the presbytery of St. John's Abbey, Colchester, Essex, England. Only underground, archaeological remnants of the abbey are still extant. Approximate coordinates of the presbytery: N51.88554 E0.90310
538015814Eudes is mentioned in:
(1)
Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd edition, (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2013), volume IV, pages 559-560;
(2)
K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166 (The Boydell Press, 1999), page 194, profile for "Eudo Dapifer;" and
(3)
William Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, Volume 3 (1925), pages 164-168.
538015814Eudes was a major landholder in southeast England, as evidenced by the Domesday Book, which mentions him frequently as the tenant-in-chief or lord of numerous properties. He also owned land in Préaux, Normandy (modern-day France).1 Conveniently, one of his Domesday entries explicitly names his father, 1076031628Hubert (de Rie).2
This Domesday Book entry identifies 538015814Eudes' father 1076031628Hubert. Full page.2
538015814Eudes was a "dapifer" (essentially a royal servant), as shown in numerous records, both contemporary4,5 and later.6 He started in this role in 10747 and served under King William I and his sons William II and Henry I.8-10 The record below shows him as "Eudo dapifer" and also mentions his wife, 538015815Rohesia.4
This document, created in or about 1123, describes 538015814Eudes as dapifer and mentions his wife, 538015815Rohesia. Full page. Latin transcription.4
He sometimes signed the kings' charters as a witness. For example, in 1081 he signed William I's charter of a gift to the Abbey of Saint Evroul, as shown in the record below.11
538015814Eudes mentioned in the original, autograph manuscript of Orderic Vitalis' Historia Ecclesiastica. This is the earliest extant transcription of King William's charter to the Abbey of Saint Evroul. Full page. Latin transcription.11
538015814Eudes is probably best remembered for his founding of St. John's Abbey in Colchester.12 Details of 538015814Eudes' role in the abbey are presented in a much later—and unfortunately much less trustworthy—history of the abbey written in the 1500's. This fanciful account alleges that 538015814Eudes personally laid the abbey's first brick. You can read a full English translation of the record if you'd like.13
538015814Eudes' wife 538015815Rohesia must have been fond of the abbey, too, since she gifted some property to the abbey in an undated charter.14 It's no surprise, then, that 538015814Eudes would prefer to be buried there. The abovementioned 16th-century history provides more details, as copied below.15 (As previously noted, this history is not necessarily reliable, but the following account is at least partly corroborated.16)
"Eudo, the steward of kings, when he lay ill at the castle of Preaux in Normandy of the sickness of which he died, observed all the proprieties of a good Christian when dying." 15
"Thus Eudo, like a good Christian and penitent, beating his breast and invoking the mercy of God, breathed his last breath. His body, as he had willed, was carried into England. Rohasia, his wife, accompanied the body of the deceased, anxious to take it to England [...] The monks met the body of Eudo a mile from the monastery, and a great crowd of people from the city and district assembled. And lo! as the body of Eudo is brought from the west, Walcherius, his nephew was brought from the north. In fact both the bodies are laid in one tomb and are buried with honor. This took place on the day before the Kalends of March, A.D. MCXX." 15
Thus we see that 538015814Eudes died in Préaux, Normandy and was subsequently buried at St. John's Abbey in Colchester, England on 28 February 1120.15 Another manuscript states that in 1320, his body was relocated from the abbey's chapter-house to the new presbytery.16
This manuscript records the transfer of 538015814Eudes' body to the abbey's new presbytery.16
Sadly, the abbey was destroyed long ago, and now only a gatehouse (built centuries after 538015814Eudes' lifetime) is recognizable from ground level. However, archaeologists have determined the building's basic layout and location, which can be seen on this map, and there's a similar diagram in a 2011 archaeological evaluation report.17 As you can see, the presbytery would have been at the eastern side of the building, around coordinates N51.88554 E0.90310. Archaeologists have found the remains of several medieval burials a short distance west of the presbytery area.18
Remnant of the foundation near the eastern end of St. John's Abbey, exposed by an archaeologist in 2013.19538015814Eudes is probably buried somewhere closeby.
Because of 538015814Eudes' importance to the town, there's a memorial statue of him on Colchester's town hall at coordinates N51.8898 E0.8988.20
The memorial statue of 538015814Eudes on the outer wall of Colchester's town hall20
Sources Cited:
1: Calendar of Documents Preserved in France, Illustrative of the History of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 1: A.D. 918-1206, page 27, entry 97. Although this book claims that its source is "ABBEY OF ST. AMAND, ROUEN, FOR BENEDICTINE NUNS. [Cartulary in Archives of the Seine Inférieure.]," frustratingly I've been unable to find any of these records in the actual cartulary—Archives de la Seine-Maritime, record ID 55 H 7—nor in a Latin transcription nor English translation thereof.
4: Archives Nationales (of France), accession ID AE/II/138, image 3 of 29. There's a Latin transcription of this record in: Léopold Delisle, Rouleaux des Morts due IXe au XVe Siècle (1866), page 292.
6: Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum [...], Volume V, page 269, number III
7: E. B. Fryde et al., eds., Handbook of British Chronology, 3rd edition (London, 1986), page 73
8: Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd edition, (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2013), volume IV, pages 559-560
9: K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166 (The Boydell Press, 1999), page 194, profile for "Eudo Dapifer"
10: William Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, Volume 3 (1925), page 166
11: Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica, Book VI. The image is from: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MSS Latin 5506(2) ("Orderici VitalisHistoria ecclesiastica. Volume II"), a page numbered 169, which is on image #337 of 418, <https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b525113078/f337.item.r=latin%205506.zoom#>. A Latin transcription of this document is in SCRIPTA 6568 (<https://www.unicaen.fr/scripta/acte/6568>). An English translation is in: Thomas Forester, translator, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Ordericuc Vitalis (London, 1854), pages 280-281.
12: Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum [...], Volume IV, page 609, number II
13: Cotton MS Nero D VIII, folio 345r-347v. An English translation of this manuscript is printed in: Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series Volume VIII, page 129 et seq.
14: Stuart A. Moore, ed., Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Johannis Baptiste de Colecestria, Volume I (London, 1897), page 48
17: Adam Wightman, "St John's abbey church: An evaluation at the Garrison Officers Club, St John's Green, Colchester, Essex - February-March 2011," Colchester Archaeological Trust report 601, http://rose.essex.ac.uk/cat/summaries/CAT-0601.html. The relevant diagram is on page 25.
18: Philip Crummy, "Excavations and Observations in the Grounds of St. John's Abbey, 1971-85," Colchester Archaeological Report 9: Excavations of Roman and Late Cemeteries, Churches and Monastic Sites in Colchester, 1971-88 (Colchester Archaeological Trust, Ltd., 1993). In particular, see Figure 5.10 on page 214.
19: Un-titled photograph (described as "the remains of the east end of the church foundations being recorded"), "more important evidence of St John’s abbey church" (blog post, 18 June 2013), The Colchester Archaeologist, <https://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=5640>
