This Eudo was the fourth son of Hubert de Rie, the loyal vassal who saved the life of Duke William in his flight from Valognes by mounting him on afresh horse, and misleading his pursuers, who were close upon his heels (vide vol. i, p. 23). Three of Hubert's four sons were directed by him toescort the Duke, and not leave him till he was safe in Falaise. Whether Eudo was one of the three we know not, as Orderic does not name them; but asthey must all have been young at that time, and Eudo the youngest of the four, it is probable that Ralph, Hubert, and Adam were the guides andguardians of their youthful prince, themselves not much his seniors.

It is clear, however, that Eudo became Dapifer after the departure of the Earl for Normandy, and for seventeen years enjoyed the favour of hissovereign, and being in attendance on the dying Conqueror at Rouen, was mainly instrumental to the securing of the crown to Rufus, whom heaccompanied to England, and by his representations obtained from William de Pontarche the keys of the treasury at Winchester, wherein the regalia,as well as the money, was deposited. Thence he hastened to Dover, and bound the governor of the castle by a solemn oath that he would not yield itto any one but by his advice.

Pevensey, Hastings, and other maritime strongholds he managed to secure in like manner, pretending that the King, whose death was still rumoured insecret, would stay longer in Normandy, and desired to have good assurances of the safety of his castles in England from himself, his then steward.

Returning to Winchester he publicly announced the death of the Conqueror; so, while the nobles were consulting together in Normandy respecting thesuccession, William II, by Eudo's policy, was proclaimed King in England.

His great service was duly appreciated by Rufus, in whose favour he remained during his whole reign, and in 1096/7 founded the Church of St. Peter'sat Colchester, he himself laying the first stone, Rohesia, his wife, the second, and Gilbert Fitz Richard de Clare, her brother, the third.

On the death of Rufus he was coldly looked upon by the new King, Henry, who suspected him of being a partisan of his brother Robert Court-heuse, butsubsequently was reconciled to him and visited him when he was dying in his Castle of Préaux, and advised him as to the disposition of his temporalestates.

To his Abbey at Colchester, wherein he desired to be buried, he bequeathed one hundred pounds in money, his gold ring with a topaz, a standing cupand cover adorned with plates of gold, his horse and a mule, and in addition to the lands he had endowed it with on its foundation, he bestowed onit his manor of Brightlingsie.

His body was brought over to England, and according to the desire expressed in his will, buried at Colchester on the morrow preceding the kalends ofMarch, 1120 (20th of Henry I).

By his wife Rohesia, daughter of Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare or de Bienfaite, and Rohesia, only daughter of Walter Giffard, the first Earl ofBuckingham, he left issue one sole daughter and heir, named Margaret, married to William de Mandeville, and mother of Geoffrey de Mandeville, firstEarl of Essex, to secure whose services King Stephen and the Empress Maude appear to have bid against each other to a fabulous extent. Dyingexcommunicated for outrages committed on the monks of Ramsey, his corpse was carried by some Knights Templars into their orchard in the Old Templeat London, arrayed in the habit of the Order, and after being enclosed in lead, hung on a branch of a tree, where it remained until absolution beingobtained from Pope Alexander, by the intercession of the Prior of Walden, it was, taken down and privately buried in the porch of the New Temple,where his effigy is still to be seen.