Alix, Countess of Eu

Alix d'Eu or Alice of Eu (c. 1180 – May 1246), was ruling Countess of Eu from 1191 to 1246. She was the daughter of Henry II, Count of Eu, and Matilda,[1] daughter of Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, and Isabel de Warenne. Countess of Eu, Lady of Hastings. Alix inherited Eu and Hastings upon her father's death in 1191 as her older brothers had both died prematurely. She was the last ruler of the county of Eu from the House of Normandy.[2]

By 1191, Alix was married to Raoul I of Lusignan, Lord of Exoudun (died 1219),[1] who became (through marriage with Alix: de jure uxoris) Count of Eu and Lord of Hastings. Alix and Raoul had several children, including:

Her husband died in 1219, and Alix traveled to England, apparently under some arrangement with Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent, Justicar of England.[citation needed] Their relationship remains a mystery.

In a charter dated February 1233, Alix granted terram de Forz...ex eschæta Guillelmi quondam domini de Forz et comitis Aubemarle to Louis IX, King of France. It is unclear how Alix came to control Forz.

Alix was interred at La Mothe-Saint-Héray upon her death. The Counts of Eu continued through several generations of the House of Lusignan.

References

  1. ^ a b c Power 2004, p. 497.
  2. ^ Power 2004, p. 55-58, 497.
  3. ^ Pollock 2015, p. 101.

Sources

  • Pollock, Melissa A. (2015). Scotland, England and France After the Loss of Normandy, 1204-1296: Auld Amitie. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843839927.
  • Power, Daniel (2004). The Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521571722.