Settlement of the county of Evreux on young Roger of Conches. was presently made good to him by the ransom of his own victim from Rouen. Moreover, as he had no lawful issue,[1] he settled his estates on his young cousin Roger, the younger son of Ralph and Isabel. The same youthful heir was also chosen by his childless uncle of Evreux to succeed him in his county.[2] Perhaps Duke Robert confirmed all these arrangements as a matter of course; perhaps the consent of such an over-lord was not deemed worth the asking.
Character of Roger. The young Roger of Toesny thus seemed to have a brilliant destiny opened to him, but he was not doomed to be lord either of Evreux or of Breteuil. He was, it is implied, too good for this world, at all events for such a world as that of Normandy in the reign of Robert. Pious, gentle, kind to men of all classes, despising the pomp of apparel which was the fashion of his day,[3] the young Roger attracts us as one of a class of whom there may have been more among the chivalry of Normandy than we are apt to think at first sight. An order could not be wholly corrupt which numbered among its members such men as Herlwin of Bec, as Gulbert of Hugleville,[4]
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 688 D. He had at least two natural children, a daughter Isabel, of whom we have already heard (see above, p. 243), and a son Eustace, who succeeded his father in the teeth of all collateral claimants. Eustace is best known as the husband of Henry the First's natural daughter Juliana (see N. C. vol. v. p. 157, note), in whose story we come again to the ever-disputed tower of Ivry. See Will. Gem. viii. 15; Ord. Vit. 577 B; 810 C; 848 B, C.
- ↑ Ib. "Ebroicensis quoque comes eundem Rogerium, utpote nepotem suum, consulatus sui heredem constituit." This was to the prejudice of his nephew Amalric of Montfort, son of his whole sister Agnes, and half-brother of Isabel. After Count William's death in 1108, the strivings after his county were great and long, till Amalric recovered full possession in 1119. Ord. Vit. 863 C.
- ↑ Ib. "Pretiosis vestibus quibus superbi nimis insolescunt, uti dedignabatur, et in omni esse suo sese modeste regere nitebatur." This must be taken in connexion with Orderic's various protests against the vain fashions of the day, especially the great one in p. 682.
- ↑ See N. C. vol. ii. p. 219; iv. p. 448.
