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Notes for William II "Rufus" , King of England
General Note
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This red-haired William II, Rufus as he was known, reigned with violence, cruelty, and injustice.
His death at the hands of Walter Tirel in 1100 brought his brother Henry I, William the Conqueror's
third son, to the throne. Ref: Dictionary of Medieval Knighthood andChivalry, intro pg xvii.
Rufus
William II was short and stout, had fair hair, a fiery red complexion (hence his nickname,
Rufus) and suffered from a stutter. Intelligent, witty, generous to his soldiers and unswervingly
loyal to his...
William was the third son born to William I and Matilda. Unlike Robert,
the first-born, but treasonous son of the Conqueror, William was ever-loyal to his father.
When the King's second son, Richard, died in an accident, it seemed William would be the one
to inherit the lands and titles of his father. But, Robert, although disloyal, was the first
born and the recognized property rights of the first son were undeniable. Robert became Duke
of Normandie; but on his death bed, William I named his third son King of England and on September
26, 1087, William II was crowned at Westminster.
William II had his father's stout
build, light eyes and a ruddy complexion (hence the nickname--William Rufus) and most embarrassing
for a monarch, a stutter. However, a stutter was the least of his worries. During the reign
of William I most of the lands and estates were taken from English aristocrats and bestowed
on Norman barons--men who still owned Norman estates. With the ascension of William this new
nobility found themselves in the difficult position of serving two masters: William in England,
and William's brother, Robert Duke of Normandie. By the following year a Norman campaign to
relieve William of England was under way, but Robert never landed in England and the revolt
was easily crushed. William, however was not as easily dissuaded. He wanted Normandie and with
English silver he could have it. Cold, hard currency was a rare commodity in medieval Europe,
but the British Isles, rich in natural silver ore, was the exception. Robert's position became
more tenuous until finally, in 1096, he joined a crusade to the Holy Land and pawned Normandie
to William for 10,000 marks.
Overall, William was an effective ruler. He won back
ancestral land lost by Robert; he moved further into Wales and Scotland; and he put down the
occasional rebellion. William's failings were with the Church of Rome. The Archbishop Lefranc,
appointed by William I, kept a semblance of piety and discretion over the court of William
II, but with Lefranc's death, William saw only an opportunity to help himself to Church revenues.
He distrusted the church and distrusted its representatives. Once approached by a monk who
foresaw William's death in a dream, William retorted, "He is a monk and so, of course, he dreams
for money."
But William's cynicism did not last for long, for in 1093 William thought
he was dying and in a fit a religious idealism appointed a saint, Anselm, to the position of
Archbishop of Canterbury. What proved to be problematic for William was that he did not die,
and now he was stuck with Anselm, a religious radical. As a Norman abbot, Anselm recognized
Urban II as the Pope, but in England, Urban II was not acknowledged. This, and other disagreements
between William and Anselm, came to a head when William called a court in order to settle matters.
Anselm appealed to Rome claiming that as a cleric he could not be tried in a secular court.
With this William saw his way out. He told Urban II that he would indeed recognize Urban's
authority as Pope, if he in turn would depose Anselm. Urban agreed and sent a papal legate
to England; and Urban II was declared the canonical Pope. Urban, however, never deposed Anselm,
and William was further frustrated. Thus started William's campaign of harassment against Anselm
and his roadblocks against church reform. Anselm eventually gave up and abandoned the Canterbury
estates, and the revenues again went into William's pocket. However, the power of the church
was growing. Gone were the days when the monarchs of England paid no notice to the bishop of
Rome.
For the meantime though, William made out quite well. He was at the height of
his influence and was planning a few conquests here and there, when on August 2, 1100, he was
killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. It may have been an accident, or it may
have been murder, for William's brother, Henry, was also in the New Forest that August day
and within three days he would be King.
Biographical information from The Lives of
the Kings and Queens of England, ed. Antonia Frasier and The Oxford Illustrated History of
the British Monarchy, ed. John Cannon and Ralph Griffiths.
William II was a homosexual
and died in a mysterious hunting accident.
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