Ida de Tosny

Ida de Tosny, Countess of Norfolk (died after 1181), was an English royal mistress. Named after her grandmother Ida de Hainaut she was the daughter of Ralph IV 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]

Ida de Tosny
Noble familyde Tosny
Spouse(s)Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk
FatherRalph IV de Tosny
MotherMargaret de Beaumont

Relationship to King Henry II

Ida de Tosny was a royal ward and mistress of Henry II, King of England, by whom she was mother of one of his illegitimate sons, William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury,[2] (c. 1176 – 7 March 1226), as demonstrated by the discovery of a charter of William mentioning "Comitissa Ida, mater mea" (Countess Ida, my mother).[3] Ida was not the first English royal ward to be taken as a royal mistress. Isabel de Beaumont (Elizabeth de Beaumont), was the ward of King Henry I and the mistress of one of his sons.[4]

Marriage

Around Christmas 1181, Ida de Tosny was given in marriage to Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk 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 have speculated that the couple had a third daughter, Alice, who married Aubrey de Vere IV, 2nd Earl of Oxford as his second wife.

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. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Salisbury, William Longsword, Earl of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 78.
  3. Bradenstoke Cartulary, 1979
  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]
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