General Notes

William I, byname WILLIAM The CONQUEROR, or The BASTARD, or WILLIAM ofNORMANDY, French GUILLAUME le CONQUÉRANT, or le BÂTARD, or GUILLAUME deNORMANDIE (b. c. 1028, Falaise, Normandy--d. Sept. 9, 1087, Rouen), dukeof Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England from 1066, oneof the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himselfthe mightiest feudal lord in France and then changed the course ofEngland's history by his conquest of that country.

Early years

William was the elder of two children of Robert I of Normandy and hisconcubine Herleva, or Arlette, the daughter of a burgher from the town ofFalaise. In 1035 Robert died when returning from a pilgrimage toJerusalem, and William, his only son, whom he had nominated as his heirbefore his departure, was accepted as duke by the Norman magnates and hisfeudal overlord, King Henry I of France. William and his friends had toovercome enormous obstacles. His illegitimacy (he was generally known asthe Bastard) was a handicap, and he had to survive the collapse of lawand order that accompanied his accession as a child.

Three of William's guardians died violent deaths before he grew up, andhis tutor was murdered. His father's kin were of little help; most ofthem thought that they stood to gain by the boy's death. But his mothermanaged to protect William through the most dangerous period. These earlydifficulties probably contributed to his strength of purpose and hisdislike of lawlessness and misrule.

Ruler of Normandy.

By 1042, when William reached his 15th year, was knighted, and began toplay a personal part in the affairs of his duchy, the worst was over. Buthis attempts to recover rights lost during the anarchy and to bringdisobedient vassals and servants to heel inevitably led to trouble. From1046 until 1055 he dealt with a series of baronial rebellions, mostly ledby kinsmen. Occasionally he was in great danger and had to rely on Henryof France for help. In 1047 Henry and William defeated a coalition ofNorman rebels at Val-ès-Dunes, southeast of Caen. It was in these yearsthat William learned to fight and rule.

William soon learned to control his youthful recklessness. He was alwaysready to take calculated risks on campaign and, most important, to fighta battle. But he was not a chivalrous or flamboyant commander. His planswere simple, his methods direct, and he exploited ruthlessly anyadvantage gained. If he found himself at a disadvantage, he withdrewimmediately. He showed the same
qualities in his government. He never lost sight of his aim to recoverlost ducal rights and revenues, and, although he developed no theory ofgovernment or great interest in administrative techniques, he was alwaysprepared to improvise and experiment. He seems to have lived a moral lifeby the standards of the time, and he acquired an interest in the welfareof the Norman church. He made his half brother, Odo, bishop of Bayeux in1049 at the age of about 16, and Odo managed to combine the roles ofnobleman 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 themonastery of Bec about 1042, was made abbot of Caen in 1063.

According to a brief description of William's person by an anonymousauthor, who borrowed extensively from Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, hewas just above average height and had a robust, thick-set body. Though hewas always sparing of food and drink, he became fat in later life. He hada rough bass voice and was a good and ready speaker. Writers of the nextgeneration agree that he was exceptionally strong and vigorous. Williamwas an out-of-doors man, a hunter and soldier, fierce and despotic,generally feared; uneducated, he had few graces but was intelligent andshrewd and soon obtained the respect of his rivals.

New alliances.

After 1047 William began to take part in events outside his duchy. Insupport of his lord, King Henry, and in pursuit of an ambition tostrengthen his southern frontier and expand into Maine, he fought aseries of campaigns against Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou. But in 1052Henry and Geoffrey made peace, there was a serious rebellion in easternNormandy, and, until 1054 William was again in serious danger. Duringthis period he conducted important negotiations with his cousin Edwardthe Confessor, king of England, and took a wife.

Norman interest in Anglo-Saxon England derived from an alliance made in1002, when King Ethelred II of England married Emma, the sister of CountRichard II, William's grandfather. Two of her sons, William's cousinsonce removed, had reigned in turn in England, Hardecanute (1040-42) andEdward the Confessor (1042-66). William had met Edward during thatprince's exile on the Continent and may well have given him some supportwhen he returned to England in 1041. In that year Edward was about 36 andWilliam 14. It is clear that William expected some sort of reward fromEdward and, when Edward's marriage proved unfruitful, began to develop anambition to become his kinsman's heir. Edward probably at timesencouraged William's hopes. His childlessness was a diplomatic asset.

