BORN_SHORT ‎before 1046, DIED_SHORT ‎1096‎, at least 50 years
TITLES: Earl of Norfolk, Earl of Suffolk.

PROPERTY: Seigneur of Gael, Bretagne, France.

He was the leading figure in the Revolt of the Earls, the last serious revolt against William the Conqueror.

In 1065 he was with Conan II, Duke of Brittany when he besieged Rivallon I of Dol, Lord of Dol, in the castle of Combourg.
In 1066 he fought on the Norman side at the Battle of Hastings.
In February or March 1068 he was present at William the Conqueror’s court with his father.
In 1069 he routed a force of Norsemen which had invaded Norfolk and occupied Norwich. It may been in recognition of this exploit (or of services rendered at Hastings) that the Conqueror created him Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, or the East Angles, the Earldom being also styled, from its capital, of Norwich.

It is presumably this Ralph who, on 13 April 1069 was with the King at Winchester and witnessed, as Earl Ralph, a diploma in favour of St.Denis of Paris and in the same year witnessed, as Earl Ralph, a grant in favour of the Bishop of Essex.
1074- It is possible that Ralph defended Dol when the Conqueror besieged it unsuccessfully in 1074, although it is more likely that Ralph was in Dol during the revolts against Hoel II, Duke of Brittany and that William came to Dol in defense of Hoel. [1]

Ralph built a church in Norwich, in the new town, and give it to his chaplains; but there is no record of religious benefactions by him in Brittany.

In 1075 the king's refusal to sanction this marriage between two powerful families caused a revolt in his absence. The leaders were Ralph, his new brother-in-law Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford, and Waltheof, 1st Earl of Northumberland. The revolt was plagued by disaster. Waltheof lost heart and confessed the conspiracy to Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who urged Earl Roger to return to his allegiance, and finally excommunicated him and his adherents-Waltheof was later executed by William. Ralph encountered a much superior force under the warrior bishops Odo of Bayeux and Geoffrey de Montbray (the latter ordered that all rebels should have their right foot cut off) near Cambridge and retreated hurriedly to Norwich, hotly pursued by the royal army. Leaving his wife to defend Norwich Castle, he sailed for Denmark in search of help, and eventually returned to England with a fleet of 200 ships under Cnut and Hakon, which failed to do anything effective.

Meanwhile the Countess held out in Norwich until she obtained terms for herself and her followers, who were deprived of their lands, but allowed forty days to leave the realm. Thereupon the Countess retired to her estate in Brittany, where she was rejoined by her husband. Ralph was deprived of all his lands and of his Earldom. At the time of his revolt, he was a land-holder in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire. This is according to the Domesday Book, which uses the name of Radulf[us] Waders.

Ralph, formerly Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk (East Anglia) and his Countess Emma retired to her Breton lands. They left for the Holy Land, joining Robert, Duke of Normandy, on the First Crusade, and died circa 1101.

In 1096, accompanied by his wife and under Robert Curthose, he went on Crusade. He was one of the Breton leaders who took part in the siege of Nicaea, after which he joined Bohemund I of Antioch’s division of the army.

Both Ralph and his wife Emma died on the road to Palestine in the course of the Crusade.

BORN_SHORT ‎± 1055, DIED_SHORT ‎1096 Died in the Crusades‎, approximately 41 years
AKA: Emma of Hereford