Ranulf I was a Duke of Aquitaine. Little is known about him except that he died from battle wounds fighting the Vikings.

He is my 30 x great-grandfather.

The coat of arms of the House of Poitiers. - Modified from and, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2969219
The coat of arms of the House of Poitiers
By Ipankonin

Ranulf, or Ramnulf, or Rainulf, or Rainulph1, was born in Aquitaine, France in 8152 or 820 3, son of Gerard, Count of Auvergne and Hildegarde3 4.

Ranulf was a popular Viking name and brought to France and England during the Norman conquest5. It comes from the Norse ‘wolf counselor’ and is pronounced RA-nulf5. It’s an interesting choice of name because Ranulf’s immediate ancestry is Carolingian French, not Norman.

Titles

He was a Count of Poitiers.

Charles the Bald granted Ranulf this title1. Charles was the son of Louis the Pious and Judith of Bavaria. Louis was Ranulf’s grandfather, through his marriage with Ermengarde of Hesbaye.

This means Ranulf’s mother’s half-brother granted him the title of Count of Poitiers1.

In 852, he was installed as a Duke of Aquitaine2.

Family

His first wife was Rotrude, daughter of Charlemagne3. It’s not clear when this happened but given Rotrude’s likely age, the marriage may have been a marriage of convenience, perhaps to preserve family property or inheritance. After all, Rotrude was Ranulf’s great-aunt!

In 845 he married Bilihilde, or Bilichildis, the daughter of Rorico I (or Rorrick), Count of Maine3 6. Together they had one son:

A picture of Duke Ranulf I of Aquitaine
Duke Ranulf I of Aquitaine

Death

He died in Brissarthe, France on 2 October 866 due to wounds received in the Battle of Brissarthe2 against the Vikings.

We don’t know where they buried him, if at all. Since he died in battle, and was on the losing side, it’s probable his body was left on the battlefield.

Lineage

He is my 30 x great-grandfather.

  1. History of Normandy and England, The; Volume I; Sir Francis Palgrave; 1851-01[↩][↩][↩]
  2. Aquitaine, Dukes; Charles Crawley; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2018-04-27) [↩][↩][↩][↩]
  3. Royalty for Commoners (4th edition); Roderick W Stuart; Genealogical Publishing Ltd; 2002[↩][↩][↩][↩]
  4. Aquitaine, Dukes; Charles Crawley; Medieval Lands; (Retrieved 2018-04-27) [↩]
  5. Meaning, Origin, and History of the Name Ranulf; GBTimes.com; (Retrieved 2023-05-25) [↩][↩]
  6. Maine; Charles Crawley; Medieval Lands (Retrieved 2018-09-25) [↩]