In 1049 William negotiated with Baldwin V of Flanders for the hand of hisdaughter, Matilda. Baldwin, an imperial vassal with a distinguishedlineage, was in rebellion against the Western emperor, Henry III, and indesperate need of allies. The proposed marriage was condemned asincestuous (William and Matilda were evidently related in some way) bythe Emperor's friend, Pope Leo IX, at the Council of Reims in October1049; but so anxious were the parties for the alliance that before theend of 1053, possibly in 1052, the wedding took place. In 1059 Williamwas reconciled to the papacy, and as penance the disobedient pair builttwo monasteries at Caen. Four sons were born to William and Matilda:Robert (the future duke of Normandy), Richard (who died young), WilliamRufus (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 thatWilliam used his new alliance with Flanders to put pressure on Edward andextort an acknowledgment that he was the English king's heir. At allevents, Edward seems to have made some sort of promise to William in1051, while Tostig, son of the greatest nobleman in England, EarlGodwine, married Baldwin's half sister. The immediate purpose of thistripartite alliance was to improve the security of each of the parties.If William secured a declaration that he was Edward's heir, he was alsolooking very far ahead.

Between 1054 and 1060 William held his own against an alliance betweenKing Henry I and Geoffrey Martel of Anjou. Both men died in 1060 and weresucceeded by weaker rulers. As a result, in 1063 William was able toconquer 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 thisHarold swore an oath in which, according to Norman writers, he renewedEdward's bequest of the throne to William and promised to support it.

When Edward died childless on Jan. 5, 1066, Harold was accepted as kingby the English magnates, and William decided on war. Others, however,moved more quickly. In May Tostig, Harold's exiled brother, raidedEngland, and in September he joined the invasion forces of Harald IIIHardraade, king of Norway, off the Northumbrian coast. William assembleda fleet, recruited an army, and gathered his forces in August at themouth of the Dives River. It is likely that he originally intended tosail due north and invade England by way of the Isle of Wight andSouthampton Water. Such a plan would give him an offshore base andinterior lines. But adverse winds detained his fleet in harbour for amonth, and in September a westerly gale drove his ships up-Channel.

The Battle of Hastings.

William regrouped his forces at Saint-Valéry on the Somme. He hadsuffered a costly delay, some naval losses, and a drop in the morale ofhis troops. On September 27, after cold and rainy weather, the windbacked south. William embarked his army and set sail for the southeastcoast of England. The following morning he landed, took the unresistingtowns of Pevensey and Hastings, and began to organize a bridgehead withbetween 4,000 and 7,000 cavalry and infantry.

William's forces were in a narrow coastal strip, hemmed in by the greatforest of Andred, and, although this corridor was easily defensible, itwas not much of a base for the conquest of England. The campaigningseason was almost past, and when William received news of his opponent itwas not reassuring. On September 25 Harold had defeated and slain Tostigand Harald Hardraade at Stamford Bridge, near York, and was retracing hissteps to meet the new invader. On October 13, when Harold emerged fromthe forest, William was taken by surprise. But the hour was too late forHarold to push on to Hastings, and he took up a defensive position. Earlythe next day William went out to give battle. He attacked the Englishphalanx with archers and cavalry but saw his army almost driven from thefield. He rallied the fugitives, however, and brought them back into thefight and in the end wore down his opponents. Harold's brothers werekilled early in the battle. Toward nightfall the King himself fell andthe English gave up. William's coolness and tenacity secured him victoryin this fateful battle, and he then moved against possible centres ofresistance so quickly that he prevented a new leader from emerging. OnChristmas Day 1066 he was crowned king in Westminster Abbey. In a formalsense the Norman Conquest of England had taken place.

King of England

William was already an experienced ruler. In Normandy he had replaceddisloyal nobles and ducal servants with his own friends, limited privatewarfare, and recovered usurped ducal rights, defining the feudal dutiesof his vassals. The Norman church flourished under his rule. He wanted achurch free of corruption but subordinate to him. He would not tolerateopposition from bishops and abbots or interference from the papacy. Hepresided over church synods and reinforced ecclesiastical discipline withhis own. In supporting Lanfranc, prior of Bec, against Berengar of Toursin their dispute over the doctrine of the Eucharist, he found himself onthe side of orthodoxy. He was never guilty of the selling of churchoffice (simony). He disapproved of clerical marriage. At the same time hewas a stern and sometimes rough master, swayed by political necessities,and he was not generous to the church with his own property. The reformerLanfranc was one of his advisers; but perhaps even more to his taste werethe worldly and soldierly bishops Odo of Bayeux and Geoffrey of Coutances.

