Goda de Toeni

Goda married 3rd Earl of Derby William de Ferrers about 1162. William (son of 2nd Earl of Derby Robert de Ferrers and Margaret Peverel) was born in 1130 in Tutbury, Stafforshire, England; died on 31 Dec 1189 in Siege of Acre, Jerusalem, Palestine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Roger married of Hainault, Heiress of Brinkley Ida (Gertrude). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Raoul married Alice Huntingdon in 1103 in England. Alice (daughter of Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland Waltheof Siwardsson and of Lens Judith) was born about 1077 in Flamsted, Herefordshire, England; died after 1126. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

RAOUL DE TOENI

The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

Raoul (Ralph) de Toeni, Seigneur de Conches, second of that name, was the son or grandson (for it is not quite clear which) of that turbulent Roger de Toeni, who was one of the first to dispute the succession of the base-born William to the ducal throne of Normandy, and who, with his two sons Halbert and Elinance, was slain in a conflict with Roger de Beaumont. You have beard of him before as the messenger of the Duke to the French King with the disastrous tidings of the battle of Mortemer.

The honourable office of gonfanonier (standardbearer) of Normandy was hereditary in their family, collateral descendants of its dukes from Mahaluc, uncle of Rolf or Rollo, but on whom it was first conferred has not transpired.

Previous to the battle at Senlac, Wace tells us the Duke ordered the consecrated gonfanon, which the Pope had sent to him, to be brought forth and unfurled. Then taking and raising it, he called to him Raoul de Conches, and said, "Bear my gonfanon, for I would not but do you right. By right and by ancestry your family are gonfanoniers of Normandy, and very good knights have they all been." "Many thanks to you," answered Raoul, "for the recognition of our right, but by my faith the gonfanon shall not be borne by me this day. To-day I claim quittance of that service, for I would serve you in another guise. I will go with you into the battle and fight the English as long as I have life to do so, and be assured that my hand will be worth more than those of twenty such men!"

There can be no doubt that he was as good as his word, although no especial act of gallantry has been recorded of him, for we find him rewarded by the gift of thirty-seven lordships, nineteen being in Norfolk, and making Flamstead, in Hertfordshire, his principal residence in England.

Orderic tells us that this Raoul gained great glory in the wars, and was renowned among the first of the Norman nobles for honour and wealth, serving bravely in the armies of King William and Duke Robert, his son, for nearly sixty years. Of course he must mean alternately, for he was one of the nobles who took part with Robert Court-heuse on his first outbreak, in consequence of the insult of his brothers, William and Henry, who threw water on him from a gallery in a house where they were playing at dice. Raoul was banished, and his domains seized by the King, but through the intercession of friends obtained his pardon and the restoration of his estates.

In 1077, he married Elizabeth, or Isabel, daughter of Simon de Montfort l'Amauri, whose hand he obtained by the audacious act of carrying off by night Agnes, daughter of Richard, Comte d'Evreux, who was his half-sister, and marrying her to the said Simon. Orderic gives an amusing account of this Isabel and her sister-in-law Havise, daughter of William, Comte de Nevers, the wife of her brother Willliam, Comte d'Evreux. The Countess Havise took offence, it appears, at some taunts of the Lady of Conches, and used all her influence with her husband and his barons to have recourse to arms, in which mischievous attempt she unfortunately succeeded. "Both these ladies," the chronicler tells us, "were great talkers, and spirited as well as handsome; they ruled their husbands, oppressed their vassals, and inspired terror in various ways: but still their characters were very different. Havise had wit and eloquence, but she was cruel and avaricious; Isabel, on the contrary, was generous, enterprising, and lively, so that she was beloved and esteemed by those immediately about her. She rode in knightly armour when the vassals took the field, and exhibited as much daring amongst belted knights and men-at-arms as Camilla, the renowned Virgin of Italy, among the squadrons of Tevenus."

By turns the people of Evreux and Conches plundered and destroyed the property of each other. The Lord of Conches, who was less powerful than the Count of Evreux, sought his sovereign, Robert Court-heuse, and laying before him an account of the losses to which he was exposed by the aggressions of the Count of Evreux, demanded the aid he had a right to expect from his liege lord; but Robert turned a deaf car to his prayer, and Raoul in his distress sought a more powerful protector in the King of England, promising him by his envoys the fealty of all his estates in return for his assistance. Rufus was highly pleased at the proposal, and sent orders to Stephen Count of Aumale and Gerrard de Gournay, with others in command of his forces in Normandy, to give every aid to Raoul de Toeni, and throw supplies of all kinds into his castles.

