House of Tosny

In the early 12th-century the family had been given a Norman pedigree, chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote in an interpolation into the Gesta Normanorum Ducum of William of Jumièges that Roger de Tosny, then Lord of Tosny and Conches, was “de stirpe Malahulcii qui Rollonis ducis patruus...” (of the lineage of Malahulc, uncle of Duke Rollo.

Raoul I fought in the County of Apulia as part of the Norman conquest of southern Italy, while the chroniclers report the somewhat legendary exploits of Roger I in Hispania during the first quarter of the 11th century.

[8] In the Duchy of Normandy, the 1077 marriage between Raoul II and Isabelle de Montfort allowed the Tosnys to direct the châtellenie of Nogent-le-Roi, which they held onto until around 1200.

It also had scattered domains in the Eure valley (Fontaine-sous-Jouy, Cailly-sur-Eure, Planches, Acquigny), the Seine valley (Tosny, Villers-sur-le-Roule, Bernières-sur-Seine), in Vexin Normand (Vesly, Guerny, Villers-en-Vexin, Hacqueville, Heuqueville, Val de Pîtres), in Pays de Caux and Talou around Blainville-Crevon, Mortemer (Seine-Maritime, Mortemer-sur-Eaulne), Dieppe and Yerville.

In spite of these extensive holdings, the 12th century gives the impression of a decline in the Tosny family fortunes in comparison to some of the neighbouring houses in eastern Normandy.

In 1309, the male line of the Tosnys became extinct, and their English lands passed to their sole heiress, Alice de Toeni, Countess of Warwick.

The duchy of Normandy in the second half of the 11th century, with the principal castles of the house of Tosny (in black)
Arms of de Tosny: Argent, a maunch gules , adopted in the 13th century