William left England early in 1067 but had to return in December becauseof English unrest. The English rebellions that began in 1067 reachedtheir peak in 1069 and were finally quelled in 1071. They completed theruin of the highest English aristocracy and gave William a distaste forhis newly conquered kingdom. Since his position on the Continent wasdeteriorating, he wanted to solve English problems as cheaply aspossible. To secure England's frontiers, he invaded Scotland in 1072 andWales in 1081 and created special defensive "marcher" counties along theScottish and Welsh borders.

In the last 15 years of his life he was more often in Normandy than inEngland, and there were five years, possibly seven, in which he did notvisit the kingdom at all. He retained most of the greatest Anglo-Normanbarons with him in Normandy and confided the government of England tobishops, trusting especially his old friend Lanfranc, whom he madearchbishop of Canterbury. Much concerned that the natives should not beunnecessarily disturbed, he allowed them to retain their own laws andcourts.

William returned to England only when it was absolutely necessary: in1075 to deal with the aftermath of a rebellion by Roger, earl ofHereford, and Ralf, earl of Norfolk, which was made more dangerous by theintervention of a Danish fleet; and in 1082 to arrest and imprison hishalf brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent, who was planning totake an army to Italy, perhaps to make himself pope. In the spring of1082 William had his son Henry knighted, and in August at Salisbury hetook oaths of fealty from all the important landowners in England,whosoever's vassals they might be. In 1085 he returned with a large armyto meet the threat of an invasion by Canute IV (Canute the Holy) ofDenmark. When this came to nothing owing to Canute's death in 1086,William ordered an economic and tenurial survey to be made of thekingdom, the results of which are summarized in the two volumes ofDomesday Book.

William was preoccupied with the frontiers of Normandy. The danger spotswere in Maine and the Vexin on the Seine, where Normandy bordered on theFrench royal demesne. After 1066 William's continental neighbours becamemore powerful and even more hostile. In 1068 Fulk the Surly succeeded toAnjou and in 1071 Robert the Frisian to Flanders. Philip I of Franceallied with Robert and Robert with the Danish king, Canute IV. There wasalso the problem of William's heir apparent, Robert Curthose, who, givenno appanage and seemingly kept short of money, left Normandy in 1077 andintrigued with his father's enemies. In 1081 William made a compromisewith Fulk in the treaty of Blancheland: Robert Curthose was to be countof Maine but as a vassal of the count of Anjou. The eastern part of theVexin, the county of Mantes, had fallen completely into King Philip'shands in 1077 when William had been busy with Maine. In 1087 Williamdemanded from Philip the return of the towns of Chaumont, Mantes, andPontoise. In July he entered Mantes by surprise, but while the townburned he suffered some injury from which he never recovered. He wasthwarted at the very moment when he seemed about to enforce his lastoutstanding territorial claim.

Death

William was taken to a suburb of Rouen, where he lay dying for fiveweeks. He had the assistance of some of his bishops and doctors, and inattendance were his half brother Robert, count of Mortain, and hisyounger sons, William Rufus and Henry. Robert Curthose was with the Kingof France. It had probably been his intention that Robert, as was thecustom, should succeed to the whole inheritance. In the circumstances hewas tempted to make the loyal Rufus his sole heir. In the end hecompromised: 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 buriedin rather unseemly fashion in St. Stephen's Church, which he had built atCaen. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD, 1996, WILLIAM I]

[carew20.FTW]