In the month of November, 1090, Count William assembled a large force and laid siege to Conches, his two nephews, Richard de Montfort and William de Breteuil joining him with their respective powers. Richard de Montfort was slain while taking possession of the Abbey of St. Peter de Châtillonn at Conches, and in a subsequent attack William de Breteuil was taken prisoner. This worse than civil war, the wagers of it being all nearly related to each other, lasted three years; at length the Count of Evreux and his allies, ashamed that, having commenced hostilities on so frivolous a provocation, they had suffered the greatest losses, consented to a truce, and peace was proposed upon the following terms: -- William de Breteuil paid three thousand livres for his ransom, and made his cousin Roger, eldest son of Raoul de Toeni, heir to the whole of his fief; the Count of Evreux appointed the same youth, who was his nephew, his successor in the comté. "But," adds the pious writer, "Divinee Providence, which is not ruled by the will of man, provided otherwise." The boy was of an excellent disposition and much beloved by his companions, the vassals, and the neighbors. He had a great regard for the clergy and the monks, to whom he paid due reverence. Rejecting the pomp of dress, in which the nobility too much gloried, his whole demeanour was simple and modest. Upon one occasion, when the knights were amusing themselves in the hall at Conches, playing at various games and talking on various subjects, "as the custom is," the Lady Isabel being present, the conversation took a serious turn, and one of Roger's youthful companions said, "I had a dream lately which much alarmed me. I saw our Lord upon the cross, his whole body livid and writhing with agony. My eyes were riveted upon him in the greatest terror." The listeners gravely remarked that so solemn and fearful a dream seemed to forebode some terrible judgment of God upon him. Baldwin, the son of Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who was of that company, said, "I, too, lately saw in a dream our Lord upon the cross, but in my vision He appeared bright and glorious, and smiled benignantly upon me, stretching forth one hand and making the sign of the cross upon my head." The bystanders all agreed that this vision portended some singular grace and favour. Young Roger de Toeni, upon this, said to his mother, "I know some one not far from here who had recently a similar dream." Her curiosity being excited, she pressed him to say who it was, and what had been seen; but the boy blushed, and was unwilling to say more. At length, yielding to the general entreaties of his friends, he said: "A certain person saw in a vision the Lord Jesus, who, laying his hand on his head, blessed him, saying, 'Come quickly to me, beloved, and I will give you the joys of life.' I therefore believe firmly that one whom I know has been called by the Lord, and will not live long."

The three youths, we are told, experienced different fates, corresponding with what had been foreshadowed to each of them. The first, whose name is not given, was mortally wounded in a hostile inroad, and died without having confessed or received the viaticum. Baldwin, as is well known, took the sign of the Cross, and distinguishing himself in the Holy Wars, was, on the death of his brother Godfrey, elected King of Jerusalem. The youthful heir-presumptive of the Count of Evreux and William de Breteuil took to his bed the same year that he had seen his vision, and departing this life on the 15th of May, was buried amidst general sorrow with his ancestors in the Abbey of St. Peter's at Châtillon, now called off Conches.

Leaving my readers to decide for themselves the question how much credibility may be attached to this story, the like of which are to be found by scores in the pages of our monkish chronicles, I shall only direct their attention to the interesting view it affords us of the manners and habits of the age in which it was written, the words "as the custom now is" proving that although the anecdote may be mere idle gossip, the picture of domestic life is drawn from personal knowledge and observation. Here we see the high-spirited Lady of Conches, seated on the dais or haut pas, in her own castle hall, the ruins of which were recently and may still be existing, surrounded by her family and their young companions, the knights owing service to her lord, the officers of her household, and her handmaidens in attendance on her -- all the features of the court of baron of the eleventh century familiar to the sight of the narrator; the various groups, each with its favourite pastime or topic of conversation, and the peculiar character imparted to the latter by the religious atmosphere of the age. We have here the earliest glimpse of that future King of Jerusalem when, probably, a newly-belted knight and a guest of Raoul de Toeni, he may have seen for the first time the young Countess Godechilde, daughter of his host, who, just separated from her husband, Robert de Meulent, and still under age, was shortly to become his wife, although not destined to share with him the crown of his eastern kingdom.

Raoul de Toeni, like his grandfather Roger, made a journey into Sprain, but with a more peaceful object. The former had hoped to carve out with his sword a dominion for himself, as Rollo had done in Normandy and Robert Guiscard in Sicily; but gained nothing by his enterprise except an empty name --- being afterwards distinguished from other members of his family as Roger of Spain.

