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William I (c. 1028 - 9 September 1087), was King of England from 1066 to 1087, and as Guillaume II was Duke of Normandy from 1035 to 1087. Known alternatively as William of Normandy (Fr. Guillaume de Normandie), William the Conqueror (Fr. Guillaume le Conquérant) and William the Bastard (Fr. Guillaume le Bâtard), he was the illegitimate and only son of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva, the daughter of Fulbert, a tanner. Born in Falaise, Normandy, now in France, William succeeded to the throne of England by right of conquest by winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and suppressing subsequent English revolts, in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. No authentic portrait of William has been found. He was described as a big burly man, strong in every sense of the word, balding in front, and of regal dignity. Early life history William was born the grandnephew of Queen Emma, wife of King Ethelred the Unready and later of King Canute. William succeeded to his father's Duchy of Normandy at the young age of 7 in 1035 and was known as Duke William II of Normandy (Fr. Guillaume II, duc de Normandie). He lost three guardians to plots to usurp his place. Count Alan of Brittany was a later guardian. King Henry I of France knighted him at the age of 15. By the time he turned 19 he was himself successfully dealing with threats of rebellion and invasion. With the assistance of King Henry, William finally secured control of Normandy by defeating the rebel Norman barons at Caen in the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes in 1047. He married his cousin Matilda of Flanders, against the wishes of the pope in 1053 at the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Eu, Eu, Normandy (now in Seine-Maritime). He was 26, she was 22. Their marriage produced four sons and six daughters (see list below). His half-brothers Odo of Bayeux and Robert, Count of Mortain played significant roles in his life. He also had a sister, Adelaide of Normandy. Conquest of England Upon the death of William's cousin King Edward the Confessor of England (January 1066), William claimed the throne of England, asserting that the childless and purportedly celibate Edward had named him his heir during a visit by William (probably in 1052) and that Harold Godwinson, England's foremost magnate, had reportedly pledged his support while shipwrecked in Normandy (c. 1064). Harold made this pledge while in captivity and was reportedly tricked into swearing on a saint's bones that he would give the throne to William. Even if this story is true, however, Harold made the promise under duress and so may have felt free to break it. The assembly of England's leading notables known as the Witenagemot approved Harold Godwinson’s coronation which took place on January 5, 1066 making him King Harold II of England. In order to pursue his own claim, William obtained the Pope's support for his cause. He assembled a Norman invasion fleet of around 600 ships and an army of 7000 men. He landed at Pevensey in Sussex on September 28, 1066 and assembled a prefabricated wooden castle near Hastings as a base. This was a direct provocation to Harold Godwinson as this area of Sussex was Harold's own personal estate, and William began immediately to lay waste to the land. It may have prompted Harold to respond immediately and in haste rather than await reinforcements in London. King Harold Godwinson was in the north of England and had just defeated another rival, King Hardrada of Norway supported by his own brother Tostig. He marched an army of similar size to William's 250 miles in 9 days to challenge him at the crucial battle of Senlac, which later became known as the Battle of Hastings. This took place on October 14, 1066. According to some accounts, perhaps based on an interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry commemorating the Norman victory, Harold was killed by an arrow through the eye, and the English forces fled giving William victory. This was the defining moment of what is now known as the Norman Conquest. The remaining Anglo-Saxon noblemen surrendered to William at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and he was acclaimed King of England there. William was then crowned on December 25, 1066 in Westminster Abbey. Although the south of England submitted quickly to Norman rule, resistance continued, especially in the North for six more years until 1072. Harold's illegitimate sons attempted an invasion of the south-west peninsula. Risings occurred in the Welsh Marches and at Stafford. Most seriously William faced separate attempts at invasion by the Danes and the Scots. William's defeat of these led to what became known as The Harrying of the North (Sometimes called Harrowing) in which Northumbria was laid waste as revenge and to deny his enemies its resources. The last serious resistance came with the Revolt of the Earls in 1075. It is estimated that one fifth of the people of England were killed during these years by war, massacre, and starvation. William's reign William initiated many major changes. In 1085, in order to ascertain the extent of his new dominionans and maximize taxation, William commissioned the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey of England's productive capacity similar to a modern census. He also ordered many castles, keeps, and mots, among them the Tower of London, to be built across England to ensure that the rebellions by the English people or his own followers would not succeed. His conquest also led to Norman replacing English as the language of the ruling classes, for nearly 300 years. William is said to have deported some of the Anglo-Saxon landed