Rodulf of Ivry (Rodolf, Raoul, comte d'Ivry) (died c. 1015) was a Norman noble, and regent of Normandy during the minority of
Richard II.
Life
Rodolf was the son of Eperleng, a rich owner of several mills at
Vaudreuil, and of his wife
Sprota, who by
William I, Duke of Normandy had been mother of
Richard I of Normandy
Richard I (28 August 932 – 20 November 996), also known as Richard the Fearless (French: ''Richard Sans-Peur''; Old Norse: ''Jarl Rikard''), was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996.Detlev Schwennicke, '' Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln ...
, making Rodolf the Duke's half-brother.
[Eleanor Searle, ''Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066'' (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 108]
When Richard died in 996, Rodulf took effective power during the minority of his nephew,
Richard II of Normandy
Richard II (died 28 August 1026), called the Good (French: ''Le Bon''), was the duke of Normandy from 996 until 1026.
Life
Richard was the eldest surviving son and heir of Richard the Fearless and Gunnor. He succeeded his father as the ruler of ...
, alongside the boy's mother,
Gunnor.
According to
William of Jumièges
William of Jumièges (born c. 1000 - died after 1070) (french: Guillaume de Jumièges) was a contemporary of the events of 1066, and one of the earliest writers on the subject of the Norman conquest of England. He is himself a shadowy figure, only ...
he had to quell dual rebellions in 996, of peasants and nobility; against the former he cut off feet and hands. He arrested the chief aristocratic rebel
Guillaume,
comte d'Exmes.
Count
The
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
s of the
duchy of Normandy
The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans.
From 1066 until 1204, as a result of the Norman c ...
were in place from around the year 1000; Rodulf is the first whose title can be attested by a document (of 1011).
Pierre Bauduin following
David Bates states that territorial designations for these titles came in only in the 1040s. Contemporary sources, and
Dudon de Saint-Quentin, speak only of Rodulf as "count", never "of Ivry"; this is found only in later writers.
Ordericus Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern historia ...
, for example, calls him count of
Bayeux. Historians now consider this erroneous, following the later
Robert de Torigni, who makes Rodulf
count of Ivry.
In strategic terms,
Ivry was on the boundary of the duchy of Normandy, by an important crossroads on a
Roman road, by the valley of the river
Eure. Over some decades the Normans had struggled there against the forces of the
county of Blois
The County of Blois was a feudal principality centred on Blois, south of Paris, France. It was created just after king Clovis I conquered Roman Gaul around AD 500. Between the 8th and the 13th centuries, it was amongst the most powerful vassal ...
, after its control had reached
Dreux. This position mattered for the assertion of domination of the south-east of the
Évrecin.
Consistently, the duchy may have conceded to the county in the direction of the
county of Hiémois
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
and towards
Lieuvin
The Lieuvin () is a plateau region in the western part of the Eure ''département'' in Normandy, France.
The plateau consists of typical Norman ''bocage'' and is bounded by the Seine estuary to the north, the Risle valley to the east, the Char ...
(
forêt du Vièvre
The Chablis region of Burgundy is classified according to four tiers of ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) designation. The top two are the crus of Chablis and include the 7 Grand cru vineyards followed by the lower Premier crus. Wines m ...
).
Before 996, Rodulf built the
castle of Ivry-la-Bataille to replace a
motte-and-bailey wooden keep. It is among the earliest examples of a stone
donjon
A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in ...
or keep in the northwest of France.
Family
First he married Eremburga de Canville,
who died before 1011. He married a second time, to Albreda or Aubrée.
[Detlev Schwennicke, '' Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten'', Neue folge, Band III Teilband 4, Das Feudale Frankreich und Sien Einfluss auf des Mittelalters (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1989) Tafel 694A]
His children by Eremburga:
*
Hugh,
bishop of Bayeux (c. 1011–1049)
*Emma, who married
Osbern the Steward and was mother of
William FitzOsbern
William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, Lord of Breteuil ( 1011 – 22 February 1071), was a relative and close counsellor of William the Conqueror and one of the great magnates of early Norman England. FitzOsbern was created Earl of Hereford ...
*Raoul
*Daughter of unknown name, who married Richard de Beaufou
His child from Albreda is:
*
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
,
bishop of Avranches
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Coutances (–Avranches) ( Latin: ''Dioecesis Constantiensis (–Abrincensis)''; French: ''Diocèse de Coutances (–Avranches)'') is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in France. Its mother church is the Ca ...
(1060–1067) then
archbishop of Rouen
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rouen (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Rothomagensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Rouen'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. As one of the fifteen Archbishops of France, the Arch ...
(1067–1079)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodulf of Ivry
House of Normandy
Norman warriors
10th-century Normans
11th-century Normans
1010s deaths
Year of birth unknown
Year of death uncertain