Emma FITZ OSBORNE

   Other names for Emma were FITZ OSBORNE, FITZ OSBERN and FITZ OSBERN.

   Ancestral File Number: 9G81-3Q. User ID: 302555253.

   General Notes:

Died on the First Crusade.

BOOKS
The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams, Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch I
p62: [1075]"...Roger seems to have been a man of violent temper, and there was a woman in this case also, though we do not know that she herself influenced the course of events. The insurrection is said to have been determined upon, and the details of action planned, at the marriage of Roger's sister to Ralph Guader, Earl of Norfolk, a marriage which William [the Conqueror] had forbidden.
`There was that bride-ale
That was many men's bale,' said the Saxon chronicler, and itwas so indeed. The two chief conspirators persuaded Earl Waltheof to join them, at least for the moment, and their plan was to drive the king out of England and to divide the kingdom between them into three great principalities, `for we wish,'the Norman historian Orderic makes them say, `to restore in all respects the kingdom of England as it was formerly in the time of King Edward,' a most significant indication of the general opinion about the effect of the Conquest, even if thewords are not theirs.
"After the marriage the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford separated to raise their forces and bring them together, when they believed they would be too strong for any force which could be raised to act against them. Theycounted on the unpopularity of the Normands and on the king's difficulties abroad which would prevent his return to England. The king did not return, but their other hope proved fallacious. Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester and Abbot Ethelwy of Evesham, both English prelates, with some Norman help, cut off the line of communication in the west, and Earl Roger could not force his way through. The two justiciars, William of Warenne and Richard of Bienfaite, after summoning the earls to answer in the king's court, with the aid of Bishop Odo and theBishop of Coutances, who was also a great English baron, raised an army of English as well as Normans, and went ot meet Earl Ralph, who was marching westwards. Something like a battle took place, but the rebels were easily defeated. Ralph fled back to Norwich, but it did not seem to him wise to stop there. Leaving his wife to stand a siege in the castle, he sailed off to hasten the assistance which had already been asked for from the Danes. A Danish fleet indeed appeared off the coast, but id did nothing beyond making a plundering raid in Yorkshire. Emma, the new-made wife of Earl Ralph, seems to have been a good captain and to have had a good garrison. The utmost efforts of the king's forces could not take the castle, and she at last surrendered only on favourable terms. She was allowed to retire to the continent with her forces... A clear distinction was made between the men who were serving Ralph because they held land of him, and those who were merely mercenaries. Ralph's vassals, although they were in arms against Ralph's lord, the king, were thought to be entitled to better terms, and they secured them more easily than those who served him for money. Ralph and Emma eventually lived out the life of a generation of those days, on Ralph's Bretons estates, and perished together in the first crusade."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 9G81-3Q Emma FITZOSBORNE Born Abt 1059 Breteuil Normandy France Mar 1075 Ralph Seigneur De GAEL [Earl of Norfolk] (AFN:V9SX-RS) Exning Cambridgeshire England Died Aft 1095.

   Marriage Information:

Emma married Earl Ralph De Gael NORFOLK, son of Earl Ralph NORFOLK and Countess Ralph NORFOLK, in 1075 in Exning, Cambridgeshire, England. (Earl Ralph De Gael NORFOLK was born before 1040 in Gael, Brittany, France and died about 1095 in Crusade, First.)