Source: Frederick Lewis Weis & Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr., Ancestral Roots of certain American colonists..., (Edition 7, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1992), 121-24.
Duke of Normandy and one of the greatest English kings, William I, b.
c.1028, d. Sept.  9, 1087, led the Norman conquest of England and
provided stability and firm government in an age of great disorder.  The illegitimate son of the Norman duke Robert I, he inherited Normandy in 1035, consolidating his rule in the face of baronial opposition in about 1042.  He successfully faced further rebellions and after 1050 began to take an interest in acquiring land in England--perhaps given some encouragement by the English king Edward the Confessor.  After Edward's death (Jan.  5, 1066), Vikings under King Harold III of Norway moved on England, and William soon followed with an invasion force of his own. The new English king, Harold II, defeated the Vikings and confronted the Normans near Hastings in October 1066.  William's forces achieved a decisive victory, and on Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned king of England, founding the Anglo-Norman monarchy and realm.  A highly capable, intelligent, and determined man, William I established a strongly personal monarchy.  He imposed Norman institutions and personnel both on the state and on the church, and he brought England into the mainstream of continental development.  Imposing royal authority directly on courts and other institutions, William ordered the inquests that resulted in the monumental Domesday Book.  He revolutionized the social, political, and military structures of England, replacing the English nobility with French nobles, thus strengthening his authority, and introducing continental Feudalism, a structure in which nobles held land in return for service in the royal army.
As the Anglo-Saxon state was Normanized, so too was the English church: English bishops and abbots were replaced by noted churchmen from the Continent, including Lanfranc of Bec, who became (1070) archbishop of Canterbury.  The Conqueror had been a great reformer of the church in Normandy, and he continued this role in England.  He established the archbishop of Canterbury as primate of the English church, held reforming councils (which he attended), and exercised not only his rights but also his responsibilities over the church.  The bishops were among his closest advisors and officials.  William I kept a close but cool relationship with the papacy, supporting ecclesiastical reform while carefully maintaining his control over the English church.  He was succeeded as duke of Normandy by his eldest son, Robert II, and as king of England by his sons, first William II, then Henry I.
James W. Alexander Bibliography:  Barlow, Frank, William I and the Norman Conquest (1965);  Brown, Reginald A., The Normans and the Norman Conquest
(1968).
BATTLE OF HASTINGS
Duke William of Normandy left St.Valery in Normandy with about 600 ships and 10 to 12,000 men Sept 27th in 1066. William and his barons had been recruiting and preparing the invasion of England since early spring of that year. He was a seasoned general and master tactician, using cavalry, archers and infantry and had fought many notable battles. Off Beachy Head, his ship, the Mora, arrived ahead of the fleet.. William waited and ate a hearty breakfast. As his fleet straggled into place behind him they moved eastward to the first sheltered bay to provide protection for his armada. Pevensey and Bulverhythe were the villages on each promontory. Pevensey, to the west, was protected by an old Roman Fort and behind the fort there was much flat acreage to house his large Army. To suggest this landing was not pre-planned, is not in keeping with the preparatory time taken by William, or his track record.
There had been much intelligence gathering in the past few months.
The bay, wide enough for maneuverability of this large fleet, was flat
shored. William is said to have fallen on the beach, grasped the sand, and declared "This is my country" or words to that effect. Next, the ships were disembarked without resistance. They included 2,500 horses, prefabricated forts, and the materiel and equipment was prepared for any contingency. The ships shuttled in and out of the bay with the precision of a D Day landing. A Fort was built inside Pevensey Roman Fort as an H.Q, while the army camped behind it. William and FitzOsborn scouted the land He was unhappy with the terrain but it had proved to be a satisfactory landing beach. Taking his army around Pevensey Bay he camped 8 miles to the east, north of what is now known as Hastings all of which was most likely pre-planned. He camped to the east outside the friendly territory of the Norman Monks of Fecamp who may have been alerted and
were waiting for his probable arrival. William waited. Perhaps he was
waiting to know of the outcome of the battle to the north. In those two
weeks William could have marched on London and taken it. He was obviously waiting for something?
Harold, far to the north in York at Stamford Bridge, was engaged in a
life and death struggle against his brother who had teamed up with the Viking King Hadrada to invade England. Whether this was a planned Norman tactic, part of a pincer movement north and south, is not known, but students of Norman and Viking history might find it very feasible. The timing of each invasion was impeccable, and probably less than coincidental. Harold managed to resist the invasion to the north and killed both commanders. He was advised of the landing to the south by William.  Bringing the remnants of his Army south, Harold camped outside London at Waltham. For two weeks he gathered reinforcements, and exchanged taunts, threats and counterclaims to the Crown of England with William. Finally
he moved his army south to a position about six miles north of where
William waited.
Perhaps one of the most devastating events preceeding the battle was Harold's sudden awareness that he had been excommunicated by the Pope, and that William was wearing the papal ring. It is most likely this had been arranged by fellow Norman Robert Guiscard who had conquered most of southern Italy and was patron of the Pope who was indebted to him for saving the Vatican. Harold's spirit flagged. William was leading what might perhaps by called the first Crusade. The whole world was against Harold.
William moved up to Harold's position and set up in what was then the conventional European style. Archers, infantry and cavalry in the rear. A set piece, each assigned to their own duties. . .
Harold waited. He and his brother Gyrth arranged a mass of men along a high ground ridge 8 deep, 800 yards long . A fixed corridor of tightly wedged humanity. Strategically, given the relative equipment of each side, it was hopeless from the start. To William it was almost a formality. Harold's men were hemmed in by their own elbows. William, with total mobility, held his Breton, Maine and Anjou contingents to the left of the line, the Normans the main thrust, the Flemish and French to his right. The flanking movements paid off. How long the battle took has varying estimates. Some say as little as two hours. Some as long as six hours.
The latter seems more reasonable simply because of the numbers involved.
This battle would later be called Senlac, a river of blood. It demolished most of the remnants of the Saxon fighting men of the Island at very little cost to William.
It is very doubtful if Harold was shot in the eye with an arrow from over the ranks of his front line. He was probably run through by William's lance, accompanied by three others who were in at the kill, and who savaged him brutally.
Thus began a three century Norman occupation of England, Wales and Scotland, and later Ireland. It all started at Pevensey.
http://www.infokey.com/hon/hastings.htm

