Genealogy Data Page 487 (Notes Pages)

Note: William of the House of Normandy; The first Norman King; On 28 Sep 1066 William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion of England. By 1070 the Norman conquest of England was complete. William introduced the Continental 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. During a campaign against King Philip I of France, William fell from a horse and was fatally injured. William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, duke of Normandy and Arletta, a tanner's daughter. He is sometimes called "William the Bastard".

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Godwin, earl - practically sovereign - of the West Saxons (q.v.), having married into Canute's family and surrounded himself with landed kinsmen, was the most powerful person in the realm; in 1042 he acted as kingmaker, assisting Edward the Confessor, of the Anglo-Saxon line, to the throne. Edward, an ascetic, married Edith, Godwin's daughter, in 1045, but under a monastic restraint that left the kingdom without an heir. When Edward died in 1066, therefore, Godwin's son ascended the throne as Harold II. Immediately he was attached by rival "Northmen".

Harold Haardraade, king of Norway, landed on the east coast, only to be defeated and slain at Stamford Bridge on September 25; three days later, however, William, duke of Normandy, who was directly descended from Rollo, the Scandinavian viking, landed at Pevensey, on the English Channel. On October 14 Harold was killed by a chance arrow at the decisive Battle of Hastings, where the Saxon army, which had hastened southward from its victory at Stamford Bridge, was overwhelmed by the superior organization and equipment of William's feudal forces. William the Conqueror marched on London, and on Christmas Day, 1066, he was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey. For five years his sovereignty was disputed.

The Saxon claimant to the throne was Edgar Aetheling, grandson of King Edmund Ironside, whose sister, Margaret, was married to Malcolm III of Scotland. From that asylum Edgar joined with Morcar, earl of Northumbria, and other nobles, in a desperate resistance to the Norman aggression. In 1069 the Danes joined the insurrection by sending their fleet to the Humber, but William bought off these intruders. He recaptured York and proceeded to lay waste the disaffected region from the Humber to the Tees. Morcar joined Hereward the Wake, and when the latter's last stand against the Normans ended on the Isle of Ely in 1071 Williams's rule was finally established in England.

The Norman Conquest was methodical and ruthless. Lands owned by supporters of the old English monarchy were held forfeit to William I, who bestowed them as military rewards on his nobles, so creating an aristocracy that, renewed and transformed from generation to generation, continues to this day. The country was surveyed and rights to property were inscribed in Domesday Book, landholders swearing allegiance to William. Creation of the New Forest, in Hampshire, for hunting brought the king much odium. Upper and lower classes were differentiated by language. Livestock retained English names, but cooked meat appeared on the table in Norman French phraseology. Thus, ox was served as beef; sheep, as mutton; calf, as veal. Power was enforced through massive donjons, of which the "white keep" in the Tower of London remains an impressive example.

The church was active as an ally of the state. Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury under the English kings, was deposed and imprisoned. The Italian, Lanfranc, was brought over from Normandy as his successor, and European civilization poured into the English social system. Whether in peace or war, England and Normandy were associated, and in 1087 William died fighting France, being buried with his queen, Matilda, at Caen.

William Rufus. In following the sequel to the Norman Conquest two factors have to be borne in mind. Firstly, the succession of sovereigns was seldom direct, that is, from father to eldest son. Secondly, the irregularity of the succession made the kings dependent on popular support and thus advanced the freedom of even the conquered English. Within autocracy a nation was thus developing; and further, the kings relied increasingly on the cities, especially London, for means whereby the nobles could be restrained.

William the Conqueror left behind him three sons. To the eldest, the irresolute Robert, he left Normandy. The second son, William Rufus, hurried to London with his father's ring where, assisted by Lanfranc, he was accepted as king. Led by Odo, bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half brother, Norman barons challenged the succession but the English, still the main body of the nation, supported the crown against the insurgents. William II wished to control Normandy as well as England, and in 1096 Robert pledged the duchy to him for funds with which to join in the First Crusade. Financially this reign was oppressive, the instrument of royal extortion being Rannulf Flambard. The king delayed ecclesiastical appointments and, appropriating the corresponding revenues, left behind him one archbishopric and four bishoprics vacant. Appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1093, Anselm soon was at odds with the king and in 1097 retired to Rome in protest. At William's death poetic justice was satisfied: hunting in the New Forest in 1100, a violent ruler was mortally shot by an arrow.

Henry I. With Robert of Normandy at a distance, the Conqueror's third son became king as Henry I - frequently known as Henry Beaucierc. Knowing that according to primogeniture his title was doubtful, he appealed to public opinion by two acts. Firstly, he created an important precedent by granting a charter, promising, among other pledges, to abandon offenses against the church (recalling Anselm from Rome), to refrain from giving heiresses in marriage against their will, and to retain Edward the Confessor's laws as revised by the Conqueror. Secondly, he married Matilda of Scotland, great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironsides, so uniting Norman with English lineage. The struggle for Normandy continued, and in 1106 Henry captured his brother, Duke Robert, at the Battle of Tinchebray. Robert was imprisoned at Cardiff until his death in 1134; and Henry I died the following year.

Stephen. Tragedy bedeviled the accession to Henry I, with resultant misery to the people. The heir to the throne had been William, fondly known as the "Atheling" after his English mother, Matilda of Boulogne. The White Ship on which he embarked from Normandy for England in 1120 foundered on a rock, and the hope of the nation, now growing into unity, was drowned. The king's other son, Robert of Gloucester, was illegitimate, and his daughter, Matilda, named after her mother, was passed over as a woman. The throne was thus conferred on a nephew, Stephen of Blois, son of the Conqueror's daughter, Adela. Granting two charters of liberties to the people, he was accepted at the outset both by England and Normandy. However, David of Scotland, uncle of Empress Matilda of Germany (Henry I's daughter), invaded the country, only to be defeated by Stephen in 1138 near Northallerton, at the Battle of the Standard (q.v.). The king's authority over the restless barons was at a minimum, and in 1139 Empress Matilda, with her half brother, Robert of Gloucester, landed at Portsmouth to win the throne.

In the ensuing civil war both Stephen and Gloucester were taken prisoner, each being exchanged for the other. By the Treaty of Wallingford, the succession was conferred in 1153 on Matilda's able son, Henry of Anjou, who, at Stephen's death in 1154, was duly crowned as Henry II.