Name Rodulf Ivry Died 1015 | Siblings Richard I of Normandy | |
Role Richard I of Normandy's brother Spouse Aubree de Canville, Eremberga Children John of Avranches, Hugues de Bayeux, Emma of Ivry, Raoul of Ivry Parents Eperleng, master miller of Vaudreuil, Sprota Grandchildren William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford Similar People William I Longsword, Gunnora, Emma of Normandy, Rollo, Poppa of Bayeux | ||
Rodulf of Ivry (Rodolf, Raoul, comte d'Ivry) (died c. 1015) was a Norman noble, and regent of Normandy during the minority of Richard II.
Contents
Life
Rodolf was the son of Eperleng, a rich owner of several mills at Vaudreuil, and of his wife Sprota, who by William I, Duke of Normandy had been mother of Richard I of Normandy, making Rodolf the Duke's half-brother.
When Richard died in 996, Rodulf took effective power during the minority of his nephew, Richard II of Normandy, alongside the boy's mother, 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. 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 states that territorial designations for these titles came in only in the 1040s. 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 married Aubrée de Canville, who died before 1011. His children were: