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[JohnHaring060520.FTW]
[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 21, Ed. 1, Tree #1186, Date of Import: Apr 26, 1999]
The epitome of the ambitious, energetic, and resourceful prince of the
Central Middle Ages. A bastard who had to fight twelve years to make
good his claim over his own Norman duchy, William early set his ambitions
on the English crown. His claims were respectable, but not compelling.
He was the first cousin of the last Saxon king, the childless Edward the
Confessor, who allegedly had promised to make William heir to the
throne. However, before his death Edward in fact selected the Saxon
Harold Godwin to succeed him, and his choice was supported by the Witan,
the English royal council. Edward died in 1066. William immediately
recruited an army of vassals and adventurers to support his claim to the
throne and gained a papal blessing for his enterprise, but unfavorable
winds kept his fleet bottled up in the Norman ports for six weeks.
Meantime Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, who also disputed Harold
Godwin's claim, invaded England with a Viking army but was shattered by
the Saxons at Stamford Bridge near York on September 28, 1066. The same
day the channel winds shifted and William landed in England. Harold
Godwin foolishly rushed south to confront him. Although his army was
not, as was once thought, technically inferior to the Norman army, it was
tired and badly in need of rest and reinforcements after the victory over
the Vikings. At the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066 fatigue seems
eventually to have tipped the scales of an otherwise even struggle. The
Norman carried the day, leaving Harold Godwin dead upon the field. Duke
William of Normandy had won his claim to be king of England. After years
of study the exact importance of the Norman conquest in English history
is still disputed. Today, however, most historians seem to believe that
while the Norman Conquest did not radically alter the course of English
development, it did add a new speed and decisiveness to changes already
in evidence. For example, the Conquest oriented England away from
Scandinavia and toward the Continent and established a French-speaking
aristocracy. Norman and Continental influences, however, were growing
well before 1066; Edward had been raised in Normand, and Norman were
familiar figures in the English court and Church. Nor did William
radically change the political and social institutions of Anglo-Saxon
England; rather, he built upon them. One feature of William's reign as
king was his reorganization of the English feudal and administrative
systems. He dissolved the great Earldoms, which had enjoyed virtual
independence under his Anglo-Saxon predecessors, and distributed the
lands confiscated from the English to his trusted Norman followers. He
introduced the Contential system of feudalism; by the Oath of Salisbury
of 1086 all landlords swore allegiance to William, thus establishing the
precedent that a vassal's loyalty to the king overrode his fealty to his
immediate lord. The feudal lords were compelled to acknowledge the
jurisdiction of the local courts, which William retained along with many
other Anglo-Saxon institutions. The ecclesiastical and secular courts
were separated, and the power of the papacy in English affairs was
greatly curtailed. Another outstanding accomplishment was the economic
survey undertaken and incorporated in the Doomsday Book in 1086. In
1087, during a campaign against King Phillip I of France, Wiliam burned
the town of Mantes(Now Mante-la-Jolie). William's horse fell in the
vicinity of Mantes, fatally injuring him. He died in Rouen on September
7 and was buried at Caen in Saint Stephen's, one of the abbeys he and
Matilda had founded at the time of their marriage as penance for their
defiance of the pope. William was succeeded by his third born son,
William II.[Brøderbun