General Notes

Ralph/Rodulf de Toeni; feudal Lord also of Conches; custodian with his son of Castle of Tillieres from 1013 to 1014; took part in Norman expedition to Southern Italy c1015.  [Burke's Peerage]

-----------------------

RALPH (or RODULF) DE TOENI II, son and heir, was born probably before 970, for in 1013 or 1014 the Duke of Normandy, having founded the castle of TilliÈres, gave the custody of it to Ralph de Toeni and his son Roger, together with Neel, Vicomte of the Cotentin. Ralph was seigneur of Tosni and Conches. ) About 1015 he went to Apulia; and in the winter of 1015-16 he was at the siege of Salerno (a). The name and parentage of his wife are unknown, but it is possible that she belonged to a collateral branch of the ducal house; for according to Orderic, Ralph's son Roger descended from an alleged uncle of Rolf, the founder of Normandy (b). The date of Ralph's death is not known.  [Complete Peerage XII/1:754-5, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(a) "Chron. Mon. Casinensis" (in one MS, only) in Mon. Germ. Hist., vol ix (vol vii Scriptorum), p. 652, note (a); F. Chalondon, La Domination normande en Italie, vol i, pp. 49, 52; cf. Douglas, op. cit. p. 30, note 127.  He may be the "quidam Normannorum audacissimus, nomine Rodulfuls," who (according to Rodulf Glaber), having displeased Duke Richard, went to Rome to lay his cause before the Pope and was induced by him to got to Benevento to fight the Greeks; and after victorious campaigns returned to Normandy (Rec. des Hist. de France, vol x, pp. 25-26).  According to the Sens Chron., Count Rodulf, whose son Roger fought in Spain (see p. 756, note "b" below), set out from Normandy for Jerusalem, but when he reached Apulia was asked by the local princeps to abandon his pilgrimage and stop to fight the Greeks, which he did ("Chron. S. Petri Vivi Senonensis," in Idem, p. 223).  These writers may refer to Ralph de Toeni, but the identity cannot be proved.

(b) . . . de Stirpe Malahulcii, qui Rollonis patruus fuerat (Will. de Jumieges, p. 157--interpoations by Orderic).  An alternative reading is "de stirpe mala Hulcii" (Rec. des Hist. de France, vol xi, p. 38); whence he is called "Hulce" by the Vicomte du Motey, Origines de la Normandie, p. 55, note 4 and p. 173.  Nothing is known of Rolf's alleged uncle under either name.  If he really existed, the alleged descent might be through the unknown wife of the elder Ralph.