John, Count of Eu

John, Count of Eu, (died 26 June 1170), son of Henry I, Count of Eu, and Marguerite, daughter of William, Count of Sully, who was brother of Stephen, King of England. John was Count of Eu and Lord of Hastings.

John obtained from Étienne d'Angleterre (later Stephen, King of England) the honors of Tickhill and Blyth, being a descendant of their original owner, Roger de Busli, by his paternal grandmother Beatrice. John lost his holdings after his capture by Ranulf de Gernon, the 4th Earl of Chester, at the Battle of Lincoln in February 1141.[1]

In 1148, John returned to Hilaire, Bishop of Chichester, lands belonging to his diocese which his father had usurped during the troubled reign of Stephen. John had to take refuge in the summer of 1167 in Drincourt (now Neufchâtel-en-Bray) during the invasion of his estates by the troops of Louis VII, an ally of Thierry, Count of Flanders.

John married Alice, daughter of William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, and Adeliza of Louvain, the widow of King Henry I of England. John and Alice had three children:

  • Henry II of Eu, 6th Count of Eu, Lord of Hastings
  • Robert of Eu (d. 1191 in Acre)
  • Mathilde d'Eu (d. 1212), married to Henry d'Estouteville, Seigneur of Valmont.

In addition,

  • John d'Eu, son of John and brother of Henry, Counts of Eu, issued a confirmation charter to Robertsbridge Abbey, Sussex, c. 1198-1205.[2]

Like his father Henry, John became canon at the abbey of Eu, where he died on June 26, 1170, after devoting the rest of his days to the monastic state. He was placed in the tomb of his father behind the altar. At the time of the destruction of the Abbey of Foucarmont in 1791, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre and Count of Eu, had the remains of the counts Henry and John reclaimed and moved to the chapel of the fr:Château de Bizy.

John was succeeded as Count of Eu and Lord of Hastings by his son Henry upon his death. John was buried at Fécamp Abbey, where many of his sons and grandsons would also be interred.

References
  1. Holt 1997, p. 155.
  2. Calendar of Charters and Documents relating to the Abbey of Robertsbridge Co: Sussex preserved at Penshurst among the muniments of Lord De Lisle and Dudley (Private, 1872), pp. 24-25, no. 76.

Sources
  • Holt, J. C. (1997). Colonial England, 1066-1215. Bloomsbury.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading
  • Waters, Edmund C., The Counts of Eu, Sometime Lords of the Honour of Tickhill, The Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal, No. 9, 1886
  • Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford University Press, 3rd Edition, 1971
  • Neveux, François, A Brief History of the Normans, Translated by Howard Curtis, Constable & Robinson, Ltd., London, 2008
  • Crouch, David, The Reign of King Stephen, 1135-1154, Longman, New York, 2000


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