Ralph IV of Valois
Ralph IV (; born 1025, died 1074) was a northern French nobleman who amassed an extensive array of lordships lying in a crescent around the Île-de-France from the border of the Duchy of Normandy in the northwest to Champagne in the southeast. 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. He held suzerainty over a further seven counties: Corbie, Dammartin, Meulan, Montfort, Péronne, Soissons and Vermandois. In addition, he was the advocatus (defender) of five abbeys: Saint-Denis, Jumièges, Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Père-en-Vallée and Saint-Arnoul. Initially an enemy of the reigning Capetian dynasty, Ralph became a staunch royal ally after 1041. He was one of the royal domain's most powerful neighbours. The historian John Cowdrey likens Ralph's lands to a "clamp ... set upon the northern part of the Capetian demesne". After the death of King Henry I in 1060, Ralph married the king's widow, Queen Anna Yaroslavna. He thus became an important advisor to the young king, Philip I, until his death. 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." Name and number Given the multiplicity of titles he held, the popularity of his name within his family and the fact that all contemporary references to him are in Latin, how to refer to Ralph in modern English (or French) can pose a problem. In the seventeenth century, the Sieur du Cange, followed a century later by Claude Carlier and most recently by Louis Carolus-Barré, argued that Raoul de Gouy (died 926) was never Count of Valois and re-numbered the succeeding counts named Ralph. This converted Ralph IV and his father into Ralph III and Ralph II, respectively. In older literature, he is sometimes called "Ralph the Great". Contemporary chroniclers generally referred to him as Ralph of Crépy, while modern scholars have tended to prefer Ralph of Valois. The English historian Orderic Vitalis, writing in Normandy, called him Ralph of Montdidier (Rodulfo de Monte Desiderii) and Ralph, count of Mantes (Radulfum comitem Medantensium), spelling his first name differently each time. He signed a royal document of 27 May 1067 as "Rodulf, count of Crépy" (Rodulfi comitis Crispiniacensis). The spellings "Radulf" and "Rodulf", although derived from Germanic names with originally different meanings, both have a basis in contemporary sources. Early life Born around 1025, Ralph was the eldest son of Count Ralph III of Valois and Alix of Breteuil. His father died in 1037 or 1038 and Ralph succeeded to the county of Valois, with its seat at Crépy. The castle of Crépy was divided between Ralph and his younger brother Theobald, who inherited their mother's fief of Nanteuil-le-Haudouin. At Crépy, Ralph received the living quarters and the outbuildings, while the donjon went to Theobald. The castle was thus a kind of condominium