Ida de Tosny

Ida de Toesny, Countess of Norfolk was very likely a daughter of Ralph V de Tosny (died 1162) and his wife Margaret (born circa 1125 and living in 1185), a daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester. [1]

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Relationship to Henry II

Ida de Tosny was a royal ward and mistress of King Henry II, by whom she was mother of one of his illegitimate sons - William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, (b c. 1176-March 7, 1226). For many years, until the discovery of a charter of William mentioning "Comitissa Ida, mater mea" (engl. "Countess Ida, my mother",[2] it was assumed that Rosamund Clifford, a previous mistress of Henry's, was the mother, but painstaking genealogical detective work [3] has since shown otherwise. Ida was not the first English royal ward to be taken as mistress by a King who was her guardian; that honour probably belongs to Isabel de Beaumont (Elizabeth de Beaumont), daughter of Robert de Beaumont, who fought at the Battle of Hastings with the Conqueror. That king's youngest son made Beaumont's daughter his mistress.[4]

Marriage

Around Christmas 1181, Ida de Tosny was given to Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk in marriage by Henry II, together with the manors of Acle, Halvergate and South Walsham, which had been confiscated from his inheritance after his father's death (Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk).[5] Ida and Roger had a number of children including:

Many historians, including Marc Morris have speculated that the couple had a third daughter, Alice, who married Aubrey de Vere IV, 2nd Earl of Oxford as his second wife. If so, the marriage would have been well within the bounds of consanguinity, for the couple would have been quite closely related, a daughter of the second earl of Norfolk being first cousin once removed to the second earl of Oxford.

Ida de Tosney in fiction

Ida de Tosny and her husband Roger are the main characters in Elizabeth Chadwick's The Time of Singing (Sphere, 2008), published in the USA as For the King's Favor. They appear as minor characters in other of her books set at the same time, notably To Defy a King, which concerns the marriage of their son Hugh to Maud, a daughter of William Marshal

References

  1. ^ Marc Morris: The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2005, page 2)
  2. ^ Bradenstoke Cartulary, 1979
  3. ^ Chadwick, Elizabeth. The Time Of Singing (2008)
  4. ^ Marc Morris [The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the thirteenth century (2005), p. 2]
  5. ^ Marc Morris [The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the thirteenth century (2005), p. 2]