Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 455.

Odo's Rebellion. Lord of the Flies

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Word of Rufus's army and the destruction of the forces at Tunbridge had no doubt reached Phevency and its commander Robert of Mortain.

And I think it's likely that the messengers also reported that the King's Army had turned north towards Rochester, which was Bishop

Odo's stronghold.

So it must have been quite a shock for Robert of Mortain when Bishop Odo appeared outside the walls of

Phevency. I mean shouldn't he be back at Rochester holding off their spoiled

nephew in his stupid army?

What was he doing here? A full 50 miles to the south?

And once he was inside the walls, Odo filled him in on the plan.

It turned out that Rochester had much more than peasants and townsfolk.

When Duke Robert of Normandy had sent reinforcements earlier, Odo had positioned them at Rochester

and placed them under the command of Eustace of Bologne and Robert of Blem. And as of right now, their orders were to hold the city and keep

Rufus tied up, likely because Odo was anticipating that Duke Robert would soon arrive in England,

and that his chosen landing point was Pevency.

After all, that would explain why Odo had traveled south with only a few companions.

He didn't want Rufus to know that he'd already left Rochester, because Odo wanted the king

to put all of his efforts into bringing down the city, thinking that Odo was still inside.

Meanwhile, Odo and Mortain would be in the south, preparing to join up with Duke Roberts invading army.

And so the Chronicle tells us that Odo convinced his brother to hold out and stay strong.

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