If the Redvers family was represented at the Conquest, which seems unlikely, it played no significant part in the settIement of England by Duke William. Richard de Redvers came out of obscurity only because Henry I remembered those who had befriended him when, as lord of the Contentin peninsula, he was fighting against the English king and his brother, Robert. By his will the Conqueror had given Normandy to his eldest son and England to William, while Henry had received only a substantial sum of money with which he purchased the Avranchin and Cotentin. Everything seems to show that the brothers had never accepted this partition. In the Anglo-Norman civil war of 1101, Henry was supported against his brothers particularly by Hugh d'Avranches and Richard de Redvers, with their followers the lords of the Cotentin. When in 1100 he became king as Henry I, he rewarded his supporters with estates in England and sought their counsel, for they were devoted to the king.'

Hugh d'Avranchcs became earl of Chester and defender of thc Welsh marches. Richard de Redvers received the lordship of the Isle of Wight, which Roger, son of William Fitz Osbern, had forfeited after the rebellion of 1075.

After the civil war the disorder in Normandy led Henry to invade the duchy in 1104. When driven out of the Cotentin, Henry set out for Domfront, of which he was lord, to recover the peninsula. In I105 he landed at Barfleur where he had sufficient support to enable him to advance through the Cotentin and win the important battIe of Tinchebrai in I 106, gaining possession of Normandy. Henry'schief supporters here were Hugh d'Avranches and Richard de Redvers. Hugh had taken part in the conquest, being substantial enough to contribute sixty ships. By comparison Richard de Redvers could only cut a small figure. If he did not receive an earldom, he was rewarded with the lordship of the Ide of Wight, together wit11 the valuable manors of Christchurch Twynham and Breamore on the mainland. The importance of the support of Richard de Redvers to the king can, however, be judged by the number of charters he witnessed, as found in the Regesta II between the years 1100 and his death in 1107 - as many as twenty-five, and three times as sole witness. From Henry he received precepts and mandates.