His grandson most probably went, like Walter Giffard, to visit the shrine of St. Iago of Compostella.

Previously to setting out on his journey he attended a chapter at the Abbey of St. Evroult, and implored pardon of the abbot and monks for having abetted Arnould d'Eschafour when he burnt the town of Ouche. Laying his gage on the altar, he made many pious vows to be fulfilled on his safe return, and recommended to their care his physician Goisbert, whom he much loved, and who, as soon as he departed, made his profession as a monk, and kept it for nearly thirty years. Goisbert must, therefore, have been personally known to Orderic -- a fact which increases our reliance on any information he communicates to us respecting the family of De Toeni.

On Raoul's return, he tells us, the Lord of Conches faithfully redeemed his promises by the gifts of certain lands and privileges to St. Evroult, and that some years afterwards he took Goisbert, the monk, with him to England, and, through his means, added to his former benefactions two farms or manors -- one named Caldecot, in Norfolk, and the other Abington in Worcestershire; his wife, Roger and Ralph, his sons, freely joining in the grant, which was also confirmed by King William.

Ralph II de Toeni died 24th March 1102, and was buried in the Abbey of Conches, beside his father and his son Roger. His widow Isabel, repenting of the sinful levity in which she had too much indulged in her youth, gave up the world, and took the veil in a convent of nuns at Haute Bruyère (a priory of the order of Fontevrauld, at St. Remi-l'HonorÉ, nearar Montfort l'Amauri), where she reformed her life and worthily ended it in the favour of the Lord.

From Robert, a cadet of this house, the family of Stafford is descended, but I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the exact place of Robert and his brother Nigel de Stafford in the pedigree. They were probably younger brothers of the subject of this memoir, or possibly his uncles. They appear in Domesday as possessors of considerable property, but whether companions of the Conqueror in 1066 is uncertain. The first Robert de Toeni who assumed the name of Stafford, from the Castle of Stafford, married, it is said, Avicia de Clare; but I cannot identify any such person.

Raoul married Dame Nogent-le-Roy Isabel de Montfort in 1077 in Ile de France, France. Isabel (daughter of Simon de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort and Isabel de Broyles) was born about 1058 in Montfort-sur-Risle, Eure, Normandy, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Life and Times of Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland By Geoff Boxell
STOLEN GLORY
Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland

Unlike his contemporary and fellow resistance leader, Edric the Wild, the life of Waltheof is reasonably well documented. The youngest son of one of Canute's Danish jarls, Siward, and Aefled, the daughter of the English Earl of Northumberland, he appears to have been prepared as a child for a life in the Church. This all changed when Siward, with the encouragement of King Edward the Confessor and the Witan, led an expeditionary force in 1054 to Scotland in support of Malcolm, son of Dunstan, King of Scots, against King Thorfinn Macbeth. In the resultant campaign Siward's eldest son, Osbarn, was killed, thus leaving Waltheof at the likely age of 10, as Siward's heir. Siward died from natural causes in 1055. The earldom was given to Tostig Godwinson as Waltheof was obviously too young to control a vital marcher region.

For a variety of reasons, Northumberland revolted against Tostig in 1065 and the thegns demanded that the earldom be given to Morcar, brother of the Earl of Mercia, Edwin. The lower part of the earldom, what had been Middle Anglia, was passed to Waltheof and his title is now given sometimes as Earl of Huntingdon and sometimes that of Northampton. Given that the earldoms in England at that time were awarded on a combination of family mana and personal ability, this granting of a minor earldom to the young and inexperienced Waltheof can be seen as a wise and shrewd move.

The young Earl's involvement in the battles of 1066 is subject to much speculation. The reliable English sources are silent but various Icelandic sources contain garbled and, at times contradictory, story of him being involved in the battles of Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Hastings. Be that as it may, by late 1066 he had made his peace with William the Bastard and retained his earldom. This in itself suggests that he was not involved at Hastings, as William had proclaimed all who fought against him there traitors and their land confiscated. This presumptuous proclamation was made despite the fact that he had not being proclaimed King by the Witan until much later!

