Robert (Toeni) de Todeni

Descendants

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Biography

Robert de Tosny (or Toeni, Todeni etc) was an important tenant-in-chief under William the Conqueror. His lands in England became the feudal barony of Belvoir, centred at Belvoir castle (pronounced like Beaver).

Domesday holdings in 1086.

• PASE website profile: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=40475
• Opendomesday website profile: https://opendomesday.org/name/robert-of-tosny/

Continental origins. The Toeni (Tosny, Todeny, etc) family is from modern Tosny (postcode 27700, commune Les Trois Lacs) which is a bend of the river Seine, near the famous Chateau Gaillard. Keats-Rohan more specifically states that Robert de Todeni of Belvoir was from a branch of the Tosnys that held land in Guerny (27720) and Vesly (27870), just to the east of Tosny. All these places are in the modern département of Eure.

Vesly is known to be a possession of the family because it was the maritagium of Robert's sister in France, Berthe. Guerny was mentioned in a document by Robert and the monks of Marmoutier. (See below.)

Known relatives. Robert de Tosny of Belvoir is known to have had a brother Berengar Spina and a sister, Berthe, who was wife of Guy I de Laval, lord (seigneur) of Laval in France. As Keats-Rohan explains both these relationships are demonstrated "in a document recording an agreement with Marmoutier" made about 1060. Peter Stewart describes the key document as Acta Duc Norm 342 no 157, "notice by the monks of Marmoutier dated 1063":

Notitia de conventione Rotberti de Toeniaco avunculi domni Johannis monachi nostri ... tali pacto ut si quando monachus apud nos esse voluerit et frater ejus nomine Berengerius Spina cognominatus hoc velit et concedit illi si vixerit, nec ipse refutetur a nobis

It thus described Berengar Spina as a brother, and Guy's son John de Laval as a nephew. As Peter Stewart explains: "The mother of Jean and Haimo was named as Berta in a notice by the monks of Marmoutier written 1055".

Connection to the other Toeni families. As Loyd remarks:

The evidence that Todeni of Belvoir was a branch of the Tosny family is strong, but the precise nature of the connexion is difficult to prove.

Keats-Rohan considers it certain that there is a connection, but agrees that there is doubt about the exact relationships. Her proposal is that his father might have been named Roger, and therefore been confused with the father of Robert de Toeni of Stafford. This does not appear to have created any new consensus. Peter Stewart speculates that Robert of Belvoir may have been the first cousin of Robert of Stafford, and son of an unknown brother, not uncle, of the other Robert's father Roger.

Peter Stewart questions the logic of Keats-Rohan, both about there being another Roger de Toenis apart from the father of Robert of Stafford, and secondly about the idea that the name Berengar implies a close connection to Spain:

Keats-Rohan (1999) 380–381 stated that Orderic ‘once refers to a Roger “the Spaniard” and he may do so to distinguish him from the Roger de Tosny, founder of Conches, he mentions elsewhere’. This is incorrect, as Orderic elsewhere specificied Roger de Hisania as the man who was killed with his sons by the Beaumonts, and whom we know to have been the founder of Conches as well as the husband of Godehildis (see nn 5 & 13 below), Ord Vit Hist iv 206: reported speech of Roger the Bearded, seigneur of Beaumont: ‘... Hoc nimirum potest in bello ... in quo corruerunt Rogerius de Hispania et filii eius Elbertus et Elinantius atque plures alii ...’. Conjectures linking this senior line of the Tosny family to the Belvoir branch depending on the alleged existence of two Rogers, one who went to Spain and the other who founded Conches, are therefore untenable. The vanishingly remote possibility that two distinct Rogers of Tosny went to Spain at different times, both later coming to be known as ‘Roger the Spaniard’, is not supported by any evidence.

And concerning the name Berengar, used by Robert of Belvoir's brother and eldest son:

The name Berenguer is not evidence for Berenger Spina ▲4.9 to have had Catalan ancestry, as proposed by Evans (1968) 616 making him a son of Roger I and compounded by Keats-Rohan (1993) 35 and n 107 adding as his mother Godehildis, most improbably identified with the purported wife from Barcelona. In fact the name Berenger was current in Normandy before this time—notably, on the first occurrence of Roger’s father Radulf II in a ducal charter he attested immediately after the chamberlain Berenger, Acta Duc Norm 96 no 15, charter of Duke Richard II dated at Rouen 21 Sep 1014: S. Berengerii cubicularii. S. Rodulfi de Todeniaco. The name does not appear to have been used in the comital family of Barcelona before Ermessenda’s son.

The Ermessenda he refers to, Countess of Barcelona, was widowed 1017. Roger de Toeni the father of Robert of Stafford fought for her while he was in Spain.

Wife. We only know that her name was Adelais. Peter Stewart remarked:

Only the initial letter of her name is given in Carte Belv 288–289 no 1, record of the foundation of Belvoir priory by her husband: Robertus inceperat ecclesiam sanctæ Mariæ juxta castellum suum ... Robertus et A. ejus uxor ... Robertus, concedente A. uxore sua ... Mortuâ verò A. uxore Roberti; the full name was given in an undated charter of her daughter Agnes, ibid 290 no 7: ego Agnes de Toteneio confirmo donationem elemosinarum quas pater meus Robertus de Toteneio, et mater mea Adelais dederunt ecclesiæ sanctæ Mariæ de Belvoir.

Children. In summary, based mainly on Peter Stewart's very detailed summary (boys oldest to youngest, then girls oldest to youngest):

• Berenger, born around 1045-50, died 29 Jun before 1115 without issue. Married Albreda. He was the heir in France, but he was also a tenant-in-chief in England before his father died.
• William, lord of Belvoir after his father, died after 1100 without issue.
• Geoffrey. Died without issue.
• Albreda, who was heiress of the Belvoir lordship after her brother William died. She died after 1115 and before autumn 1126. Married Robert de Insula, lord of Belvoir (by right of his wife), who died after 1129/30.
• Adeliza. Heiress of her older sister for the barony of Belvoir. Died after 1136. She married Roger Bigod, who was born about 1045, vavasor in Les Loges & Savenay, lord of the barony of Framlingham, sheriff of Suffolk and Norfolk, and a royal steward. Roger died at Earsham, Suffolk 8 or 10 Sep 1107, and was buried at Norwich cathedral.
• Agnes, died after September 1130. She married (1st) Radulf de Belfou, lord of Hockering, who died about 1100-1105. Married (2nd) Hubert de

Ryes, who died before 1127. Only the two youngest daughters had surviving children.

Approximate death year. Peter Stewart has commented on the difference between Keats-Rohan and Sanders:

Keats-Rohan (1999) 380 stated, ‘At his death c.1093 his Norman heir was his son Berengar’. Sanders (1960) 12 placed his death in 1088, perhaps from confusion with his namesake Robert [of Stafford] who became a monk in infirmity at that time.

Sources

• Judith Green, (1999) "The Descent of Belvoir", Prosopon Newsletter.
• Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, pp.380-381.
• Keats-Rohan, (1998) "Belvoir: The Heirs of Robert and Berengar de Tosny", Prosopon Newsletter.
• Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, p.104.
• Peter Stewart, "Origin and early generations of the Tosny family", bobwolfe website
• Sanders, English Baronies, p.12

Also see

• Charles Cawley, MedLands article