William the Conquerer biography

Dromo's Den

William the Conquerer Biography

WILLIAM, THE CONQUERER (c.1027-87). King of England from 1066 to 1087. He was an illegitimate son of Robert II, Duke of Normandy, by Herleva, or Arlette, a tanner's daughter, and in early life was known as William the Bastard.

When Duke Robert set out on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1034 he caused William to be chosen by the nobles as his successor, and on Robert's death in 1035 William became Duke of Normandy. Rebellions broke out almost immediately, and attempts were made to seize the person of the young Duke. These rebellions continued during the whole time of his minority, the most serious taking place in 1047. In that year, in alliance with the French King, Henry I (q.v.), William won a brilliant victory over the rebels at Val-ès-dunes. In 1051 William visited Edward the Confessor (q.v.) in England, and probably was promised the English crown after Edward's death. During the succeeding years until 1060 William was engaged in very frequent warfare with the King of France, the Count of Anjou, and some of his own subjects, but he succeeded in establishing his authority firmly, and by 1063 gained full possession of Maine. In 1061 he had established the curfew in Normandy, whence later it was carried over into England.

About 1064 Harold, Earl of Wessex, appears to have spent some time in Normandy, perhaps after a shipwreck which placed him as a prisoner in the hands of the Normans. According to the Norman chroniclers, whose story is discredited by Freeman, Harold took an oath to aid William in securing the English crown on the death of Edward the Confessor. On Edward's death Harold was chosen King of England and was crowned by the Archbishop of York (1066) . William had determined that the crown of England should be his, and at once proceeded to claim it, although he had no valid claim whatever. He pretended to be the rightful heir by Edward's bequest and through the failure of Harold to abide by his sworn engagements. Through the agency of Hildebrand, later Gregory VII, he obtained the sanction of the Pope for the conquest of England, on the ground that Harold was guilty of perjury. He collected an army made up in part of volunteers from France and Flanders, and landed in England on Sept. 28, 1066. The size of his army is not known. the most reliable estimates varying from 25,000 to 60,000. At the same time the English had to face an onslaught by the Norwegians. On October 14 William won the battle of Hastings (q.v.), or Senlac, in which Harold was slain. After wasting the whole country about London he finally secured his admission into the city, and on December 25 was crowned King at Westminster, after having been duly elected by the Witan. Five more years of ravaging and fighting completed the conquest of England, the revolt under Hereward (q.v.) being put down only in 1071. In 1070, in order to make all further resistance impossible, he laid waste the whole Vale of York. Many thousand people were killed or perished from starvation. In 1072 he invaded Scotland and received the homage of Malcolm Canmore.

During the next 10 years William divided his time between Normandy and England. He was compelled to carry on war against the Count of Anjou, the French King, and his own son Robert. In 1075 a serious revolt occurred in England, where the two most powerful earls had plotted treason. After subduing them, William put to death Waltheof, the last earl of purely English stock. About 1076 William created the New Forest in the southwest of Hampshire. In 1082 he imprisoned his brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, whom he bad made Earl of Kent and had left as his regent in England during his absences. He retained him in captivity almost until the time of his own death. In 1085 he prevented an invasion by Canute the Saint (q.v.), and in the same year ordered a survey of England. (See DOMESDAY Book.) In 1086 he required all vassals of mesne lords, as well as direct vassals, to do fealty to him, thus introducing into England the Norman custom by which the Duke had direct authority over all his subjects. This was the most important feudal innovation that William made in England. In 1087, while waging war against Philip I of France, he received an internal injury, and died September 9.

William was a man of remarkable ability, and owed his success almost entirely to his own exertions. He ruled strictly and kept excellent order, but he was unscrupulous and merciless in punishing any opposition to his own will. He confiscated all of the land held by his opponents under the pretext of law, as he considered them traitors, and he extorted very heavy fines on all possible occasions. The taxation also bore very heavily upon his subjects. He was religious and blameless in his private life. Although very liberal to the Church, he ruled absolutely over its officials, and refused to give up to the papacy anything which he regarded as a royal prerogative. In 1076, when Gregory VII demanded of him fealty and the payment of Peter's pence, he sent the latter, but refused to hold his kingdom as a fief from the papacy. In his later years he became tyrannical and avaricious. His tyranny was all the more oppressive because it was cloaked with a pretense of law, and he accomplished his purposes by legal subtleties, maintaining as far as possible the old English customs, which he shaped to suit his own wishes. In his later years he was often called William the Great. His wife was Matilda, heiress of the Count of Flanders. Their marriage was long delayed because forbidden by Leo IX (q.v.) on account of consanguinity: but it took place in 1053 in spite of the opposition of the Pope. Finally, in 1059 William secured a papal dispensation sanctioning his marriage. He had four sons and five daughters. The eldest of the sons died before his father; of the others, Robert inherited the Duchy of Normandy, William the Kingdom of England, and Henry, who was later King of England, a considerable sum of money.

Bibliography. E. A. Freeman History of the Norman Conquest, vols. ii-v (Oxford, 1870-76) J. R. Green, Conquest of England (London, 1884); E. A. Freeman, William the Conqueror (ib. 1894); J. H. Round, Feudal England (ib., 1895); William Stubbs, Constitutional History of England vol. i (6th ed. Oxford 1897) ; F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond (Cambridge, 1897) ; P. G. Vinogradoff, English Society in the Eleventh Century (Oxford, 1908) ; F. M. Stenton, William the Conqueror (New York, 1908) .

The New International Encyclopaedia Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 574-575.