Roger I of Tosny Fécamp Abbey were installed. This monastery was one of the first baronial foundations in Normandy The foundation charter reveals that the lord of Tosny gave it a small possession around Conches and his forest. In 1035, Robert I's death began a troubled period in the duchy of Normandy. Civil wars multiplied and Roger (whose relations with his neighbours was already argumentative) was one of the main players in them. According to the Norman chroniclers, the lord of Tosny refused to serve the new duke, the future William the Conqueror, due to his being a bastard. He especially took advantage of
William the Conqueror in either late 1039 or October 1040, Gilbert of Brionne took charge of William. Gilbert was killed within months, and another guardian, Turchetil, was also killed around the time of Gilbert's death. Yet another guardian, Osbern, was slain in the early 1040s in William's chamber while the duke slept. It was said that Walter, William's maternal uncle, was occasionally forced to hide the young duke in the houses of peasants, although this story may be an embellishment by Orderic Vitalis. The historian Eleanor Searle speculates that William was raised with the three cousins who later became important in his career