Born around 1028, William was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert I of
Normandy, and Herleve (also known as Arlette), daughter of a tanner in
Falaise. Known as 'William the Bastard' to his contemporaries, his
illegitimacy shaped his career when he was young.
On his father's death in 1035, William was recognised by his family as the
heir - an exception to the general rule that illegitimacy barred succession.
His great uncle looked after the Duchy during William's minority, and his
overlord, King Henry I of France, knighted him at the age of 15.
From 1047 onwards, William successfully dealt with rebellion inside Normandy
involving his kinsmen and threats from neighbouring nobles, including
attempted invasions by his former ally King Henry I of France in 1054 (the
French forces were defeated at the Battle of Mortemer) and 1057.
William's military successes and reputation helped him to negotiate his
marriage to Mathilda, daughter of Count Baldwin V of Flanders. At the time
of his invasion of England, William was a very experienced and ruthless
military commander, ruler and administrator who had unified Normandy and
inspired fear and respect outside his duchy.
William's claim to the English throne was based on his assertion that, in
1051, Edward the Confessor had promised him the throne (he was a distant
cousin) and that Harold II - having sworn in 1064 to uphold William's right
to succeed to that throne - was therefore a usurper.
Furthermore, William had the support of Emperor Henry IV and papal approval.
William took seven months to prepare his invasion force, using some 600
transport ships to carry around 7,000 men (including 2,000-3,000 cavalry)
across the Channel.
On 28 September 1066, with a favourable wind, William landed unopposed at
Pevensey and, within a few days, raised fortifications at Hastings. Having
defeated an earlier invasion by the King of Norway at the Battle of Stamford
Bridge near York in late September, Harold undertook a forced march south,
covering 250 miles in some nine days to meet the new threat, gathering
inexperienced reinforcements to replenish his exhausted veterans as he
At the Battle of Senlac (near Hastings) on 14 October, Harold's weary and
under-strength army faced William's cavalry (part of the forces brought
across the Channel) supported by archers. Despite their exhaustion, Harold's
troops were equal in number (they included the best infantry in Europe
equipped with their terrible two-handled battle axes) and they had the
battlefield advantage of being based on a ridge above the Norman positions.
The first uphill assaults by the Normans failed and a rumour spread that
William had been killed; William rode among the ranks raising his helmet to
show he was still alive. The battle was close-fought: a chronicler described
the Norman counter-attacks and the Saxon defence as 'one side attacking with
all mobility, the other withstanding as though rooted to the soil'. Three of
William's horses were killed under him.
William skilfully co-ordinated his archers and cavalry, both of which the
English forces lacked. During a Norman assault, Harold was killed - hit by
an arrow and then mowed down by the sword of a mounted knight. Two of his
brothers were also killed. The demoralised English forces fled. (In 1070, as
penance, William had an abbey built on the site of the battle, with the high
altar occupying the spot where Harold fell. The ruins of Battle Abbey, and
the town of Battle, which grew up around it, remain.)
William was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 in Westminster Abbey. Three months
later, he was confident enough to return to Normandy leaving two joint
regents (one of whom was his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who was
later to commission the Bayeux Tapestry) behind to administer the kingdom.
However, it took William six years to consolidate his conquest, and even
then he had to face constant plotting and fighting on both sides of the
In 1068, Harold's sons raided the south-west coast of England (dealt with by
William's local commanders), and there were uprisings in the Welsh Marches,
Devon and Cornwall. William appointed earls who, in Wales and in all parts
of the kingdom, undertook to guard the threatened frontiers and maintain
internal security in return for land.
In 1069, the Danes, in alliance with Prince Edgar the Aetheling (Ethelred's
great-grandson) and other English nobles, invaded the north and took York.
Taking personal charge, and pausing only to deal with the rising at
Stafford, William drove the Danes back to their ships on the Humber.
In a harsh campaign lasting into 1070, William systematically devastated
Mercia and Northumbria to deprive the Danes of their supplies and prevent
recovery of English resistance. Churches and monasteries were burnt, and
agricultural land was laid to waste, creating a famine for the unarmed and
mostly peasant population which lasted at least nine years.
Although the Danes were bribed to leave the north, King Sweyn of Denmark and
his ships threatened the east coast (in alliance with various English,
including Hereward the Wake) until a treaty of peace was concluded in June
Further north, where the boundary with Scotland was unclear, King Malcolm
III was encroaching into England. Yet again, William moved swiftly and moved
land and sea forces north to invade Scotland. The Treaty of Abernethy in
1072 marked a truce, which was reinforced by Malcolm's eldest son being
accepted as a hostage.
