Richard was Vice Count de Abrinces, that is Auranches in Normandy. He reconciled his father to the Duke of Normandy by his good carriage and got more than his father had lost. He was Governor of the Castle of St. James in Normandy and Brittany. He married Emma, half sister of William the Conqueror, daughter of Herloin, a Norman nobleman, who married Herlotta or Arlotta, the Conqueror's mother, who was not married to his father.