Hugh of Eu
Hugh of Eu (Hugues, Hugo) (d. 17 July 1077), son of William I, Count of Eu, and his wife Lesceline. Bishop of Lisieux, 1049-1077.
William of Poitiers and Orderic Vitalis both depict him with a flattering light. He became bishop of Lisieux at a very young age in 1049. Under his episcopacy he completed the reconstruction of the cathedral and proceeded his dedication according to the Neustria Pia on 8 July 1060 and brought the relics of Arcadius of Bourges to Saint Ursin's. He organized the cathedral chapter, composed of a dean, a treasurer and a cantor.
In 1050, Hugh, together with his brother and mother, founded the abbey of Saint-Désir de Lisieux, composed of nuns from Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives and later Benedictine monks. On October 7, 1050, he blessed Thierry de Mathonville, the first abbot of the abbey of Saint-Évroult since its restoration and later Osberne in 1061 and Mainier d'Échauffour, in 1066.
He attended the council of Lillebonne, where the expedition of William the Conqueror to England was approved. He was present at the dedication of Jumièges Abbey of on July 1, 1067, as well as to the dedications of the cathedrals of Bayeux and Évreux and that of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, Caen in 1077.
Hugh fell ill at Pont-l'Évêque and died on his return trip on July 17, 1077. He was buried at the Saint-Désir Abbey. His tomb was discovered by François Cottin in the 1950s in the center of the sanctuary of the first abbey church.
Sources
- Pierre Bouet, Pierre, and Neveux, François, Les évêques normands du XIe siècle : Colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, Presses Universitaires de Caen, Caen, 1995
- Bois, Louis, Histoire de Lisieux (ville, diocèse et arrondissement) tome 1, Chez Durand, Lisieux, 1846
- Douglas, David, The Earliest Norman Counts, The English Historical Review, vol. 61, no 240, 1946
- Waters, Edmund C., The Counts of Eu, Sometime Lords of the Honour of Tickhill, The Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal, No. 9, 1886