classes into slavery through Bristol. Many of the latter ended up in Umayyad Spain and Moorish lands. Ownerships of nearly all land, and titles to religious and public offices in England were given to Normans. Many surviving Anglo-Saxon nobles emmigrated to other European kingdoms. He died at the age of 60, at the Convent of St Gervais, near Rouen, France, on September 9, 1087 from abdominal injuries received from his saddle pommel when he fell off a horse at the Siege of Mantes. William was buried in the St. Peter's Church in Caen, Normandy. In a most unregal postmortem, his corpulent body would not fit in the stone sarcophagus, and burst after some unsuccessful prodding by the assembled bishops, filling the chapel with a foul smell and dispersing the mourners. [1] William was succeeded in 1087 as King of England by his younger son William Rufus and as Duke of Normandy by his elder son Robert Curthose. This led to the Rebellion of 1088. His youngest son Henry also became King of England later, after William II died without a child to succeed him. Children of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders Some doubt exists over how many daughters there were. This list includes some entries which are obscure. Robert Curthose (c. 1054-1134), Duke of Normandy, married Sybil of Conversano, daughter of Geoffrey of Conversano Adeliza (or Alice) (c. 1055-?), reportedly betrothed to Harold II of England (Her existence is in some doubt.) Cecilia (or Cecily) (c. 1056-1126), Abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen William Rufus (1056-1100), King of England Richard (1057-c. 1081), killed by a stag in New Forest Adela (c. 1062-1138), married Stephen, Count of Blois Agatha (c. 1064-c. 1080), betrothed to (1) Harold of Wessex, (2) Alfonso VI of Castile Constance (c. 1066-1090), married Alan IV Fergent, Duke of Brittany; poisoned, possibly by her own servants Matilda (very obscure, her existence is in some doubt) Henry Beauclerc (1068-1135), King of England, married (1) Matilda (or Edith) of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, (2) Adeliza of Leuven (Louvain) Honours William I was ranked #68 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. http://en.wikipedia.org Another version: William The Conqueror, or The Bastard, or William Of Normandy, French Guillaume Le Conquérant, or Le Bâtard, or Guillaume De Normandie duke of Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England from 1066, one of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himself the mightiest feudal lord in France and then changed the course of England's history by his conquest of that country. William was the elder of two children of Robert I of Normandy and his concubine Herleva, or Arlette, the daughter of a burgher from the town of Falaise. In 1035 Robert died when returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and William, his only son, whom he had nominated as his heir before his departure, was accepted as duke by the Norman magnates and his feudal overlord, King Henry I of France. William and his friends had to overcome enormous obstacles. His illegitimacy (he was generally known as the Bastard) was a handicap, and he had to survive the collapse of law and order that accompanied his accession as a child. Three of William's guardians died violent deaths before he grew up, and his tutor was murdered. His father's kin were of little help; most of them thought that they stood to gain by the boy's death. But his mother managed to protect William through the most dangerous period. These early difficulties probably contributed to his strength of purpose and his dislike of lawlessness and misrule. By 1042, when William reached his 15th year, was knighted, and began to play a personal part in the affairs of his duchy, the worst was over. But his attempts to recover rights lost during the anarchy and to bring disobedient vassals and servants to heel inevitably led to trouble. From 1046 until 1055 he dealt with a series of baronial rebellions, mostly led by kinsmen. Occasionally he was in great danger and had to rely on Henry of France for help. In 1047 Henry and William defeated a coalition of Norman rebels at Val-ès-Dunes, southeast of Caen. It was in these years that William learned to fight and rule. William soon learned to control his youthful recklessness. He was always ready to take calculated risks on campaign and, most important, to fight a battle. But he was not a chivalrous or flamboyant commander. His plans were simple, his methods direct, and he exploited ruthlessly any advantage gained. If he found himself at a disadvantage, he withdrew immediately. He showed the same qualities in his government. He never lost sight of his aim to recover lost ducal rights and revenues, and, although he developed no theory of government or great interest in administrative techniques, he was always prepared to improvise and experiment. He seems to have lived a moral life by the standards of the time, and he acquired an interest in the welfare of the Norman church. He made his half brother, Odo, bishop of Bayeux in 1049 at the age of about 16, and Odo managed to combine the roles of nobleman and prelate in a way that did not greatly shock contemporaries. But William also welcomed foreign monks and scholars to Normandy. Lanfranc of Pavia, a famous master of the liberal arts, who entered the monastery of Bec about 1042, was made abbot of Caen in 1063. According to a brief description of William's person by an anonymous author, who borrowed extensively from Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, he was just above average height and had a robust, thick-set body. Though he was always sparing of food and drink, he became fat in later life. He had a rough bass