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Mother. Herleva of Falaise. William the Conqueror[a] (c. 1028[1] – 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, [2][b] was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy (as William II) [3] from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle, his ...
Apr 2, 2014 · Born circa 1028 in Falaise, Normandy, France, William the Conqueror was an illegitimate child of Robert I, duke of Normandy, who died in 1035 while returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ...
Jan 30, 2019 · William the Conqueror (c. 1027-1087), also known as William, Duke of Normandy, led the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 when he defeated and killed his rival Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. Crowned King William I of England on Christmas Day 1066, he secured his new realm after five years of hard battles against rebels and invaders.
- Mark Cartwright
- Jennie Cohen
- He was of Viking extraction. Who Were the Vikings? Though he spoke a dialect of French and grew up in Normandy, a fiefdom loyal to the French kingdom, William and other Normans descended from Scandinavian invaders.
- He had reason to hate his original name. The product of an affair between Robert I, duke of Normandy, and a woman called Herleva, William was likely known to his contemporaries as William the Bastard for much of his life.
- His future bride wanted nothing to do with him at first. When William asked for the hand of Matilda of Flanders, a granddaughter of France’s King Robert II, she demurred, perhaps because of his illegitimacy or her entanglement with another man.
- He couldn’t bear any disrespect toward his mother. During William’s siege of Alençon, a disputed town on the border of Normandy, in the late 1040s or early 1050s, residents are said to have hung animal hides on their walls.
- He became Duke of Normandy as a child. According to the chronicler William of Malmesbury, Robert I, Duke of Normandy (1027-35) met a lady named Herleva: “Her beauty had once caught his eye as she was dancing, and he could not refrain from sleeping with her; and henceforth he loved her above all others, and for some time kept her in the position of a lawful wife.”
- His wife. Matilda, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, at first rejected William’s courtship because she would not marry a bastard. According to a 13th-century chronicle, the young Duke responded by riding to Baldwin’s palace in Bruges, where he forced his way in, and then “with his fists, heels, and spurs” beat Matilda.
- His family. As William consolidated his rule over Normandy, he made use of a trusted inner circle of supporters, chief among them his two half-brothers (on his mother’s side) Odo and Robert.
- His claim to the English throne. The King of England since 1042 was Edward the Confessor. Being a highly religious man, Edward decided to be celibate and never had any children.
William I, William the Conqueror (c.1028 - 1087) After successfully invading England, William the Conqueror changed the course of English history. The illegitimate son of Robert I of Normandy, William became Duke of Normandy on his father's death in 1035. With many in his family eager to profit from his death, his childhood was dangerous: three ...
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Sep 24, 2024 · William I (born c. 1028, Falaise, Normandy [France]—died September 9, 1087, Rouen) was a noble who made himself the mightiest in France and then changed the course of England ’s history through his conquest of that country in 1066. One of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages, he was duke of Normandy from 1035 and king of ...
