Ralph IV of Valois

Ralph was the count of seven counties: Valois (Crépy) from 1037/8, Bar-sur-Aube and Vitry from the 1040s, Montdidier from 1054, Vexin (Mantes) and Amiens from 1063 and Tardenois from an unknown date.

The historian John Cowdrey likens Ralph's lands to a "clamp ... set upon the northern part of the Capetian demesne".

Guibert of Nogent, a contemporary of Ralph, wrote, "How great he was can also be gathered from the single fact that he married the mother of King Philip after the death of her husband.

The spellings "Radulf" and "Rodulf", although derived from Germanic names with originally different meanings, both have a basis in contemporary sources.

[16] In the 1040s, while en route to Rome, Ralph met his recently widowed cousin, Adela (Adelaide, Latin Adelhais), countess of Bar-sur-Aube and Vitry-en-Perthois[17] since the death of her father, Nocher III, in 1040.

Upon his return he found that Adela's vassals, fearing his authority, had attempted to marry her to Renard, count of Joigny.

[22] Haquenez appealed to Gervase, archbishop of Reims, who wrote to Pope Alexander II explaining the situation.

According to the archbishop, "the marriage of our queen to Count Ralph (Comiti Radulpho) grieves our king most of all" (rex noster ... maxime dolet).

[23] The pope's response, addressed to Gervase, his suffragans and to the unnamed archbishop of Sens, was brought back to France by Haquenez.

[19][23] The Chronicle of the abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif records the death of Henry and the re-marriage of Anna in the same sentence, fuelling speculation that the queen and Ralph had been involved in a love affair.

Ralph, however, was accused of bigamy, since his repudiation of Haquenez had been illegal under both civil and ecclesiastical law, and consanguinity, since he was related to the Capetian house within the prohibited degree.

As a result it seems, Ralph and Anna did not attend the French court regularly again until 1065, although she continued to be acknowledged as co-regent with Count Baldwin V of Flanders.

This may explain why at least one later source, the Annales sancti Benigni Divonensis, the chronicle of the cathedral of Dijon, claims that Philip's younger brother Hugh acted as his "coadjutor".

[25] Ralph is mentioned in the Vita nobilissimi comitis Girardi de Rossellon, a Latin hagiography of Count Gerard II of Paris, written shortly after 1100 and preserved in one 13th-century manuscript.

Although much of the material, including the protagonist's byname ("de Roussillon"), is legendary, Ferdinand Lot believes that the episode concerning Ralph is based on an actual event.

[27] In 1065/66, Ralph supported Count Manasses III of Rethel in his war against Bishop Theoderic of Verdun in the Holy Roman Empire.

According to late sources, in or before 1071, Ralph attacked his son-in-law, Count Herbert IV of Vermandois, and seized Péronne, to which he had a claim from his second marriage.

Roger's wife, Hadewisa, however, had inherited the villa of Mers at the mouth of the Bresle, which lay within the diocese of Amiens and may have been under Ralph's suzerainty.

[31] Sometime between 1061 and 1066, Duke William entrusted Hugh de Grandmesnil with the castle of Neuf-Marché, possibly to defend against Ralph after the latter's acquisition of Vexin.

Then, between 1063 and 1067, Maurilius, archbishop of Rouen, granted the lordship of Gisors, which he held from the duke in Normandy, to Ralph as a life lease.

Ralph then attended the Whitsun court of King Philip I of France in Paris, witnessing a royal charter on 27 May.

Ralph, having been to William's celebratory court at Fécamp and having a son raised in the Norman household, was well-positioned to pass along information about the battle of Hastings to the bishop, who began work on his poem Carmen de Hastingae Proelio shortly after.

According to the Genealogia comitum Flandrensium, the men of Péronne, which Ralph had probably seized shortly before, were part of the king's army.

Since Montdidier had rightfully belonged to Ralph's abandoned second wife, and the count of Vermandois also had a claim,[17] Pope Gregory VII requested that his body be moved.

The sight of his father's decaying corpse is said to have motivated Simon to first contemplate the vanity of seeking after worldly glory.

[40] The crown acquired Vexin and the advocacies of Corbie and Saint-Denis, Amiens returned to the bishop and Simon granted his brother-in-law Herbert of Vermandois both Valois and Montdidier.

These then passed on Herbert's death in 1080 to his daughter, Adelaide, who married Simon's step-brother Hugh, brother of the king.

[16] The monk Guibert of Nogent, whose father fought at Mortemer, wrote in the first quarter of the twelfth century that he had spoken to many who had known Ralph.