Rudolf I of Eu

Coat of arms of Rudolf I.

Rudolf I of Issoudun (French: Raoul ; † May 1, 1219 ) was a lord of Issoudun and by marriage Count of Eu (as Rudolf I of Eu ). He is a member of the noble Lusignan family .

His parents were Hugo von Lusignan († 1169) and his wife Orengarde. He is a younger brother of Hugo IX. von Lusignan , Count of La Marche and a grandson of Hugo VIII von Lusignan , Count of La Marche. Since not his father Hugo, but his brother Hugo IX. inherited his grandfather Hugo VIII as lord of Lusignan, his father did not receive his own ordinal number. For this reason he is often mistakenly mistaken for a son Hugo VIII, who died young, named Robert.

Life

In contrast to his relatives, Rudolf was loyal to his liege lord Richard the Lionheart . From him he received Melle , Chizé and La Mothe-Saint-Héray in the Poitou , as well as the strategically important castle Issoudun (Exoudun) in the lower Berry transferred as a fief. At Issoudun he founded the Fontblanche priory. In Richard's entourage he took part in the Third Crusade and fought in the siege of Acre . After his return he received the Drincourt Castle (today Neuchâtel-en-Bray ) in Normandy and around 1194 married the heiress of the County of Eu , on whose behalf he exercised the count's rights. In addition, his wife brought him the English barony of Hastings into marriage.

After Richard's death, Rudolf swore allegiance to his successor, King John Ohneland, in 1200 and received the Poitevini civray from him . However, in the same year the king kidnapped the bride of Rudolf's nephew, which is why the Lusignan family appealed to King Philip II of France in this matter . In 1201 King Johann therefore declared that he had lost all his lands, against which Raoul defended himself and holed up in Drincourt. He successfully defended this castle against King Seneschal in Normandy until 1202, when King Philip II of France horrified the castle with an army campaign. Rudolf and his wife now entered into a relationship of loyalty to the French king, from whom they received their property as a fief.

But soon Rudolf fell out with King Philip II and with Rainald I von Dammartin again switched to Johann Ohneland's side. As a result, he and his wife lost their French possessions, but received the English property back from Johann in 1214, which was expanded to include Tickhill in Yorkshire . On July 27, 1214 Rudolf fought on the side of Emperor Otto IV in the Battle of Bouvines , where they were defeated by the King of France.

Rudolf died in 1219 and was buried in the Fontblanche priory. According to various sources, he died either in Melle or as a crusader on the Fifth Crusade before Damiette . He was married to Countess Alice († 1246), daughter of Count Heinrich II of Eu from the Rolloniden family . Alice later got her possessions back in France and gave up her English possessions in 1243. Your children were:

• Rudolf II of Issoudun († September 1-2, 1246), Lord of Issoudun, Count of Eu
• Guerin
• Mathilde († August 14, 1241), ∞ around 1236 Humphrey de Bohun († 1275) 2nd Earl of Hereford ( House of Bohun )

literature

• Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham: Plantagenet Ancestry. A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore MD 2004, ISBN 0-8063-1750-7 , pp. 292-294 ( limited preview in Google book search).

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry II	Count of Eu (de iure uxoris ) 1194–1219	Rudolf II.