William I, the Conqueror (1066-1087 AD)  Born: 1027  Died: September 9, 1087  Parents: Robert I, Duke of Normandy and Herleva of Falasia  Significant Siblings: none  Spouse: Mathilda (daughter of Count Baldwin of Flanders)  Significant Offspring: Robert, William Rufus, Henry, and Adela  Contemporaries: Edward the Confessor (King of England, 1047-1066); Harold Godwinson (King of England, 1066); Henry I (King of France, 1031-1060); Philip I (King of France, 1060-1108); Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085); Lanfranc (Archbishop of Canterbury)
William, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy, spent his first six years with his mother in Falaise and received the duchy of Normandy upon his father's death in 1035. A council consisting of noblemen and William's appointed guardians ruled Normandy but ducal authority waned under the Normans' violent nature and the province was wracked with assassination and revolt for twelve years. In 1047, William reasserted himself in the eastern Norman regions and, with the aid of France's King Henry I, crushed the rebelling barons. He spent the next several years consolidating his strength on the continent through marriage, diplomacy, war and savage intimidation. By 1066, Normandy was in a position of virtual independence from William's feudal lord, Henry I of France and the disputed succession in England offered William an opportunity for invasion.
Edward the Confessor attempted to gain Norman support while fighting with his father-in-law, Earl Godwin, by purportedly promising the throne to William in 1051. (This was either a false claim by William or a hollow promise from Edward; at that time, the kingship was not necessarily hereditary but was appointed by the witan, a council of clergy and barons.) Before his death in 1066, however, Edward reconciled with Godwin, and the witan agreed to Godwin's son, Harold, as heir to the crown - after the recent Danish kings, the members of the council were anxious to keep the monarchy in Anglo-Saxon hands. William was enraged and immediately prepared to invade, insisting that Harold had sworn allegiance to him in 1064. Prepared for battle in August 1066, ill winds throughout August and most of September prohibited him crossing the English Channel. This turned out to be advantageous for William, however, as Harold Godwinson awaited William's pending arrival on England's south shores, Harold Hardrada, the King of Norway, invaded England from the north. Harold Godwinson's forces marched north to defeat the Norse at Stamford Bridge on September 25, 1066. Two days after the battle, William landed unopposed at Pevensey and spent the next two weeks pillaging the area and strengthening his position on the beachhead. The victorious Harold, in an attempt to solidify his kingship, took the fight south to William and the Normans on October 14, 1066 at Hastings. After hours of holding firm against the Normans, the tired English forces finally succumbed to the onslaught. Harold and his brothers died fighting in the Hastings battle, removing any further organized Anglo-Saxon resistance to the Normans. The earls and bishops of the witan hesitated in supporting William, but soon submitted and crowned him William I on Christmas Day 1066. The kingdom was immediately besieged by minor uprisings, each one individually and ruthlessly crushed by the Normans, until the whole of England was conquered and united in 1072. William punished rebels by confiscating their lands and allocating them to the Normans. Uprisings in the northern counties near York were quelled by an artificial famine brought about by Norman destruction of food caches and farming implements.
The arrival and conquest of William and the Normans radically altered the course of English history. Rather than attempt a wholesale replacement of Anglo-Saxon law, William fused continental practices with native custom. By disenfranchising Anglo-Saxon landowners, he instituted a brand of feudalism in England that strengthened the monarchy. Villages and manors were given a large degree of autonomy in local affairs in return for military service and monetary payments. The Anglo-Saxon office of sheriff was greatly enhanced: sheriffs arbitrated legal cases in the shire courts on behalf of the king, extracted tax payments and were generally responsible for keeping the peace. "The Domesday Book" was commissioned in 1085 as a survey of land ownership to assess property and establish a tax base. Within the regions covered by the Domesday survey, the dominance of the Norman king and his nobility are revealed: only two Anglo-Saxon barons that held lands before 1066 retained those lands twenty years later. All landowners were summoned to pay homage to William in 1086. William imported an Italian, Lanfranc, to take the position of Archbishop of Canterbury; Lanfranc reorganized the English Church, establishing separate Church courts to deal with infractions of Canon law. Although he began the invasion with papal support, William refused to let the church dictate policy within English and Norman borders.
He died as he had lived: an inveterate warrior. He died September 9, 1087 from complications of a wound he received in a siege on the town of Mantes.
"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" gave a favorable review of William's twenty-one year reign, but added, "His anxiety for money is the only thing on which he can deservedly be blamed; . . .he would say and do some things and indeed almost anything . . .where the hope of money allured him." He was certainly cruel by modern standards, and exacted a high toll from his subjects, but he laid the foundation for the economic and political success of England.

