HENRY II, COUNT OF EU--PART 3
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8. William II, Count of Eu (Source: Eu.), died Bef. 1100. He was the son of
16. Count of Eu Robert and 17. Beatrix. He married 9. Beatrix de Busli.
9. Beatrix de Busli (Source: Eu.). She was the daughter of 18. Roger de
Busli.
Notes for William II, Count of Eu:
Succeeded on his father's death in 1090 to his English Barony and Norman
County of Eu. The occupation of Eu by an English garrison was an act of
treason to the Duke of Normandy, but Count William became within a few months
the subject de jure as well as de facto of the King of England, for on
Candlemas day 1091 William Rufus crossed over with a large fleet, and before
the end of February a treaty was concluded, by which the County of Eu was
ceded to the English King. Three years afterwards the war between Duke Robert
and his brother was renewed, and at Mid Lent 1094 King William crossed over
again from Hastings, and fixed his head-quarters at EU. But Robert engaged
the assistance of the French King, and William Rufus would have been besieged
at Eu by their united forces whilst he was waiting for reinforcements, unless
be had tricked King Philip into deserting his brother's cause.
According to all the received pedigrees the Count of Eu was in 1095 one of the
leaders in the conspiracy to put Stephen Count of Aumale on the throne of
England, for French and English genealogists are agreed in identifying him
with William of Eu, who was cruelly mutilated at Salisbury in January 1096 for
his treason . This agreement is the more remarkable, because William of Eu's
cruel punishment is mentioned in every chronicle of the period, and they all
without exception avoid describing the sufferer as the Count of Eu: whilst all
that is known about him suggests that he and the Count of Eu were two
different and distinct persons.
The Count of Eu, and William of Eu are separately registered in Domesday,
which gives no hint of any connexion or relationship between them. Domesday
suggests that William succeeded his own mother and Ralph de Limesi in the
ownership of some 77 manors in the Western and South-Western Counties, which
for the most part belonged in the time of Edward the Confessor to Alestan of
Boscombe in Wiltshire. They were scattered over nine counties and were valued
at £401 per annum. They formed therefore a Barony of great importance, for
there were scarcely 20 lay fiefs in the kingdom which were of greater value.
They were afterwards known collectively as the Honour of Strigul, for the
Castle of Strigul or (as it was afterwards called) Chepstow was the head of
this Barony, which passed in its entirety after William's forfeiture, by the
grant of William Rufus, to Walter a younger son of Richard de Clare, who was
the son of Count Gilbert of Eu of the elder line. It must be suspected that
this grant to Walter was earned by Gilbert's timely denunciation of his
accomplices, amongst whom William of Eu was Conspicuous. And if Walter was (as
is likely) William's cousin through their common descent from the disinherited
Count Gilbert of Eu, it was in strict accordance with the settled policy of
this period, that the estates forfeited by William of Eu should be transferred
to a more loyal kinsman. Walter transmitted these estates to his heirs, and it
is certain that no claim was ever made to them by Count William's son Count
Henry of Eu, although be was in high favour with King Henry I. and inherited
without question the Domesday Barony of the Count of Eu, which must have been
forfeited with the rest, if the traitor of 1096 was the Count.
Again, I cannot believe that William of Eu's steward William de Alderie, who
suffered with him at Salisbury and was the son of his maternal aunt, was the
nephew of Beatrix Countess of Eu. Moreover, it is quite certain that William
of Eu's wife, who was the Earl of Chester's sister, and whose jealousy was
fatal to her husband, was not the wife of William Count of Eu , for it was
judicially proved in 1220 that the mother of Count William's son and successor
(Count Henry) was the daughter of Roger de Busli the Domesday Baron of
Tickhill in Yorkshire.
It is marvellous that in the face of such evidence the sufferer of 1096 was
ever mistaken for the Count of Eu, and that this mistaken identity has been
unsuspectingly repeated by every genealogist English and French from
Dugdale and Pére Anselm to Planché and Freeman. It was never in fact called in
question until 1878, when the late Mr. Eyton inferred from the antecedents of
William of Eu's estate in Dorset, that be had been "erroneously identified
with the Count of Eu."
This mistake has been a fruitful parent of error and confusion in the
pedigree, for as William of Eu's wife was beyond all doubt sister of the Earl
of Chester, the heiress of Tickbill had to be pushed back to the preceding
generation, although it was distinctly proved in the law suit of 1220, that
she was the mother of Count Henry of Eu. This error led to another, because
it was chronologically impossible that Beatrix Countess of Eu, who was married
long before the Conquest could be the daughter of Roger de Busli of Domesday.
It was therefore assumed that Beatrix was Roger's sister, although in that
case her descendant's
title to the Barony would have been inferior to that of her opponent, who was
the heir beyond all question of Roger de Busli's brother.
All that the French genealogists can tell us about Count William II. beyond
the names of his parents and his children is an anecdote recorded by Guibert
de Nogent, who tells us that the Count was at Rouen in 1096, after the first
Crusade was proclaimed, when he rescued from the fury of the mob a Jew boy,
who was educated as a Christian at the expense of his rescuer and died a nionk
at the Abbey of St. Germes. The Crusade decreed at the Council of Clermont
in November 1095 was proclaimed at Rouen in February 1096, so that this story,
which Guibert heard from the lips of the Countess herself, is irreconcilable
with the statement that the Count was mutilated in prison in England in
January 1096.
