William the Conqueror

(c. 1028-1087)

BIRTH

c. 1028

PLACE

Falaise, France

NAME

William of Normandy

DEATH

1087

PLACE

Rouen, France

FAMILY

FATHER

Robert I, Duke of Normandy

(died 1035)

MOTHER

Herleva

(dates unknown)

WIFE

Matilda of Flanders

(c. 1031-1083)

CHILDREN

William Rufus

(c. 1056-1100)

CHILDREN

Henry I

(c. 1068-1135)

CHILDREN

Herleva

(dates unknown)

HOMES

NICKNAMES

the Conqueror; the Bastard; the Tanner

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

CHRISTIAN

CATHOLIC

MEMBERSHIPS

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AWARDS

William the Conqueror (c.1028–1087), duke of Normandy, defeated Harold II at Hastings in 1066 and became king of England. He secured his rule through campaigns, castles and a redistribution of land that displaced much of the English aristocracy. The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded holdings and resources across most of the kingdom, strengthening royal power. He continued to govern Normandy as well as England, leaving a cross-Channel monarchy shaped by conquest and resistance.

EARLY LIFE

William was born in about 1028 at Falaise, in the Duchy of Normandy, the illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva, the daughter of Fulbert of Falaise, who may have been a tanner. In 1035 his father died while returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and William, about seven years old, succeeded him as duke. His childhood was dangerous: several of his guardians were murdered during years of disorder among the Norman nobility. In 1047, with the help of King Henry I of France, he defeated rebel barons at the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes. In the early 1050s he married Matilda of Flanders.

William inherited the duchy of Normandy as a child and spent his early rule overcoming aristocratic disorder. With support from Henry I of France, he defeated rebellious Norman lords at Val-ès-Dunes in 1047. Subsequent wars against neighboring powers and former allies consolidated his authority.

He claimed the English crown after Edward the Confessor died in 1066, arguing that Edward had designated him and that Harold Godwinson had sworn to support his succession. The circumstances and meaning of those claims remain disputed. Harold's coronation prompted William to organize an invasion, supported by Norman and other continental warriors. Landing in Sussex, he defeated Harold's army at Hastings on October 14. He then advanced toward London and was crowned at Westminster on Christmas Day.

Winning the crown did not secure the kingdom immediately. William suppressed rebellions and resisted Scandinavian intervention, constructing castles and transferring estates to followers. His devastation of northern England in 1069–1070, remembered as the Harrying of the North, caused widespread destruction and suffering. Resistance continued at places including Ely, and a revolt by leading earls in 1075 further tested his rule. Norman control gradually displaced much of the existing English secular aristocracy.

William preserved useful institutions of Anglo-Saxon government while installing new elites. Royal writs, local administration, taxation, and the king's courts continued, but Norman lords and bishops reshaped landholding and ecclesiastical leadership. With Archbishop Lanfranc, he supported church reform while resisting papal interference in royal authority. Major castles, including the early Tower of London, asserted control.

The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded landholders, resources, and obligations across much of England, giving the monarchy an exceptional administrative record. That year William also received an oath of loyalty at Salisbury from important landholders. His cross-Channel rule required repeated travel and campaigning, including conflicts involving his eldest son Robert and the French monarchy. He died in 1087 after a campaign near Mantes. Normandy passed to Robert, while England went to William Rufus. His conquest tied England more closely to continental politics and transformed its ruling class, language, church, and landscape through both institutional continuity and violent dispossession.

CAREER

DEATH

William left England towards the end of 1086. Following his arrival back on the continent, he married his daughter Constance to Duke Alan of Brittany, in furtherance of his policy of seeking allies against the French kings. William's son Robert, still allied with the French king, appears to have been active in stirring up trouble, enough so that William led an expedition against the French Vexin in July 1087. While seizing Mantes, William either fell ill or was injured by the pommel of his saddle. He was taken to the priory of Saint Gervase at Rouen, where he died on 9 September 1087. Knowledge of the events preceding his death is confused because there are two different accounts. Orderic Vitalis preserves a lengthy account, complete with speeches made by many of the principals, but this is likely more of an account of how a king should die than of what actually happened. The other, the De obitu Willelmi, or On the Death of William, has been shown to be a copy of two 9th-century accounts with names changed. William left Normandy to Robert, and the custody of England was given to William's second surviving son, also called William, on the assumption that he would become king. The youngest son, Henry, received money. After entrusting England to his second son, the elder William sent the younger William back to England on 7 or 8 September, bearing a letter to Lanfranc ordering the archbishop to aid the new king. Other bequests included gifts to the Church and money to be distributed to the poor.

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Church

Place Sainte-Geneviève, 75005 Paris, France

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