his forces to play a major role in defeating the Umayyad army when they broke into the main Cordovan camp and set fire to it, sparking confusion and wreaking havoc with the enemy's rearguard.