Waltheof was one of the hostages, including Edwin, Morcar and Archbishop of Canterbury Stigand, taken to Normandy in 1067 and kept there till mid 1068. The North of England at this time was still out of William's grasp, though he had appointed Copsi, a henchman of Tostig Godwinson, to rule in the absence of the hostage, Morcar. This may have been a very cunning move as the North then seethed with disputes between the various thegns appointed by King Harold, Earl Morcar and William the Bastard. Another unsettling element was the presence of Edgar Aetheling who had, after King Harold's death, been declared King by the Witan. Over this fermenting brew of self-interest there hovered the vinegar fly of Gospatric, a descendent of the old Northumbrian kings and a cousin of the King of Scots. At an opportune moment Gospatric bought the earldom of Northumberland from the money hungry William.

1068 saw the first uprising in Northumberland against the new Norman king, but the split leadership ensured it fizzled out before the flames of revolt could catch. 1069 and there were four uprisings in the area. Waltheof appears in the last and most important of them. The first uprising had been caused by the appointment of Robert of Comings as Earl of Northumberland to replace Gospatric, who had fled to Scotland when the previous year's risings had collapsed. The northerners had found it hard enough to accept a southerner such as Tostig as Earl, and they certainly didn't want a Frenchman. They killed Robert and his whole force of 500-900 men (accounts vary) at Durham, allowing only one to escape and tell the tale. Encouraged by this the City of York revolted, slaying the Norman governor, but failing to take the newly erected castle. Eastertide and the whole North erupted, but William soon brought up an army and broke the Northumbrian force that was besieging York castle. However, it was the arrival of the Danish fleet in September 1069 that caused the Normans to suffer their heaviest defeat in the North.

King Swegyn Astrithson of Denmark had a strong claim on the English throne. An appeal to him by the English to pursue that claim, and revenge his cousin, King Harold, had been made during William's absence in Normandy in 1067. Ever cautious, Swegyn did not make a move until two years later. Even then he sent his brother, Asbjorn, to lead the fleet. It was an act that, rather than uniting the English behind one war leader, as they might have behind Swegyn, just added yet another strand to the cloth of confused leadership.

Raiding the East Coast on their way North, the fleet of Danes and other elements met little success until they entered the River Humber. Here Waltheof and those who had fled earlier to Scotland, including Edgar Aetheling and Gospatric met them. The Anglo Danish force moved on York, which by this time now had two castles to keep it subservient to Norman wishes. On the arrival of the allies the Normans fired houses near the castles to clear their view and destroy any material that may have been used to fill the defensive ditches surrounding the castles. This act was done with the normal Norman delicacy, with the result that almost the entire city was burnt down! In the resultant fight the Norman garrisons left their castles to attack and then die at the hands of the allies. Waltheof's exploits of beheading many of the Normans with his long axe as they came through the gates was recorded in sagas and remembered for years after.

William's reaction was immediate and he personally hastened North with a large army. With York having been burnt and unable to provide sustenance, the allied army broke up; the Danes to the Humber where they wintered over and the English to more northern parts of the earldom. This revolt and its tying down of William and so many of his military resources led to an explosion of uprisings elsewhere. William took what was left of York and began pursuing the scattered elements of English and Danes but very quickly he was obliged to turn his attention elsewhere, leaving lieutenants to meanwhile contain the northern revolt. But they were not up to the job.

As a result of his men's failure, William then had to move back North from his base at Nottingham, only to be blocked by the flooded River Aire. Despite this and constant harassment from the locals and the Danes, he continued to move North after one of his knights found a usable ford. York was still a devastation so, given his normal priorities, the first thing William did was rebuilt the castles. He then commenced to teach the Northumbrians what it meant to upset a Norman King by starting the harrowing of the North, killing anything animate and destroying anything not. Those who could fled. The wealthy fled to the North of the Earldom or Scotland, the rest to the Camp of Refuge at the Isle of Ely, where Hereward the Wake was defying the Normans. Few made it through the winter weather and their unburied corpses littered the countryside. Having lost their Northumbrian allies, the Danes allowed themselves to be bought off. Only Waltheof and a small number of followers fought on, holding out near Coatham on the coast. However, even they eventually saw the hopelessness of their situation and submitted to King William.

It was after this that William, possibly trying to buy loyalty, married Waltheof to his own niece, Judith, in 1070. After behaving himself for 2 years, Waltheof was granted the Earldom of Northumberland as a replacement for the disgraced Gospatric. He also retained those lands he had held as Earl of Huntingdon, though it would appear he transferred the ownership of his personal holdings in the area to Judith, in the English manner of providing a wife with land of her own.

