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Birth:          BEF 1028 Mantes-la-Jolie, Yvelines, France
Death:          21 Dec 1057 Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, England
Burial:         Abbey, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England

Notes
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I02103
Ralph, described by contemporaries as "Comes" [Earl], possibly a courtier of comital 
rank but without a territorial earldom, at any rate in England, for he was French, to 
support the dignity, but also possibly Earl of Worcester or conceivably Hereford (he 
was employed at a high level against a Welsh incursion into England and revolts by 
various earls throughout the 1050s, though on one occasion he and his soldiers ran 
away before fighting even began); and/or even the East Midlands; held Sudeley and 
Toddington, Glos, and Chilvers Cotton, Warwicks; married Getha, and died 21 Dec 
1057. [Burke's Peerage]

Note: The Plantagenet Ancestry calls him Earl of Hereford.

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EARLDOM of HEREFORD (0) - preconquest

A pre-Conquest Earldom of Hereford has been assigned to Ralph, son of Dreux, Count 
of the Vexin, by Goda, sister of Edward the Confessor, but he is first credited with an 
Earldom of Worcester prior to 1049. On the landing of Eustace, Count of Boulogne, 
"Earl Ralph" is stated to have been one of those who brought assistance "de suo 
comitatu", but it is not by any means clear what is intended by "comitatu". When the 
great earldom of Swein was confiscated and broken up, Ralph is presumed to have 
received Herefordshire, and to have been Earl of Hereford when he opposed Aelfgar's 
forces in 1055. According to Hoveden, he met the enemy 2 miles from Hereford and 
shortly after the battle fled from the field with his French and Norman followers, 
leaving Hereford to be sacked and burnt. He d. 21 Dec 1057, and was buried in 
Peterborough Abbey. [Complete Peerage VI:446-7]

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RALPH, 2nd son of Dreux and Godgifu. He held Sudeley and Toddington, co. 
Gloucester, and Chilvers Coton, co. Warwick, T.R.E. In 1051, when Godwine, Earl of 
Kent, rebelled and collected an army at Tetbury, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Siward, 
Earl of Northumbria, went to the aid of the King at Gloucester, and Radulfus comes . . 
. de juo comitatu quot potuit congregavit. In the same year, he and Odda, Earl of 
Devon and Somerset, were appointed by the King to command the fleet. In 1055 he 
was sent with a numerous army to protect Hereford against Alfgar, the rebel Earl of 
Chester, and Griffin, his Welsh ally; but he and his horsemen fled before the battle 
was effectively joined, and Hereford was burnt by the Welsh. He married Getha. He 
died 21 December 1057 and was buried at Peterborough. [Complete Peerage 
XII/1:411-2, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
also known as Ralph de Mantes

Parents
____ Dreux (ABT  990 - 1 Jul 1035)
____ Goda (Godgifu) (ABT 1004 - 1055)

Siblings
DE SUDELEY Ralph (BEF 1028 - 21 Dec 1057)

Marriage To CLOPA Gytha (ABT 1040 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
CLOPA Osgood (ABT 1015 - )
----- ----- ()

Children by CLOPA Gytha ABT 1040 - 
DE SUDELEY Harold (ABT 1055 - AFT 1115)

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