William consolidated his conquest by starting a castle-building campaign in
strategic areas. Originally these castles were wooden towers on earthen 'mottes'
(mounds) with a bailey (defensive area) surrounded by earth ramparts, but
many were later rebuilt in stone. By the end of William's reign over 80
castles had been built throughout his kingdom, as a permanent reminder of
the new Norman feudal order.
William's wholesale confiscation of land from English nobles and their heirs
(many nobles had died at the battles of Stamford Bridge and Senlac) enabled
him to recruit and retain an army, by demanding military duties in exchange
for land tenancy granted to Norman, French and Flemish allies.
He created up to 180 'honours' (lands scattered through shires, with a
castle as the governing centre), and in return had some 5,000 knights at his
disposal to repress rebellions and pursue campaigns; the knights were
augmented by mercenaries and English infantry from the Anglo-Saxon militia,
raised from local levies. William also used the fyrd, the royal army - a
military arrangement which had survived the Conquest.
The King's tenants-in-chief in turn created knights under obligation to them
and for royal duties (this was called subinfeudation), with the result that
private armies centred around private castles were created - these were to
cause future problems of anarchy for unfortunate or weak kings. By the end
of William's reign, a small group of the King's tenants had acquired about
half of England's landed wealth. Only two Englishmen still held large
estates directly from the King. A foreign aristocracy had been imposed as
the new governing class.
The expenses of numerous campaigns, together with an economic slump (caused
by the shifts in landed wealth, and the devastation of northern England for
military and political reasons), prompted William to order a full-scale
investigation into the actual and potential wealth of the kingdom to
maximise tax revenues.
The Domesday survey was prompted by ignorance of the state of land holding
in England, as well as the result of the costs of defence measures in
England and renewed war in France. The scope, speed, efficiency and
completion of this survey was remarkable for its time and resulted in the
two-volume Domesday Book of 1086, which still exists today. William needed
to ensure the direct loyalty of his feudal tenants. The 1086 Oath of
Salisbury was a gathering of William's 170 tenants-in-chief and other
important landowners who took an oath of fealty to William.
William's reach extended elsewhere into the Church and the legal system.
French superseded the vernacular (Anglo-Saxon). Personally devout, William
used his bishops to carry out administrative duties. Lanfranc, Archbishop of
Canterbury from 1070, was a first-class administrator who assisted in
government when William was absent in France, and who reorganised the Church
Having established the primacy of his archbishopric over that of York, and
with William's approval, Lanfranc excommunicated rebels, and set up Church
or spiritual courts to deal with ecclesiastical matters. Lanfranc also
replaced English bishops and abbots (some of whom had already been removed
by the Council of Winchester under papal authority) with Norman or French
clergy to reduce potential political resistance. In addition, Canterbury and
Durham Cathedrals were rebuilt and some of the bishops' sees were moved to
At his coronation, William promised to uphold existing laws and customs. The
Anglo-Saxon shire courts and 'hundred' courts (which administered defence
and tax, as well as justice matters) remained intact, as did regional
variations and private Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions.
To strengthen royal justice, William relied on sheriffs (previously smaller
landowners, but replaced by influential nobles) to supervise the
administration of justice in existing county courts, and sent members of his
own court to conduct important trials. However, the introduction of Church
courts, the mix of Norman/Roman law and the differing customs led to a
continuing complex legal framework.
More severe forest laws reinforced William's conversion of the New Forest
into a vast Royal deer reserve. These laws caused great resentment, and to
English chroniclers the New Forest became a symbol of William's greed.
Nevertheless the King maintained peace and order. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
in 1087 declared 'he was a very stern and violent man, so no one dared do
anything contrary to his will ... Amongst other things the good security he
made in this country is not to be forgotten.'
William spent the last months of his reign in Normandy, fighting a
counter-offensive in the French Vexin territory against King Philip's
annexation of outlying Normandy territory. Before his death on 9 September
1087, William divided his 'Anglo-Norman' state between his sons. The scene
was set for centuries of expensive commitments by successive English
monarchs to defend their inherited territories in France.
William bequeathed Normandy as he had promised to his eldest son Robert,
despite their bitter differences (Robert had sided with his father's enemies
in Normandy, and even wounded and defeated his father in a battle there in
1079). His son, William Rufus, was to succeed William as King of England,
and the third remaining son, Henry, was left 5,000 pounds in silver.
William was buried in his abbey foundation of St Stephen at Caen. Desecrated
by Huguenots (1562) and Revolutionaries (1793), the burial place of the
first Norman king of England is marked by a simple stone slab.