William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (2 March 137528 May 1420), was an English knight created by

King Henry V Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against ...

1st

Count of Eu This is a list of the counts of Eu, Seine-Maritime, Eu, a French county in the Middle Ages (Eu, Seine-Maritime, Eu is in the department of Seine-Maritime, in the extreme north of Normandy), disputed between Kingdom of France, France and Kingdom ...

, in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

Origins

He was born 2 March 1375, the son of Sir William Bourchier (d. 1375; the younger son of Robert Bourchier, 1st Baron Bourchier (d. 1349), of

Halstead Halstead is a town and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. Its population of 11,906 in 2011 Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

) by his wife Eleanor de Louvain (27 March 1345 – 5 October 1397), daughter and heiress of Sir John de Louvain (d. 1347) (''alias'' Lovayne etc.),

feudal baron A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely be ...

Little Easton Little Easton is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. The village is situated approximately east from the town of Bishop's Stortford, and north-west from the county town of Chelmsford. Little Easton parish is defined at the west by t ...

in Essex. The arms of Louvain were: ''Gules billety or a fess of the last'', often shown with varying number of billets and on occasion with a ''fess argent'', for example in stained glass at

Hengrave Hall Hengrave Hall is a Grade I listed Tudor era, Tudor manor house in Hengrave near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England and was the seat of the Kitson and Rokewode-Gage baronets, Gage families 1525–1887. Both families were Roman Catholic recusant ...

, Suffolk: ''Gules, a fess argent, between fourteen billets or''. Eleanor was descended from Godfrey de Louvain (d. 1226), feudal baron of

, son of Godfrey III, Count of Louvain (1142–1190), by his 2nd marriage, and half-brother of

Henry I, Duke of Brabant Henry I (, ; c. 1165 – 5 September 1235), named "The Courageous", was a member of the House of Reginar and first duke of Brabant from 1183/84 until his death. Early life Henry was possibly born in Leuven (Louvain), the son of Count Godf ...

(1165–1235). His inheritance from his mother's Louvain lands included the Suffolk manors of

Bildeston Bildeston is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located around north of Hadleigh. In 2005 it had a population of 960, increasing to 1,054 at the 2011 Census. History According to Eilert Ekwall the mean ...

, Hopton, Shelland and "Lovaynes" in Drinkstone, and (in Essex),

, Broxted and Aythorpe Roding.

Career

He fought at the

Battle of Agincourt The Battle of Agincourt ( ; ) was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected victory of the vastly outnumbered English troops agains ...

in 1415. In 1417 he was in the retinue of King Henry V during his second expedition to France, and played a significant role in the capture of

. In 1419, he was appointed Captain of

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

and was granted powers to receive the submission of the town and Comté of Eu. The French count of Eu had refused to pay homage to the conquering English king and thus had been held prisoner in England since Agincourt. In June 1419, King Henry V awarded six captured French comtés to certain of his more significant English supporters, and the Comté of Eu was granted to William Bourchier, thus making him 1st Count of Eu.

Marriage and children

BourchierImpaling_ThomasOfWoodstock_TawstockChurch

He married

Anne of Gloucester Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford (30 April 1383 – 16 October 1438) was the eldest daughter and eventually sole heiress of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III), by hi ...

, Countess of Stafford, daughter of the Plantagenet prince

Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (7 January 13558 or 9 September 1397) was the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Early life Thomas was born on 7 January 1355 at Woodstock Pal ...

(1355–1397), youngest son of King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

by his wife

Eleanor de Bohun Eleanor de Bohun ( – 3 October 1399) was the elder daughter and co-heiress (with her sister, Mary de Bohun), of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341–1373) and Joan Fitzalan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel an ...

, elder daughter and coheiress of

Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex, 2nd Earl of Northampton, Order of the Garter, KG (25 March 1342 – 16 January 1373) was the son of William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton, and Elizabeth de Badlesmere, and grandson o ...

(1341–1373), Earl of Essex and Northampton. The

Wrey baronets The Wrey Baronetcy, of Trebitch (modern: Trebeigh Manor, St Ive, 4 miles NE of Liskeard) in the Duchy of Cornwall, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 30 June 1628 for William Wrey (d.1636), 2nd son of John Wrey (d.1597 ...

, who were the heirs of the Bourchier Earls of Bath, quartered the arms of Wrey with the arms of Bourchier and Bohun, and the

Royal Arms of England The coat of arms of England is the coat of arms historically used as arms of dominion by the monarchs of the Kingdom of England, and now used to symbolise England generally.: "The three golden lions upon a ground of red have certainly continued ...

. They had the following children: *

Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex Henry Bourchier, 5th Baron Bourchier, 2nd Count of Eu, 1st Viscount Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex ( – 4 April 1483), was the eldest son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu, and Anne of Gloucester. On his mother's side, he was a grea ...

(1404 – 4 April 1483), eldest son. * William Bourchier, (25 October 1415 – 1474), ''

jure uxoris ''Jure uxoris'' (a Latin phrase meaning "by right of (his) wife"), citing . describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title '' suo jure'' ("in her own right"). Similarly, the husband of an heiress could beco ...

'' 9th Baron FitzWarin, 2nd son. *

John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners (died May 1474) was an English peer. Bourchier was the fourth son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu, and his wife Anne of Woodstock, Countess of Buckingham, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of ...

, (c. 1416 – 16 May 1474), 3rd son. * Thomas Bourchier, (c. 1418 – 30 March 1486),

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

and a cardinal, 4th son. *

Eleanor Bourchier Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal dialect">Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. ...

, (c. 1417 – November, 1474), wife of

John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, , Earl Marshal (12 September 14156 November 1461) was a fifteenth-century English magnate who, despite having a relatively short political career, played a significant role in the early years of the Wars of t ...

Death and burial

He died at Troyes, France on 28 May 1420 and was buried at Llanthony Secunda Priory,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

Douglas Richardson Douglas Charles Richardson (born April 16, 1951, Sacramento, California) is an American genealogist, historian, lecturer, and author based in Salt Lake City in Utah. He has written extensively on the genealogy of medieval English gentry familie ...

, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, p.35

The de Bohun family were patrons of Llanthony Secunda Priory, near Gloucester Castle, founded by their ancestor Miles of Gloucester in 1136 as a secondary house to

Llanthony Priory Llanthony Priory () is a partly ruined former Augustinians, Augustinian priory in the secluded Vale of Ewyas, a steep-sided once-glaciated valley within the Black Mountains, Wales, Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Mo ...

in Monmouthshire.

Ancestry

Sources

Woodger, L.S., biography of Sir William Bourchier, published in The History of Parliament: House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe, 1993

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eu, William Bourchier, 1st Count of Bourchier, William, Count of Eu Bourchier, William, Count of Eu Bourchier, William, Count of Eu Bourchier, William, Count of Eu Norman warriors William, Count of Eu Burials at Llanthony Secunda Priory, Gloucester 15th-century English nobility 15th-century French nobility 15th-century French military personnel Medieval English knights