The County of Eu was created in 996 by Duke
Richard I of Normandy for his illegitimate son
Geoffrey, Count of Brionne. It was a
march protecting Normandy from invasion from the east. In 1050, William, Duke of Normandy, the future
William the Conqueror and king of England, married Matilda, the daughter of the Count of
Flanders, at the chapel of the castle in Eu. The chapel is the only part of this castle which still stands today. In 1180,
Laurence O'Toole, the archbishop of
Dublin and
papal legate, fell ill at Eu on his way to meet King
Henry II of England. He died there. He was beatified in 1186 and canonised in 1225 as St Laurence, becoming the patron saint of the town. The
collegiate church was named for the Virgin Mary and for him,
Notre-Dame et Saint-Laurent, and still holds some of his preserved
relics. In the 12th century, King
Richard I of England, who was also
Duke of Normandy, built the city walls. In 1430,
Joan of Arc as a prisoner of the English spent a night there, during her journey to
Rouen. The county remained an independent fief of the French crown until 1472, when it was inherited by
John II, Count of Nevers. In 1477 it was incorporated into the
Burgundian territories of
Charles the Bold. However, later that year Charles was killed in battle; King
Louis XI took the opportunity to seize Charles' French fiefs, including Eu, and incorporated them in the
French royal domain. The British
Queen Victoria visited Eu on two occasions as guest of
Louis Philippe I. The first time in 1843 was to cement an early form of the
Entente Cordiale between Britain and France. It was the first time monarchs of the two countries had met since King
Henry VIII met with King
Francis I on the
Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. The
Croix de Guerre was awarded to the town in 1944.
Heraldry ==Population==