Ida de Tosny

Ida de Tosny, Countess of Norfolk (died after 1181), was a Norman 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 c. 1125 and living in 1185), a daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester.^[1]

Ida de Tosny was a royal ward and mistress of Henry II, King of England, by whom she was the 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.^[1]

Around Christmas 1181, Ida de Tosny was given by Henry II in marriage to Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk, together with the manors of Acle, Halvergate and South Walsham, which had been confiscated from Roger's inheritance after the death of his father Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk.^[1] Ida and Roger had a number of children, including:

• Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, who in 1206 or 1207 married Maud Marshal, a daughter of William Marshal
• William Bigod
• Roger Bigod
• John Bigod
• Ralph Bigod
• Mary Bigod, who married Ralph fitz Robert
• Margery Bigod, who married William de Hastings
• Ida Bigod

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.