Raoul "the Timid"

Abt 1025 - 1057  (~ 32 years)

• Name	Raoul "the Timid"
  Birth	Abt 1025	France   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	21 Dec 1057  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  Burial	Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England   [1, 2, 3]
  Person ID	I10702	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW, Ancestor of TNH, Ancestor of TSW, Ancestor of TWK, Ancestor of UKL, Ancestor of WPF, Ancestor of XYZ
  Last Modified	5 Dec 2020

  
  

  Father	Dreux of Vexin,   b. Abt 980   d. 1035 (Age ~ 55 years)
  Mother	Godgifu of England,   b. Abt 1010   d. Bef 1049 (Age ~ 38 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1024  [6]
  Family ID	F2984	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Gytha
  Children	+ 1. Harold de Ewyas,   b. of Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire, England d. Aft 1100
  Family ID	F5868	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 May 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Also called Ralph de Sudeley, Ralph of Mantes. Earl of Worcester; also said to have been Earl of Hereford. From Wikipedia: Ralph came to England with his uncle, the future King Edward the Confessor, in 1041. He attested three charters as earl in 1050, and his earldom was probably located in the east midlands, where the lands of his wife Gytha were located. He was a benefactor of Peterborough Abbey. When King Edward quarrelled with Earl Godwin in 1051, Ralph raised the levies of his earldom to support the king. Godwin and his sons were forced into exile, but they returned the following year, and Ralph and Earl Odda commanded the fleet raised to resist them, but they were unable to prevent their return in triumph. Later in 1052 Godwin's son Sweyn died on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and it was probably at this stage that Ralph was given Sweyn's earldom of Hereford, which included Oxfordshire. In 1055 Ælfgar, the earl of East Anglia, was exiled and allied himself with the ruler of Wales, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Ralph met them in battle on 24 October, but suffered a disastrous defeat, and the invaders sacked Hereford. It was later claimed that Ralph and his Frenchmen started the rout, resulting in his insulting nickname, 'The Timid'. Godwin's son, Harold, the future king, then chased the invaders back into Wales. Ralph died in his early thirties on 21 December 1057, and was buried in Peterborough Abbey. Ann Williams suggested that Ralph probably lost his earldom to Harold after his defeat in 1055, but in the view of Frank Barlow he held it until his death. Ralph's son Harold was one of the royal children brought up by King Edward's wife, Edith. Ralph was on good terms with the Godwins, and his son may have been named after the future king and been his godson. Harold Godwinson may have been given the earldom of Hereford to hold until the Ralph's son came of age. The younger Harold survived the Conquest and later received part of his father's lands, as well as Ewyas Harold, which is named after him. His descendants are the Sudeleys of Toddington, Gloucestershire.

  
  

• Sources

  [S49] Genealogics by Leo Van de Pas, continued by Ian Fettes and Leslie Mahler. [S160] Wikipedia. [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998. [S917] John P. Ravilious, 28 Feb 2003, post to soc.genealogy.medieval. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008. [S2337] Kim Anderson and Richard Joscelyne, "The Parentage of Geoffrey fitz Eustace (c. 1045-1105)." Foundations 10:98, 2018.