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Without adducing other proof, if reference be made to William de
Jumieges, and Thierry ("Histoire de laConquete de l'Angeleterre par les
Normans"), it is plain that the birth of William of Normandy may be fixed
in the year 1027, or the commencement of 1028. The former states that he
was in his 60th year ("fere sexagenarius), at thetime of his death, and
that he succeeded his father in 1036, being then a boy of 8 years old.13
Matilda was married to him, if we are to take the Roman de Rou of Wace
chronologically, after he had fortified Ambrieres, near Mayenne14; an
event, however, of certainly later occurrence, for both William of
Poictou and William de Jumieges (contemporary chroniclers) record how,
when only just a young man, having received at the Chateau d'Eu
(Ponthieu), his youthful bride the French King's niece, at the hands of
her father, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, Duke William made his public
entry with her into the city of Rouen.15
Pluet [Ed. Of Wace's "Roman de Rou"], observes-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
12 Baldwin, Count of Flanders, (Queen Matilda's father), was known as
Baldwin de l'Isle, because he rebuilt the city of l'Isle (Lille). He
married the daughter of RobertCapat, King of France, and by her had two
sons, Baldwin (surnamed de Mons), and Robert le Frison, and one daughter,
the above-mentioned Matilda. (Chronique de Flandres).
13 According to William of Malmsbury, the Conqueror died in the fifty
ninth year of his age, and his death occurred in 1087.
14 Par cunseil de sa barunie,
Prist une fame de haut lin,a
En Henri li rei France,
Fillesoe fille b Cunstance;
A maint noble home fit parente,
Mahelt c out nom, multbele e gente.
["Roman de Rou", Ed. Pluquet, ii, 58.]
a Lineage b Fille de safille. c Matilda
15 Gemmet, lib. Vii, c. 21.
[page 12]
"No Norman historianhad thought proper to fix the date of this marriage,
and we are constrainedto seek it in the "Chronicle of Tours." Here we
are told that the marriage was celebrated in the 1053, the same year in
which must be placed the revolt ofWilliam of Arques against his nephew,
William of Normandy (the Conqueror inquestion). It seems that this
projected marriage between the Duke and Matildahad been an affair of
long standing inasmuch as it was prohibited by the Council of Rheims in
1049; the Count of Flanders being enjoined not to bestow his daughter on
the Duke, or the latter to take her to wife."
The reason whichthe French editor of the "Roman de Rou" assigns for the
incorrectness of thedate (viz 1053), although adduced in respect of
Agatha, another daughter ofthe Conqueror, applies with equal force to
Gundreda.
We know from Wace's Chronicle that the Conqueror called for, and mounted
before the Battle of Hastings, his Spanish war horse;--
Sun boen cheval fist demander,
Ne poeit l'en meillor trover;
D'Espaingne li ont enveie
Un Reis par mult grant amistie.
["Roman de Rou", ii. 193. Ed. Pluqet.]
as to which Pluquet makes this significant remark;- "It is possible that
this horse was sent to the Duke by (Alphonso) the King of Galacia, to
whom was betrothed (against her will) Agatha (or Adelaide), the same
daughter who had been previously affianced to the Anglo-Saxon King
Harold. Constant to her first love, this young Princess implored the
Almighty to take her to Himself rather than that she should become the
wife ofthe Spanish monarch, and as we know, the prayer was so far heard,
that she died previous to the consummantion of the event. This touching
anecdote (he continues), recorded by Ordericus Vitalis (l. V. p 579),
leads one to conclude that the "Chronicle of Tours" has assigned too late
a date to the marriage ofWilliam and Matilda, in placing
[page 13]
it in the year 1053. It is highly improbable that Harold would have
inspired so vi

