William II of England

William II (called "Rufus" because of his red-faced appearance) (c. 1056 - August 2, 1100) was the third son of William the Conqueror and was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers also over Scotland, Wales and Normandy. Although an effective soldier, he was a ruthless ruler and was little liked by those he governed; according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he was "hated by almost all his people." William's exact date of birth is unknown, but it was some time between the years 1056 and 1060. He was born in his father's duchy of Normandy, which would be inherited in due course by his elder brother, Robert Curthose. His father's favourite son, William succeeded to the throne of England on his father's death, but there was always hostility between him and his eldest brother, though they became reconciled after an attempted coup in 1091 by their youngest brother, Henry. Of the three, William appears to have been the peacemaker. The division of William the Conqueror's lands into two parts presented a dilemma for those nobles who held land on both sides of the Channel. Since the younger William and Robert were natural rivals, these nobles worried that they could not hope to please both of their lords, and thus ran the risk of losing the favor of one ruler or the other (or both of them). The only solution, as they saw it, was to unite England and Normandy once more under one ruler. The pursuit of this aim led them to revolt against William in favor of Robert in 1088, under the leadership of the powerful Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who was a half-brother of William the Conqueror. William, however, managed to rally the English and defeat the rebellion, thus securing his authority in this precarious early period after becoming king. In 1090 he invaded Normandy, crushing Robert's forces and forcing him to cede a portion of his lands. The two made up their differences and William agreed to help Robert recover lands lost to France, notably Maine. Much of William's reign was spent feuding with the church; after the death of Archbishop Lanfranc in 1089, he appropriated ecclesiastical revenues to which he was not entitled, and for this he was much criticised. In 1093 Anselm was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and this led to a long period of animosity between church and state. William and Anselm disagreed on a range of ecclesiastical issues, and in October of 1097, Anselm went into exile. The problem was somewhat mitigated for William by his ability to claim the revenues of the archbishopric of Canterbury as long Anselm remained in exile, and Anselm remained in exile until the reign of William's successor, Henry I. In 1095, Robert de Mowbray, the earl of Northumbria, would not come to William's court, and William subsequently led an army against him and defeated him; the earl was dispossessed and imprisoned. Another noble, William of Eu, was also accused of treachery and blinded and castrated. That same year, he also made an unsuccessful foray into Wales. He tried again in 1097 with an equal lack of success. He returned to Normandy in 1097 and from then until 1099 campaigned in France, securing and holding northern Maine but failing to seize the French-controlled part of the Vexin region. At the time of his death he was planning to occupy Aquitaine in south-western France. William also quarrelled with the Scottish king, Malcolm III, forcing him to pay homage in 1091 and seizing the border city of Carlisle in 1092. However, he gained effective control of the Scottish throne after Malcolm's death when he backed a successful bid by Edgar Atheling to dethrone Malcolm III's son Donald Bane. The new Scottish ruler, King Edgar, thus owed his position to William. In 1096, William's brother Robert joined the First Crusade. He needed money to fund this venture and pledged his duchy to William in return for the sum of 10,000 marks. Normandy was ruled by William as regent in Robert's absence; he did not make it back to Normandy until September of 1100, a month after William's death. William himself is known to have been a flamboyant character. He never married or had illegitimate children; it has been suggested that he was homosexual. Perhaps the memorable event in the life of William Rufus was his death, which occurred while hunting in the New Forest. He was killed when he was hit in the chest by an arrow, but the circumstances of this remain unclear. It is not known whether it was an accident or not. Some historians have speculated that it was murder, and that this was done on the orders of his brother, who succeeded him as King Henry I. This has never been confirmed. Nonetheless, his unpopularity with the nobles and Church meant that there was no shortage of potential assassins. William's body was left by the nobles to lie overnight at the place where he fell, which may indicate their feelings towards him. A stone known as the Rufus Stone marks the spot. (GB Ordnance Survey Grid Ref. SU 270 124) King William II is buried in Winchester Cathedral.\n----\nWilliam II is indirectly the subject of two historical novels by George Shipway, called The Paladin and The Wolf Time. The main character of the novels is Walter Tirel (or Tyrell) the supposed assassin of King William, and the main thrust of the plot of the novels is that the assassination was engineered by Henry. {| border=2 align="center"\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
William I\n|width="40%" align="center"|King of England\n|width="30%" align="center"|Succeeded by:
Henry I\n|}

References

• Frank Barlow, William Rufus ISBN 0300082916\n*C. Warren Hollister, "The Strange Death of William Rufus", Speculum, 48 (1973)\n*Emma Mason, "William Rufus: myth and reality", Journal of Medieval History, 3 (1977)\n*W. L. Warren, "The Death of William Rufus", History Today, 9 (1959)

Category:British monarchs\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n