General Notes

!King Edward the Confessor granted him an earldom in England (the only foreigner who attained this honor).  Servant of King Edward. [William I and the Norman Conquest]

WAITE LINE - 21 ggrandfather

!Lord of Gael and Montfort in Brittany, Earl of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge in England.  One of two main conspirators against William I in 1075.  The other was his brother-in-law Roger of Breteuil.  It is thought that the plot was hatched about the time of Ralf's marriage to Roger's sister Emma.  Every effort was made to destroy Earl Ralf while attempts were made to persuade Roger to remain a true loyal son of his father, William's trusted aide. Armies under William of Warenne and Richard fitzGilbert of Clare defeated some of Ralf's adherents at Fagaduna, presumably a perversion of Fakenham, perhaps the one in Suffolk rather than that in Norfolk; and another Anglo-Norman force, under Bishops Odo of Bayeux and Geoffrey of Coutances, pushed Ralf back from Cambridge to Norwich.  The earl left his new wife in command of the castle and fled overseas, apparently to raise new troops.  Norwich capitulated after a siege which may have lasted up to 3 months; the countess and her men were granted terms and allowed to leave the country; and the royal army, now consisting of 300 soldiers and some crossbowmen under Bishop Geoffrey, William of Warenne, and Robert Malet, lord of the honour of Eye (Suffolk), entered the castle.  The rebellion had collapsed before Danish aid could arrive.  Earl Roger was arrested and Earl Waltheof held in close custody. At Christmas court at Westminster William judged the rebels.  Earl Ralf was condemned to perpetual disinheritance and Earl Roger to disinheritance and imprisonment.   But on 31 May 1076, just before William left England to invade Brittany, Earl Waltheof was beheaded. [William I and the Norman Conquest]

!In the spring of 1076 William I pursued Ralf de Gael into Brittany.  With the agreement of Count Hoel V William attacked the city of Dol, where Ralf had established himself, only to incur one of William's greatest humiliations. When King Philip, reinforced perhaps by Angevin and Aquitainian contingents, advanced to the relief of Dol, William retreated so quickly that he had to abandon all his equipment and suffered a loss which was estimated as 15,000 pounds sterling.  Earl Ralf remained the powerful lord of Gael.  [William I and the Norman Conquest]

!Earl Ralf was forced to leave England after the conspiracy against William I in 1075. [WBH - England]

!Earl of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge, who forfeited in 1074. [Magna Charta Barons, p. 121]

!Roger Fitz-Osborn, the earl of Hereford, and Ralph de Gauder, the earl of Norfolk, had agreed to unite their interests by the marriage of Roger's sister to Ralph.  But William I, with that tyrannical interference with the domestic rights of families which prevailed down to the time of the Stuarts, issued his commands that no such marriage should take place.  He was absent, and the earls gave no heed to his prohibition.  There was a great feast at Norwich; and there came bishops and barons, Saxon as well as Norman, to honor the bridal of Emma with de Gauder.  It was a time when men spoke out; and the Normans complained bitterly of the interference of the absent king with their private alliances. The Normans complained of his ingratitude; the Saxons of his oppressions.  The murmurs ripened into plots.  Waltheof, the Saxon earl, was made privy to the conspiracy; but he refused to take any active part in what he conceived a hopeless attempt.  He however kept the secret of the Normans.  The insurrecton broke out, but was speedily subdued.  A great battle was fought in Norfolk, before the arrival of William from Normandy.  He came to determine the fate ofthe captive rebels.  The Norman leaders were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.  Waltheof was betrayed by his wife (the Conqueror's daughter Judith); and after lingering a year in prison, was beheaded at Winchester.

!According to Phyllis Waite Holman Campbell this is the progenitor of our Waites, known also as Ralf de Wayte, b. in Brittany, in the Dol area; m. Emma from near Hertford; had land in Norwich; plotted rebellion against William the Conqueror at Ralf's wedding; escaped to Scandinavia; went on the First Crusade with Robert Curthose, taking along his wife and two teenage children, but died before they reached Jerusalem.

