Rodulf of Ivry

Rodulf of Ivry (Rodolf, Raoul, comte d'Ivry) (died c. 1015) was a Norman noble, half-brother of Richard I of Normandy.

Regent in Normandy

Duke Richard I died in 996. His successor Richard II of Normandy being young, Rodulf took effective power [François Neveux, "La Normandie des ducs aux rois", Ouest-France, Rennes, 1998, p.65] , alongside Richard's widow Gunnor.

According to William of Jumièges he had to quell dual rebellions in 996, of peasants and nobility; against the former he cut off feet and hands. [Guillaume de Jumièges, "Histoire des ducs de Normandie", éd. Guizot, 1826, interpolating Robert de Torigni and Ordericus Vitalis, p.111-114] . He arrested the chief aristocratic rebel Guillaume, comte d'Exmes.

Count

The counts of the duchy of Normandy 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 [David Bates, "Normandy before 1066", p.114] states that territorial designations for these titles came in only in the 1040s. [Pierre Bauduin, "La première Normandie (Xeme-XIeme siècles)", Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2004, p.200] . 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, 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, 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 and towards Lieuvin (forêt du Vièvre).

Family

He was son of Eperleng, master miller of Vaudreuil, and of Sprota, widow of William I, Duke of Normandy; he therefore shared his mother with Richard I.

He married Eremberga, who died before 1011, then Aubrée de Canville. His children were

*Hugues, bishop of Bayeux (c. 1011-1049)
*Jean d'Ivry, bishop of Avranches (1060-1067) then archbishop of Rouen (1067-1079)
*Emma, who married Osbern de Crépon (Osbern the Steward), mother of William FitzOsbern
*Raoul
*Daughter of unknown name, who married Richard de Beaufou.

ource

* Guillaume de Jumièges, "Histoire des ducs de Normandie", éd. Guizot, 1826, avec interpolation de Robert de Torigni et d'Orderic Vital, p.111-114

References

*Pierre Bauduin, "La première Normandie (Xeme-XIeme siècles)", Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2004.
*François Neveux, "La Normandie des ducs aux rois", Ouest-France, Rennes, 1998

Notes