Amirns, by Goda, or Ehtda [Edith ?], da of Ethelred, King of England. His mother was not improbably the heiress of the estates of Gael and Montfort(a)[1] which undoubtedly be somehow inherited. He was b. before 1046; knighted before Oct.1066 when as commander of a band of Bretons he was styled "Le Breton" at the battle of Hastings, receiving shortly afterwards, as a reward from the Conqueror, the district known as the Consulate of the East Angles, comprising the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and part of that of Cambridge, and thus apparently becoming EARL OF NORFOLK, being styled(b)[2] in 1071 Earl of Norwich. He bad two years previously in April 1069 repulsed an invasion of the Danes at Norwich. He m. about 1074 Emma, da, of William (Fitz Obborn), Earl of Hereford (who was Seigneur de Breteuil and Dapiser of Normandy), by Adeliza, da, of Roger de Toni. He joined with Roger de Breteuil in the rebellion of 1074(c)[3] against the Conqueror planned(d)[4] of at the fatal "brideale" of Ixingham whereby his English Earldom and estates became forfeited when, with his wife, he retired to Britanny, both of them finally joining the Crusade in the time of Pope Urban and dying on the journey(e)[5] to Palestine.(f)[6]
- ↑ (a) Mr. G. W. Watson furnishes the following statements as to this Breton descent being paternal or maternal. "I. Ordericus calls him Ralph the Breton; the continuator of William of Jumieres calls him Genere Britoni; William of Malmesbury (Lib. 111) calls him a Breton on his father's side, and Wace calls him a Breton." On the other hand, "II. The Saxon chronicle calls him Bryttisc (Breton) on the mother's side and son of an Englishman called Ralph. Though the preponderance of evidence is for No. I., I incline to No. II., judging that Earl Ralph inherited his Breton estate from his unknown mother, and I do so because of a charter in the cartulary of the Abbey of Redon in Britanny (edit. M. Aurelien de Courson, p. 239), where the witnesses are Eudes, Viiecomes (of Porhoöt), Radulfus Anglicus Comes, Radulfus de Fulgeres (Fougeres), etc, etc., Anno 1089. He must then have been an Englishman." [See, however, p. 36, note "d," circa finem, as to Planche's statement of Earl Ralph's mother being a Saxon.]
- ↑ (b) Ordericus Vitalis.
- ↑ (c) "His rebellion I ascribe to 1074. (Chron. Mailros and Fl. of Worcester) rather than to 1075. (Sax. Chron, and H. Huntingdon.)" Ex inform. G. W. Watson.
- ↑ (d) Planché gives a highly probable reason for this rebellion in his "Conqueror and his Companions" vol. ii, pp. 1-15), viz., the double murder in 1965 of Walter de Mantes and Biota, his wife, in order to secure the Comté of Maine; the murder of Conan, the good Count of Britanny, the disinheritance and banishment of William, Count of Mortain, all which (the Earl is reported to have said) "and other such crimes have been perpetrated by William in the case of his own kinsfolk and relations and he is ever really to act the same part towards us and our Peers." These doing are all recited and "not contradicted by Ordericus and have never been disproved." Of course the relationship of Walter de Mantes as paternal uncle to Earl Ralph is on the presumption that that Earl's father was Earl of Hereford (or East Anglia) as presumed in the text.
- ↑ (e) "Contra Turcos Hierusalem perrexit et in via dei pænitens et peregrinus cum uxore obiit." [Ord. Vit., Lib., iv, c. 14.]
- ↑ (f) "By his wife, Emma, Earl Ralph had three sons (1) William, who appears to have been the eldest, as, in 1102, he claimed the succession to his uncle, William de Breteuil. He d. soon after (Ord. Vit., lib., xi, c. 4) (2) Ralph, his successor, and (3) Alau, who accompanied his father on the crusade in 1096 (Ord. Vital., lib., ix, c. 8.) Ralph II.'s da. [Amicia] m. [after 1120) Robert Bossu, Earl of Leicester, etc. [who d. 5 April 1168.] The descendants of Ralph long held a conspicuous place among the Barons of Britanny till they at length by a series of fortunate marriages became one of the wealthiest houses in France, for Ralph VII., Sire de Montfort and de Gsel, m. Isabel, eldest da. and principal heir of John, Sire de Loheac and de la Roche-Bernard, and (dying 28 March 1394), was father of Ralph VIII., Sire de M., de G., de L.., etc., who m. Jane, eldest d. and prime. h. of John, Sire de Kergorlay, and was father of John de Montfort, who in marrying (22 Jan. 1404/5), Anne, da. and sole h. of Guy XII., Sire de Laval, agreed to take the name of Guy de Laval, and the
heir to Edward the Confessor, and he, indeed, pretended to the Crown, according to Orderic, in the 1074 rebellion) is [the question as to] how did he get Gael and Montfort in Britanny? Not through his father certainly. But his mother was Getha, a Saxon, according to Planché."