voice and was a good and ready speaker. Writers of the next generation agree that he was exceptionally strong and vigorous. William was an out-of-doors man, a hunter and soldier, fierce and despotic, generally feared; uneducated, he had few graces but was intelligent and shrewd and soon obtained the respect of his rivals. After 1047 William began to take part in events outside his duchy. In support of his lord, King Henry, and in pursuit of an ambition to strengthen his southern frontier and expand into Maine, he fought a series of campaigns against Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou. But in 1052 Henry and Geoffrey made peace, there was a serious rebellion in eastern Normandy, and, until 1054 William was again in serious danger. During this period he conducted important negotiations with his cousin Edward the Confessor, king of England, and took a wife. Norman interest in Anglo-Saxon England derived from an alliance made in 1002, when King Ethelred II of England married Emma, the sister of Count Richard II, William's grandfather. Two of her sons, William's cousins once removed, had reigned in turn in England, Hardecanute (1040-42) and Edward the Confessor (1042-66). William had met Edward during that prince's exile on the Continent and may well have given him some support when he returned to England in 1041. In that year Edward was about 36 and William 14. It is clear that William expected some sort of reward from Edward and, when Edward's marriage proved unfruitful, began to develop an ambition to become his kinsman's heir. Edward probably at times encouraged William's hopes. His childlessness was a diplomatic asset. In 1049 William negotiated with Baldwin V of Flanders for the hand of his daughter, Matilda. Baldwin, an imperial vassal with a distinguished lineage, was in rebellion against the Western emperor, Henry III, and in desperate need of allies. The proposed marriage was condemned as incestuous (William and Matilda were evidently related in some way) by the Emperor's friend, Pope Leo IX, at the Council of Reims in October 1049; but so anxious were the parties for the alliance that before the end of 1053, possibly in 1052, the wedding took place. In 1059 William was reconciled to the papacy, and as penance the disobedient pair built two monasteries at Caen. Four sons were born to William and Matilda: Robert (the future duke of Normandy), Richard (who died young), William Rufus (the Conqueror's successor in England), and Henry (Rufus' successor). Among the daughters was Adela, who was the mother of Stephen, king of England. Edward the Confessor was supporting the Emperor, and it is possible that William used his new alliance with Flanders to put pressure on Edward and extort an acknowledgment that he was the English king's heir. At all events, Edward seems to have made some sort of promise to William in 1051, while Tostig, son of the greatest nobleman in England, Earl Godwine, married Baldwin's half sister. The immediate purpose of this tripartite alliance was to improve the security of each of the parties. If William secured a declaration that he was Edward's heir, he was also looking very far ahead. Between 1054 and 1060 William held his own against an alliance between King Henry I and Geoffrey Martel of Anjou. Both men died in 1060 and were succeeded by weaker rulers. As a result, in 1063 William was able to conquer Maine. In 1064 or 1065 Edward sent his brother-in-law, Harold, earl of Wessex, Godwine's son and successor, on an embassy to Normandy. William took him on a campaign into Brittany, and in connection with this Harold swore an oath in which, according to Norman writers, he renewed Edward's bequest of the throne to William and promised to support it. When Edward died childless on Jan. 5, 1066, Harold was accepted as king by the English magnates, and William decided on war. Others, however, moved more quickly. In May Tostig, Harold's exiled brother, raided England, and in September he joined the invasion forces of Harald III Hardraade, king of Norway, off the Northumbrian coast. William assembled a fleet, recruited an army, and gathered his forces in August at the mouth of the Dives River. It is likely that he originally intended to sail due north and invade England by way of the Isle of Wight and Southampton Water. Such a plan would give him an offshore base and interior lines. But adverse winds detained his fleet in harbour for a month, and in September a westerly gale drove his ships up-Channel. William regrouped his forces at Saint-Valéry on the Somme. He had suffered a costly delay, some naval losses, and a drop in the morale of his troops. On September 27, after cold and rainy weather, the wind backed south. William embarked his army and set sail for the southeast coast of England. The following morning he landed, took the unresisting towns of Pevensey and Hastings, and began to organize a bridgehead with between 4,000 and 7,000 cavalry and infantry. William's forces were in a narrow coastal strip, hemmed in by the great forest of Andred, and, although this corridor was easily defensible, it was not much of a base for the conquest of England. The campaigning season was almost past, and when William received news of his opponent it was not reassuring. On September 25 Harold had defeated and slain Tostig and Harald Hardraade at Stamford Bridge, near York, and was retracing his steps to meet the new invader. On October 13, when Harold emerged from the forest, William was taken by surprise. But the hour was too late for Harold to push on to Hastings, and he took up a defensive position. Early the next day William went out to give battle. He attacked the English phalanx with archers and cavalry but saw his army almost driven from the field. He