!First Norman king of England (1066-87), who has been called one of the first modern kings and is generally regarded as one of the outstanding figures in western European history. [Funk & Wagnalls]

WAITE, NEWLIN LINES - 25th ggrandfather

!The revenge of the Conqueror on King Malcolm of Scotland was total devastation of the fertile possessions between the Humber and Tees.  Many thousands of the lower orders, and also a considerable number both of Anglo-Saxons and Normans of condition, who had incurred the wrath of the Conqueror, so easy to awake, and so difficult to appease, retired into Scotland as the best place of refuge. [WBH - Scotland]

!Treason and anarchy surrounded him as he grew to manhood and disorder broke at last into open revolt.  In 1047 a fierce combat of horse on the slopes of Val-es-dunes beside Caen left the young Duke master of his duchy and he soon made his mastery felt.  [WBH - England]

!The pitiless warrior, the stern and aweful king was a tender and faithful husband, an affectionate father. The lonely silence of his bearing broke into gracious converse with pure and sacred souls like Anselm. [WBH - England]

!An uprising in York slaughtered 3000 Normans who formed its garrison.  The news of this slaughter reached William as he was hunting in the forest of Dean; and in a wild outburst of wrath he swore "by the splendor of God" to avenge himself on the North. With the troops that gathered round him he swept the Welsh border and relieved Shrewsbury while William FitzOsbern broke the rising around
Exeter.  His success set the King free to fulfill his oath of vengeance on the North.  After a long delay before the flooded waters of the Aire, he entered York and ravaged the whole country as far as the Tees.  Town and village were harried and burned, their inhabitants were slain or driven over the Scottish border.  The coast was especially wasted that no hold might remain for future
landings of the Danes.  Crops, cattle, the very implements of husbandry were so mercilessly destroyed that a famine which followed is said to have swept off more than 100,000 victims.  50 years later the land still lay bare of culture and deserted of men for 60 miles northward of York.  That winter was so harsh  that some paths were inaccessible to horses.  This didn't stop the
determination of William for vengeance.  With his own hands, he helped to clear the way.  [WBH - England]

!All hope of aid for England from the Danes was now abolished by William's destruction of the coast.  But Englishmen still looked for help from Scotland, where Edgar the Etheling had again found refuge and where his sister Margaret had become wife of King Malcolm.  It was probably some assurance of Malcolm's aid which roused the Mercian Earls, Eadwine and Morkere, to a fresh rising in 1071.  The revolt was at once foiled by the vigilance of the Conqueror. Eadwine fell in an obscure skirmish, while Morkere found shelter for awhile in the fen country where a desperate band of patriots gathered round an outlawed leader, Hereward.  Nowhere had William found so stubborn a resistance; but a
causeway 2 miles long was at last driven across the marshes, and the last hopes of English freedom died in the surrender of Ely.  It was as the unquestioned master of England that William marched to the North, crossed the Lowlands and the Forth, and saw Malcolm appear in his camp upon the Tay to swear fealty at his feet.  [WBH - England]

!When the townsmen of Alencon hung raw hides along their walls in scorn of the "tanner's" grandson, William tore out his prisoners' eyes, hewed off their hands and feet, and flung them into the town.  Hundreds of Hampshire men were driven from their homes to make him a hunting ground.  Of men's love or hate he cared little. [WBH - England]

!King Philip of France taunted him about being fat and sick as a "woman lying in behind her curtains."  This so angered William that he vowed, "Flaming brands shall they be, and steel shall glitter over the fire they make."  That autumn town and hamlet flared into ashes along the French border as he
fulfilled his ruthless vow.  But as the King rode down the steep street of Mantes which he had given to the flames, his horse stumbled among the embers and William was flung heavily against his saddle.  He was borne home to Rouen to die.  Death itself took its color from the savage solitude of his life.
Priests and nobles fled as the last breath left him, and the Conqueror's body lay naked and lonely on the floor. [WBH - England]