Ralph of Gael, earl of Norfolk, was a great Breton lord, and after his defeat in England he took refuge at Dol where he was joined not only by many of his fellow magnates of Brittany, but also by troops from Anjou. Such was the alliance which King Philip I of France had done so much to foster and the French king, who had already established Edgar Atheling at Montreuil, lost no time in supporting William's enemies in the west. The sequel was logical. By October 1076 William was besieging Dol, and the French king came promptly to its rescue. Early in November he relieved the city and drove William the Conqueror with heavy loss from its walls. [The Norman Achievement, p. 50-51]

There is much controversy concerning his parentage, but he was probably the son of Ralf, earl of Hereford (or earl of the East Angles), and Getha, an English heiress. Raoul commanded a great company of Bretons at the battle of Hastings, for which he received the earldoms of Norfolk and Suffolk and part of Cambridge. He m. 1075, Emma, dau. of William Fitz Osberne, in defiance of the expressed wishes of the Conqueror while the latter was absent in Normandy, at which time he conspired with is bro-in-law, Roger de Breteuil, Waltheof, earl of Northumberland, and other nobles against King William. The plot was revealed by Waltheof, who repented and advised Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, and later the king, of the conspiracy. The revolt speedily ended. Roger was cast into prison, where he remained for the balance of is life, but Raoul de Gael, earl of Norfolk, escaped to Denmark. His wife defended the castle of Norwich until she could make satisfactory terms for herself and followers, when she joined the earl in Brittany, where they found refuge under Hoel V, count of that country. Banished from England, he long flourished in Brittany, and attended Duke Robert Courteheuse on the Crusade to the Holy Land in 1096, accompanied by his wife, both of whom died on the journey to Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his son in his Brittany estates of Gauder and Montfort, and his dau. m. Robert, earl of Leicester, and returned to England. [Falaise Roll, p. 74]

King William's policy was to give one shire to one earl under his two viceroys, and to Ralph Wader, an Anglo-Breton, who had fought for the Normans, was given the earldom of East Anglia, whose centre was Norwich Castle, to which lands in Suffolk owed castle-ward. [Victoria History of Suffolk, p. 165]

The elegant walls of Norwich keep, with their swarming decorations, epitomize the way in which military considerations might be brushed aside. It may have been begun as early as 1094, along with the cathedral and bishop's palace. But even then it was archaic, outside the mainstream of the development of fortifications. Its openings were cut for lighting, rather than for their field of fire. [Castles of England, Scotland and Wales, p. 26]

Roger Bigod, Robert Malet, and Ralph Wader met Sweyn when he sailed up the Orwell in 1069 and defeated im near Ipswich. A few years later Suffolk was called to arms again under Robert Malet to resist its own earl. The king's frequent absence in Normandy and Ralph Wader's steady advance in power were the forerunners of the earl's rebellion. Ralph married Emma, dau. of the Earl of Hereford, and at the Bride-ale at Exning hatched the conspiracy and rebellion which was to divide England into independent earldoms. The earl was defeated and outlawed, and his fall made way for the rise of a more formidable family, the Bigods. [Victoria History of Suffolk, p. 165]

Seigneur of Montford de Gael in Brittany; son of Ralph de Gael, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Suffolk & Cambridge, etc., and Emma, dau. of William Fitz Osbern. [Ancestral Roots, p. 58]

Son of Ralph the Timid Gael and Gytha Hereford; m. Emma Fitz Osborne; father of Amice Gael who m. Robert Beaumont. [WFT Vol 1 Ped 986]

Son of Ralph de Gael and Emma Fitz Osbern; father of Amice de Gael who m. Robert II de Beaumont. [GRS 3.03, Automated Archives, CD#100]

Earl of Norfolk; joined with his bro-in-law, Roger de Breteuil, Earl of Hereford, in the revolt of 1075. [The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Herefordshire, p. 356]

Earl of East Anglia; English on his father's side and had been born in Norfolk, but grew up in Brittany. Plotted with his bro-in-law Roger, Earl of Hereford, to bring in Danish support, they also tried to bring in both Edric the Wild and Earl Waltheof. Waltheof declined to be involved in the plot, but also declined to betray them. If successful, the simultaneous rising of the Earls would have cut England in two. Somehow the timeing got out of alignment and William was able to crush Roger before dealing to Ralf. [Conquest & Resistance, England: 1066-88 <http://britannia.com.history/hastings.html]

The second constable of Norwich Castle was William Fitz Osbern's son-in-law Ralph Guader, who plotted the overthrow of William I, with Roger, Earl of Hereford, brother of Ralph's wife. At the wedding feast at Exning in Cambridgeshire in 1047, it was planned to place Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria on the throne. Roger was to return to the West to raise his men leaving Ralph in charge of the eastern counties and the Breton and Danish pirates were to be invited to join the revolt. Somehow the plot was revealed and Ralph was force to flee to Brittany leaving his bride 'to hold the fort'. This she did when William sent a large force against her, holding uot for three months, eventually obtaining an honourable surrender and being allowed, together with her garrison to leave the country. Ralph and his wife later took part in the Crusades and died on the way to the Holy Land. [Castles of East Anglia: Norwich Castle]

Son of Ralph 'the Staller'; m. Agnes de Ferrers. [Sharen Neal <MJR6387@aol.com, 20 May 2002]