Ralph the Timid

Ralph the Timid (also known as Ralf of Mantes) was the Earl of Hereford from 1052 ["Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", 1052, mentions Ralph as Earl. The appointment would have been 1051 after Swegen's exile or early 1052.] until his death in 1057.

Lineage

He was the son of Drogo of Mantes, Count of the Vexin, and Goda, daughter of King Ethelred the Unready of England and Emma of Normandy. Thus, he was a nephew of the English Saxon King Edward the Confessor, who placed him in command of the Earldom of Herefordshire. He himself married a woman named Gytha.

Early Norman castles

He placed Normans in positions of authority beneath him in his county and these men immediately began constructing castles, a new architectural feature in the English landscape.

Edward the Confessor's protection

When Godwin returned from exile in 1052, there was almost war between the English Saxons and the Normans, but it was prevented and many Normans had to flee the country. Edward the Confessor intervened on Ralph's behalf, for he loved him dearly. Godwin made peace with his underling Ralph, but died on September 14, 1053.

In that year, Ralph became Earl for certain in his own right and held the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire as well.

Welsh attacks

In 1055, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd (and later all Wales), invaded Ralph's lands in Hereford along with the exiled Earl Ælfgār. Arming all his men as Norman knights, they sallied forth from his seat at Hereford Castle and were soundly defeated on October 24, 1055.

Disgrace

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn took Hereford and destroyed the new castle. Ralph was disgraced and he died two years later in 1057, never having recovered from the shock of loss or the ignominy of his defeat: he was ever after called "the Timid", less for actual cowardice as for his trust in armoured cavalry over the traditional Anglo-Saxon war form.

After the death of Ralph, Herefordshire was added to Harold Godwinson's Earldom of Wessex [DeVries, "The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066", p. 140.] .

Notes

References

* cite book
title = Anglo-Saxon Chronicle | url = http://omacl.org/Anglo/
* cite book
last = Hynde | first = Thomas (ed.) | title = The Domesday Book: England's History Then and Now.
date = 1995
* cite book
last = DeVries | first = Kelly | authorlink = Kelly DeVries | title = The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066
publisher = Boydell Press | date = 1999 | pages = 108-114 | id = ISBN 1-84383-027-2