William I (of England)
William I (of England), called The Conqueror (1027-1087), first Norman king of England (1066-1087), who has been called one of the first modern kings and is generally regarded as one of the outstanding figures in western European history. Born in Falaise, France, William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, duke of Normandy. Upon Robert's death, the Norman nobles accepted William as his successor. During a visit in 1051 to his childless cousin, Edward the Confessor, king of England, William is said to have obtained Edward's agreement that he should succeed to the English throne. When King Edward died, however, the witenagemot (royal council) elected Harold, earl of Wessex, as king. William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion of England.
The duke and his army landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066. On October 14, the Normans defeated the English forces at the Battle of Hastings, in which Harold was slain. William proceeded to London and was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey. William met opposition with strong measures. By 1070 the Norman conquest of England was complete. William invaded Scotland in 1072 and forced the Scottish king Malcolm III MacDuncan to pay him homage. During the succeeding years the Conqueror crushed insurrections among his Norman followers. One feature of William's reign as king was his reorganization of the English feudal and administrative systems. In 1087, during a campaign against King Philip I of France, William's horse fell in the vicinity of Mantes, fatally injuring him.
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