William The Conqueror
No medieval king of England is more famous than William the Conqueror, and no event in the whole of English history has been more discussed than the Norman Conquest. From birth until death, William lead a life destined for glory. Being a strong leader and soldier, William the bastard soon became known as William, Duke of Normandy, and later as William I, King of England. Born in Falaise, France, William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, duke of Normandy, and Arletta, a tanner's daughter, and he is therefore sometimes referred to as William the Bastard.# Upon the death of his father, the Norman nobles, honoring their promise to Robert, accepted William as his successor. Rebellion against the young duke broke out almost immediately, however, and his position did not become secure until 1047 when, with the aid of Henry I, king of France, he won a decisive victory over a rebel force near Caen.# This would set the course for the rest of his life. During a visit in 1051 to his childless cousin, Edward the Confessor, king of England, William is said to have obtained Edward's agreement that he should succeed to the English throne.# In 1053, defying a papal ban, William married Matilda of Flanders, daug
During the following years, William crushed insurrections among his Norman followers, including a series of uprisings in Normandy led by his eldest son Robert, who later became Robert II, Duke of Normandy. hter of Baldwin V, count of Flanders and a descendant of King Alfred the Great, thereby strengthening his claim to the crown of England. # He dissolved the great earldoms, which had enjoyed virtual independence under his Anglo-Saxon predecessors, and distributed the lands confiscated from the English to his trusted Norman followers. During a campaign against King Philip I of France, William was burning the town of Mantes and fell off his horse in the vicinity of Mantes, fatally injuring him. The previous system of taxation was of ancient origin and had become obsolete. # Only small remnants of the defending army survived the following onslaughts of the Norman cavalry. # The battle was fought between the national army led by Harold II and the invasion force led by William, Duke of Normandy. # The opening Norman attack, launched in the morning of October 14, failed to remove the English, who met the bombardment of enemy arrows with interlocked shields. By 1070, the Norman conquest of England was complete. Determined to make good his claim, the throne of England, William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion of England. William's victory at Hastings paved the way for the Norman defeat of all England. # William and his army landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066. England turned away from Scandinavia toward France, an orientation that was to last for 400 years. This trick led to the entrapment of another large body of English troops. William was succeeded by his third-born son, William II.
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