Raoul de Toeni et Conches

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, 98A:24, father of Raoul IV who married Alice of Northumberland, and they were the parents of Roger III de Toeni. ¹⁶⁰

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Ralph de Toeni, the third, was more often styled as Ralph de Conches. He was son and heir of Roul de Toeni and his wife Godeheut and was likely born about 1025-1030. He was banner-bearer of the Normans. In 1050, he was at the Duke's Court. In 1054, he took part in Williams's victory over the French at Mortimer, and was sent by the Duke to alarm the King of France with the news. About 1060, Ralph, along with Hugh de Grandmesnil and Ernald d'Echauffour, had their inheritance taken away and were banished by the Duke of Normandy, but they were later recalled and their lands were restored.

Ralph was one of the nobles summoned to a council when the Duke heard of the death of Edward the Confessor and the coronation of Harold. Ralph also took part in the invasion of England and even fought at the Battle of Hastings with William the Conqueror. Sometime between the Battle of Hastings and the Domesday Survey in 1086, he was rewarded with the estates in the counties of Berkshire, Essex, Goucestershire, Herfordshire, Hertshire, Norfolk and Worcester, with the castle of Clifford, Herfordshire, which was built by William Fitz Osbern, the first Earl of Hereford. He had, most likely before he received Clifford Castle, made Flamstead in Hertfordshire his principal seat.

He went Spain on pilgrimage, and made gifts to the abbey of St. Evroul to compensate for helping Ernald d'Echauffour burn the town. He was with the King at Winchershter in 1081, and after William's death in 1087, he was one of the Norman nobles who expelled the royal garrison from their castles. His wife Isabel angered her sister-in-law Hawise, the wife of her brother, William, comté de Evreux, and Hawise induced her husband, William, to attack Ralph. William Rufus, King of England, ordered is adherents in Normandy to aide Ralph. The Count of Evreux besieged Conches, but his forces were later defeated. Ralph remained one of William Rufus' strongest supporters after this.

Ralph was married to Isabel or Elizabeth, the daughter of Simón de Montfort, Seigneur of Montfort l'Amaury, France, by his 1st wife Isabel, said to be the daughter of Hugh Bardoul, Seigneur of Brozes. He died 24 Mar 1101/02, and was buried at Conches. His wife Isabel, after a longer period of widowhood, became a nun at the priory of Haute-Bruyère.
~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition,(Tony), Vol. XIIA, p. 758-760

Raoul married Isabel de Montfort dame de Nogen, daughter of Simon Montfort Seigneur de Montfort l'Amauri and Isabelle de Bardoul. (Isabel de Montfort dame de Nogen was born circa 1050 and died after 1102.)