A blot on Waltheof's character now appeared in his renewing an old family feud that had its origins in 1016. Waltheof sent some of his huscarls to kill the brothers Carlson and their kin. He did this despite the fact that they, and Waltheof and his kin had earlier been fighting side by side against the Normans. Balancing this dark side of Waltheof's character is his support of the Church, including the financing of several new foundations. He also played a part in the Church's attempt to restore the northern lands that William had harrowed. Aldwin, Prior of Winchcombe, recruited two monks from Evesham, Elfwi and a former Norman knight, Reinfrid, to join him in establishing the Church's presence in the harrowed land. They based themselves at Jarrow, and it was here that Waltheof granted them the Church at Tynemouth and all its lands. He also gave them his nephew Morcar, to be educated.

From his being made Earl of Northampton in 1072 to 1075 Waltheof spen this time ruling his earldom, giving to the Church, begetting children and serving on a royal commission looking into the losses suffered by the Church at Ely.

It was in 1075 that the half English - half Breton Ralf, Earl of East Anglia, married the sister of Roger Earl of Herefordshire and, at the wedding feast, began weaving the sticky web of intrigue that was to ensnare and prove fatal to Waltheof. Just what his involvement was will never be known. Some sources, such as the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and the Book of Hyde, indicate that he was intimately involved. Others, such as Orderic Vitalis and William of Malmesbury, claim that he refused to take part but had to swear an oath not to betray the plot.

The desirability of their wishing to involve Waltheof, in what became known as the Revolt of the Earls, is easy to see. His lands in the Midlands would provide a corridor between those of Roger in the West and Ralf in the East, effectively cutting England in half. Waltheof must have quickly had second thoughts about being involved as, the day after the Bridal Ale, he rushed to London and confessed his share of guilt to Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc absolved him and advised him to go to Normandy and throw himself on William's mercy. This Waltheof did, together with presenting some expensive gifts that he knew would appeal to William's avarice.

William made light of the matter, but had his agents in England move against the other two Earls. An Anglo-Norman force crushed Roger who then spent his remaining years a prisoner. Another Anglo-Norman force defeated Ralf and then penned him up in Norwich. From here Ralf went to Denmark, to gather reinforcements, whilst his new bride held the city. After three months Norwich was compelled to surrender, just before the arrival of the Danish fleet. After sporadic raiding, the Danes returned home, leaving Ralf to join his wife in Brittany and thenceforth continue his war against William.

With the revolt now broken, William placed Waltheof under close arrest. The reason for this action is unknown, though some sources say that Waltheof was betrayed by his wife, Judith, William's niece, who passed on information that she had been privy to. Waltheof was kept in close confinement for several months before he was sentenced by the King to be beheaded for treason.

The execution took place on 31 May 1076 on St. Giles Hill, Winchester. After giving away his clothes to the poor, Waltheof's last moments were spent in prayer. Feeling he was taking too long, the executioner drew his sword and struck just as Waltheof got to: "Lead us not into temptation." According to witnesses, the severed head was then heard in a clear voice to complete the prayer with: "but deliver us from evil. Amen"

After lying in unconsecrated ground for a fortnight, Abbot Ulfkettle of Crowland, a foundation that Waltheof had been a patron of, asked for and was granted permission to take the body away for reburying. To his dying day, Archbishop Lanfranc insisted Waltheof was guiltless of the crime he had been accused of. It is also recorded that the English and Normans alike at William's court were horrified at the King's actions.

One fate of traitors was the confiscation of all their possessions to the crown. In this case it didn't happen. All of Waltheof's personal holdings passed to his wife, Judith, who also continued to oversee the Earldom of Huntingdon. A consideration for a beloved niece? Or a reward for providing information on her husband that allowed William the Bastard to remove the last of the native English nobility from the scene?

It was not long before the English began to treat Waltheof as a martyr in the ilk of St Edmund King and Martyr and miracles were soon being reported at his tomb. Waltheof may only have been a pseudo-Saint, more a symbol of a people's suffering and longing, but his grandson, also Waltheof, was later canonized.

Waltheof was a man who, in more peaceful times, would have been a national figure, and if needed, a powerful warrior. But he did not have the personality needed to lead the English resistance to the Norman Conquest. Often he failed to see the woods for the trees, and allowed his opportunities to be stolen from him.

Geoff Boxell is author of the novel: "Woden's Wolf" that deals with the English resistance to the Norman Conquest.

Waltheof married of Lens Judith in 1070 in Artois, France. Judith (daughter of Count of Lens Lambert II von Boulogne and of Normandy Countess of Aumale Adeliza) was born in 1054 in Lens, Artois, France; died after 1086. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]