!Following his father's death he was put in the care of Henry I of France. At the death of Robert he was put in possession of his father's dominions; and the seat of his court was Rouen.  Edward of England and William of Normandy were second-cousins; but the very difference of their ages would have been enough to have prevented much intercourse between them.  Edward was called to his
kingdom, in 1042, seven years after the death of Robert.  William was a youth of 14 and from the time of his accession, the great ducy was distracted by the contests of the nobles, and by the pretensions to the sovereign power of Guido, Count of Macon. [Knight's Popular History, Vol. 1, p. 195]

!Normandy, 12 Sept., 1087.  His body, now grossly fat, was too large for its stone sarcophagus and burst its bons in a funeral hurriedly concluded by the choking mourners. [Chronicle of the Royal Family, p. 37]

Crowned at Westminster Abbey 25 Dec 1066. D. at the abbey of St-Gervais, Rouen 1087. [Falaise Roll, p. 187]

For hundreds of years before 1066, England had been ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings.  When Edward "the Confessor" died in 1066, William of Normandy saw his chance for a successful invation of England.  He built a fleet, attracted many knights, and obtained the pope's blessing.  He gained victory at the Battle of Hastings and was crowned King of England on Christmas of 1066. During the next few years, William presided over a gradual redistribution of land in England.  Saxon rebellions led to the confiscation of lands, which the Norman Barons received.  As a result of this Norman invasion, the English people today are of both Norman and Anglo-Saxon extraction. [The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy by Cannon and Griffith]

Huntingdon Castle was built in abt 1068, parts of which may have overlaid an existing Saxon town. Unfortunately, the castle was made of wood and did not survie much longer than a century. ["Cromwell Country" by Beryl M. Edwards, BRITISH HERITAGE magazine, February 1998]

In 1068 William the Conqueror evicted 166 Saxon families from their homes to build Lincoln Castle on the hill-top site that the Romans built their first fortress and later the early settlement. [Castles of Lincolnshire: Lincoln Castle<http://www.camelotintl.com/heritage/ecastle5.html]

Warwick Castle rises majestically from the banks of the River Avon on a site fortified by William the Conqueror in 1068. From its soaring towers to the depth of the dungeon, Warwick Castle epitomises the power and grandeur of the medieval fortress. [Warwick Castle<http://www.camelotintl.com/heritage/warwick.html]

Pevensey Castle is best known as the place where William the Conqueror landed in 1066. But its history goes back much further. The Romans built a fortress here around AD 280. Its three and a half metre thick walls protected the coast for 200 years. Then the Saxons attacked. After this, the site lay derelict for nearly 600 years, when the Normans took over and built a keep within the Roman
walls. Thanks to the walls, two sieges were repelled in 1088 and 1264. Pevensey was one of the Cinque Ports, responsible for providing the King with ships during any wars. [Pevensey Castle
<http://www.camelot-grpou.com/heritage/castles/penve.html]

The mound at Pickering Castle was raised by William the Conqueror. [Pickering Castle, p. 1]

William the Conqueror founded the New Forest in 1079 for his private use. It was near to his court at Winchester. William appointed keepers of its 'walks' to enforce laws for the preservation of deer as royal game, and to prevent encroachment on their range. Under the harsh terms of Forest Law the use of bows and traps was made illegal there, and deer could not be excluded from areas of leafy fodder. Fines for 'assarting'--the grubbing up of woodland areas--provided an important source of royal revenue, along with the sale of licenses to empark. Poachers risked the grim penalties of mutilation and death. Perhaps it's not surprising, therefore, that the Domesday Book records the New Forest as sparsely settled. It has been suggested that William ordered the destruction of as many as 60 villages to make way for his royal chase. Other authorities claim there is no evidence for such ruthless clearances. ["The Ancient New Forest" by Lindsay Clarke, BRITISH HERITAGE, Oct/Nov 1998]

William I The Conqueror, King of England from 1066 to 1087, was a man of
remarkable political and military skill and a dominant force in Western
Europe. The Domesday Survey of 1086 was a striking illustration of his
administrativecapabilities. William was the illegitimate son of Robert I
of Normandy and Herleve, a Tanner's daughter from Falaise, and became
Duke of Normandy as a child in 1035. William the Conqueror died while
campaigning to maintain his holdon Maine and was buried in his own
monastic foundation of Saint-Etienne at Caen. "The Encyclopedia of the
Middle Ages" Norman F. Cantor, General Editor.