The Seigneurie of Elbeuf, later a marquisate, dukedom and peerage, was based on the territory of Elbeuf

Elbeuf

-Population:-Places of interest:* The mairie, also housing the museum.* Two seventeenth century churches.* Some sixteenth century houses.* A fifteenth century stone cross.* The theatre , renovated in the late twentieth century.-Notable people:...

 in the Vexin

Vexin

The Vexin is a historical county of northwestern France. It covers a verdant plateau on the right bank of the Seine comprising an area east-to-west between Pontoise and Romilly-sur-Andelle , and north-to-south between Auneuil and the Seine near Vernon...

, possessed first by the Counts of Valois and then the Counts of Meulan before passing to the House of Harcourt

House of Harcourt

The House of Harcourt is a Norman family, descended from the Viking Bernard the Dane and named after its seigneurie of Harcourt in Normandy. Its mottos were "Gesta verbis praeveniant" , "Gesta verbis praevenient" , and "Le bon temps viendra .....

. In 1265, it was erected into a seigneurie

Fiefdom

A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...

for them. Occupied by the English from 1419 to 1444, it passed by marriage to the Lorraine-Vaudémont, a cadet branch of the sovereign House of Lorraine, in 1452.