rallied the fugitives, however, and brought them back into the fight and in the end wore down his opponents. Harold's brothers were killed early in the battle. Toward nightfall the King himself fell and the English gave up. William's coolness and tenacity secured him victory in this fateful battle, and he then moved against possible centres of resistance so quickly that he prevented a new leader from emerging. On Christmas Day 1066 he was crowned king in Westminster Abbey. In a formal sense the Norman Conquest of England had taken place. William was already an experienced ruler. In Normandy he had replaced disloyal nobles and ducal servants with his own friends, limited private warfare, and recovered usurped ducal rights, defining the feudal duties of his vassals. The Norman church flourished under his rule. He wanted a church free of corruption but subordinate to him. He would not tolerate opposition from bishops and abbots or interference from the papacy. He presided over church synods and reinforced ecclesiastical discipline with his own. In supporting Lanfranc, prior of Bec, against Berengar of Tours in their dispute over the doctrine of the Eucharist, he found himself on the side of orthodoxy. He was never guilty of the selling of church office (simony). He disapproved of clerical marriage. At the same time he was a stern and sometimes rough master, swayed by political necessities, and he was not generous to the church with his own property. The reformer Lanfranc was one of his advisers; but perhaps even more to his taste were the worldly and soldierly bishops Odo of Bayeux and Geoffrey of Coutances. William left England early in 1067 but had to return in December because of English unrest. The English rebellions that began in 1067 reached their peak in 1069 and were finally quelled in 1071. They completed the ruin of the highest English aristocracy and gave William a distaste for his newly conquered kingdom. Since his position on the Continent was deteriorating, he wanted to solve English problems as cheaply as possible. To secure England's frontiers, he invaded Scotland in 1072 and Wales in 1081 and created special defensive “marcher” counties along the Scottish and Welsh borders. In the last 15 years of his life he was more often in Normandy than in England, and there were five years, possibly seven, in which he did not visit the kingdom at all. He retained most of the greatest Anglo-Norman barons with him in Normandy and confided the government of England to bishops, trusting especially his old friend Lanfranc, whom he made archbishop of Canterbury. Much concerned that the natives should not be unnecessarily disturbed, he allowed them to retain their own laws and courts. William returned to England only when it was absolutely necessary: in 1075 to deal with the aftermath of a rebellion by Roger, earl of Hereford, and Ralf, earl of Norfolk, which was made more dangerous by the intervention of a Danish fleet; and in 1082 to arrest and imprison his half brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent, who was planning to take an army to Italy, perhaps to make himself pope. In the spring of 1082 William had his son Henry knighted, and in August at Salisbury he took oaths of fealty from all the important landowners in England, whosoever's vassals they might be. In 1085 he returned with a large army to meet the threat of an invasion by Canute IV (Canute the Holy) of Denmark. When this came to nothing owing to Canute's death in 1086, William ordered an economic and tenurial survey to be made of the kingdom, the results of which are summarized in the two volumes of Domesday Book. William was preoccupied with the frontiers of Normandy. The danger spots were in Maine and the Vexin on the Seine, where Normandy bordered on the French royal demesne. After 1066 William's continental neighbours became more powerful and even more hostile. In 1068 Fulk the Surly succeeded to Anjou and in 1071 Robert the Frisian to Flanders. Philip I of France allied with Robert and Robert with the Danish king, Canute IV. There was also the problem of William's heir apparent, Robert Curthose, who, given no appanage and seemingly kept short of money, left Normandy in 1077 and intrigued with his father's enemies. In 1081 William made a compromise with Fulk in the treaty of Blancheland: Robert Curthose was to be count of Maine but as a vassal of the count of Anjou. The eastern part of the Vexin, the county of Mantes, had fallen completely into King Philip's hands in 1077 when William had been busy with Maine. In 1087 William demanded from Philip the return of the towns of Chaumont, Mantes, and Pontoise. In July he entered Mantes by surprise, but while the town burned he suffered some injury from which he never recovered. He was thwarted at the very moment when he seemed about to enforce his last outstanding territorial claim. William was taken to a suburb of Rouen, where he lay dying for five weeks. He had the assistance of some of his bishops and doctors, and in attendance were his half brother Robert, count of Mortain, and his younger sons, William Rufus and Henry. Robert Curthose was with the King of France. It had probably been his intention that Robert, as was the custom, should succeed to the whole inheritance. In the circumstances he was tempted to make the loyal Rufus his sole heir. In the end he compromised: Normandy and Maine went to Robert and England to Rufus. Henry was given great treasure with which he could purchase an appanage. William died at daybreak on September 9, in his 60th year, and was buried in rather unseemly fashion in St. Stephen's Church, which he had built at Caen. Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite.
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