General Notes

!Complete Peerage vol 7 p 521, vol 9 p 702,703, vol 4 Ch #4 vol 7 p 734,744 (GS #942 D24c)
Wurts' Magna Charta vol 1 p 177, vol 3 p 422, 429, vol 6 p 1758, 1759 (GS#942 D22w);
!The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy by Cannon and Griffith.
The Battle Abbey Roll vol 2 p 262, 263 (GS #942 D2bb);
Baker's Hist of Nrthmp vol 1 p 121 (GS #Q929.242 H264h)
Hist and Antiq of Beverly Oliver p 462 (GS #942.74/B5 H26)
Plantagenet Ancestry p 130, 94, 95 (GS #Q942.54 H2nic)
Dict of Nat'l Bio vol 1 p 148, 149, vol 22 p 37, 255, vol 26 p 141, 240 (GS #920.042 D56ln)
Searle's Anglo Saxon Bishops, Kings & Nobles p 300, 450, 451 (GS #942 D22swy)
Hist of Yorkshire, preface (GS #Q942.74 D2ha)
Ormerod's Hist of Chshr vol 1 pt 1 p 7, 8, 123, 49 (GS #Folio 942.71 H2or)
Arden's Noble British Fam vol 1 (GS #Folio 942 D2dh)
Name also spelled Algar

MINOR, NEWLIN LINES

Earl of Mercia 1057; banished 1058; d. 1059; bur. Coventry, Warwickshire; m. Alfgifu, Princess of England; father of Eldgyth of Mercia. [Charlemagne & Others, Chart 3323b]

!Saxon Earl of Mercia. [Magna Charta Barons, p. 87]

!His daughter married Griffith, king of Wales, and later Harold I, king of England. [Knight's Popular History of England, Vol. 1, p. 202-3]

!Saxon earl of Chester; son of Leofric; father of Edwin. [The Bruces and the Cumyns, p. 512]

Son of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Godiva; m. Elfgiva; father of Edwin, Morcar, Burhhard, and Edgiva/Alditha. [Falaise Roll, Table XIII]

In 1055 Aelfgar, who had been exiled from England through the machinations of the sons of Godwine, earl of Wessex, allied himself with Gruffud ap Llywelyn. The allies burned Hereford and Gruffudd expelled a large proportion of the population of the borderland. Thus did the Welsh repossess Whitford and Hope, Bangor Is-coed and Chirk, Presteigne and Radnor. [A History of Wales, p. 101]

Algar gave the priory of Lapley in Staffordshire as a cell to Saint-Remigius of Rheims, quoted in a charter preserved in the local history of the city, where his son Burhhard was buried. [Falaise Roll, p. 159]

Earl of East Anglis and Mercia; father of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, Morcar, Earl of Northumberland, and Lucia. [Hereward, p. 160]

In 1055 the Welsh ravages of 1052 were repeated on a larger scale. Aelfgar, the son of Leofric and earl of the East Angles, was banished at the meeting of the Witan in March. After raising a force in Ireland he made an alliance with Gruffydd ab Llywelyn, who had recently overthrown and slain his rival Gruffydd ab Rhydderch. Together they marched on Herefordshire and harried the country. The effect of the Welsh ravages in Edward's reign were still felt in the time of Domesday. Two miles from the city of Hereford Gruffydd and Aelfgar were metby Earl Ralph on 24 October at the head of a large force of English and Normans. According to Florence of Worcester Ralph was ill-advised enough to order the English part of his force to follow the Norman practice of fighting on horseback. When battle was joined Ralph and his followers set the example of
flight, which was followed by the entire force mounted on horses untrained to war. A great slaughter was made, 400-500 men falling in the rout. The city was plundered, the minster of St. Ethelbert burned, shortly after its erection by Bishop Ethelstan to commemorate the martyrdom of the East Anglian king by Offa, and its store of relics and vestments carried away. The Welsh acount adds that Gruffydd destroyed the citadel as well as the town. [The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Herefordshire, p. 353]

Earl of Mercia, b. 1000/2 in Mercia; d. 1059; m.1 Alversa Malet; m.2 Alfgifu, Princess of England; father of:
1. Lucia of Mercia
2. Edwin, Earl of Mercia
3. Morcar, Earl of Northumbria
4. Burhhfard/Brihtric
5. Eldyth, Queen of England
[More Ratcliff Branches, http://pwl.netcom.com/~espii/genealogy/ratcliff2.html]