Count William II. died before 1100, and had issue by his wife Beatrix the
daughter of Roger de Busli of Domesday and sister and heir of Roger de Busli .
four sons.
Children of William and Beatrix are:
4 i. Henry I, Count of Eu, married Margaret de Sulli.
ii. William de Eu.
Notes for William de Eu:
Fought gallantly in the army of Henry I, at the battle of Bourgteroude in Lent
1124, when he took Almaric de Montfort prisoner. But William was as generous
as he was brave, and he knew the relentless and unforgiving character of the
English King. He refused therefore to be the means of consigning Almaric to
hopeless captivity for the rest of his life, and preferred to sacrifice his
own prospects and career. Accordingly he released his prisoner, and
accompanied him into exile, where lie entered into the service of the French
King and was lost henceforth to Normandy.
iii. Robert de Eu.
Notes for Robert de Eu:
Witnessed with his brother William, Count Henry's charter to the Abbey of St.
Lucian of Beauvais in 1109.
iv. Enguerrand de Eu.
Notes for Enguerrand de Eu:
Witnessed a writ of Henry I. in favour of Ramsey Abbey between 1109 and 1111.
He is placed in the next generation by the French genealogists, who call him
the fourth son of Count Henry; but this is disproved by chronological
considerations, and by the express statement of the contemporary chronicler
that Count Henry of Eu had only three sons.
10. William de Sulli.
Notes for William de Sulli:
Elder brother of Stephen King of England.
Child of William de Sulli is:
5 i. Margaret de Sulli, married Henry I, Count of Eu.
12. William d'Aubigny, born Abt. 1070 in Aubigny, FRA ; died Abt. 1139. He
was the son of 24. Roger d'Aubigny and 25. Amicia de Mowbray. He married 13.
Matilda Bigod Abt. 1101 in NOR, ENG.
13. Matilda Bigod, born Abt. 1080 in ENG; died Abt. 1129. She was the
daughter of 26. Roger Bigod and 27. Adelisa de Toeni.
Notes for William d'Aubigny:
William de Albini (d'Aubigny) II, surnamed Pincerna, whose posterity assumed,
and attained such eminence under the name of Mowbray accompanied William the
Conqueror into England, and acquired extensive territorial possessions by
royal grants in Norfolk and other counties. Of these grants was the lordship
of Bokenham, to be held by the service of being Butler to the Kings of England
on the day of their coronation, and in consequence we find this William styled
in divers charters "Pincerna Henrici Regis Anglorum." William de Albini
founded the Abbey of Wymondham in Norfolk.
William de Albini also gave to the monks of Rochester the tithes of his manor
of Elham; as lso one carucate of land in Achestede, with a wood called
Acholte. He likewise bestowed upon the Abbey of St. Etienne at Caen, in
Normandy, all his lands lying in Stavell, which grant he made in the presence
of King Henry and his barons. He married Matilda Bigod, daughter of Roger
Bigod, with whom he obtained ten knight's fees in Norfolk.
At the obsequies of Maud, William de Albini gave to the monks of Wymondham,
the manor of Hapesburg, in pure alms, and made livery thereof to the said
monks by a cross of silver in which (says Dugdale) was placed certain
venerable reliques, viz., "part of the wood of the cross whereon our Lord was
crucified; part of the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin; as also a gold ring,
and a silver chalice, for retaining the holy Eucharist, admirably wrought in
the form of a sphere; unto which pious donation his three sons were witnesses,
with several other persons." The exact time of the decease of this great
feudal lord is not certain (Crispin and Macary state that he died in 1139),
but it is known that he was buried before the high altar in the Abbey of
Wymondham, and that the monks were in the constant habit of praying for his
soul, by the name of "William de Albini, the king's butler." He was succeeded
by his eldest son, William.
Children of William and Matilda Bigod are:
6 i. William d'Aubigny, born Abt. 1102 in Buckenham, NOR, ENG; died
12-Oct-1176 in Waverly Abbey, SRY, ENG; married Adeliza de Louvaine 1138.
ii. Nigel d'Aubigny, born Aft. 1101.
iii. Oliver d'Aubigny, born Aft. 1101.
iv. Oliva d'Aubigny, born Aft. 1101; married Raphe de Haya.
Notes for Raphe de Haya:
A feudal baron of great power.
14. Godfrey I de Brabant, born Abt. 1060; died 25-Jan-1139/40 in Jerusalem,
Palestine. He was the son of 28. Henry II de Louvaine and 29. Adelaide von
der Betuwe. He married 15. Ida de Namur.
15. Ida de Namur, born 1083; died Abt. 1120. She was the daughter of 30.
Otto II de Chiny and 31. Adelaide of Namur.
Notes for Godfrey I de Brabant:
Duke of Lorraine, Count of Leuven and Brabant, Duke of Low Lotharingen
1106-1139, marquis of Antwerp, guardian of the abbey of Affligem, Gembloux and
Nivelles, "The Bearded"
Notes for Ida de Namur:
AKA Ida de Chiny
Child of Godfrey and Ida is:
7 i. Adeliza de Louvaine, born Abt. 1103 in Louvaine, Belgium; died
23-Apr-1151 in Afflighem, Flanders; married (1) Henry I, King of England
Jan-1120/21; married (2) William d'Aubigny 1138.
TO BE CONTINUED
Always optimistic--Dave