1. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror invaded England, leading a Franco-Norman army to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.
William the Conqueror was the son of the unmarried Duke Robert I of Normandy and his mistress Herleva.
In 1047, William the Conqueror quashed a rebellion and began to establish his authority over the duchy, a process that was not complete until about 1060.
William the Conqueror made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy.
Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but William the Conqueror's hold on England was mostly secure by 1075, allowing him to spend the greater part of his reign in continental Europe.
William the Conqueror did not try to integrate his domains into one empire but continued to administer each part separately.
William the Conqueror's lands were divided after his death: Normandy went to Robert, and England went to his second surviving son, William Rufus.
William the Conqueror was born in 1027 or 1028 at Falaise, Duchy of Normandy, most likely towards the end of 1028.
William the Conqueror was the only son of Robert I, son of Richard II.
William the Conqueror faced several challenges on becoming duke, including his illegitimate birth and his youth: he was either seven or eight years old.
William the Conqueror enjoyed the support of his great-uncle, Archbishop Robert, as well as King Henry I of France, enabling him to succeed to his father's duchy.
King Henry continued to support the young duke, but in late 1046 opponents of William the Conqueror came together in a rebellion centred in lower Normandy, led by Guy of Burgundy with support from Nigel, Viscount of the Cotentin, and Ranulf, Viscount of the Bessin.
In early 1047 Henry and William the Conqueror returned to Normandy and were victorious at the Battle of Val-es-Dunes near Caen, although few details of the fighting are recorded.
William the Conqueror assumed power in Normandy, and shortly after the battle promulgated the Truce of God throughout his duchy, in an effort to limit warfare and violence by restricting the days of the year on which fighting was permitted.
Belleme's overlord was the king of France, but Domfront was under the overlordship of Geoffrey Martel and Duke William the Conqueror was Alencon's overlord.
William the Conqueror was thus able to assert his overlordship over the Belleme family and compel them to act consistently with Norman interests.
Henry's about-face was probably motivated by a desire to retain dominance over Normandy, which was now threatened by William the Conqueror's growing mastery of his duchy.
William the Conqueror was engaged in military actions against his own nobles throughout 1053, as well as with the new Archbishop of Rouen, Mauger.
William the Conqueror met the invasion by dividing his forces into two.
Mortemer thus marked another turning point in William the Conqueror's growing control of the duchy, although his conflict with the French king and the Count of Anjou continued until 1060.
In 1058, William the Conqueror invaded the County of Dreux and took Tillieres-sur-Avre and Thimert.
One factor in William the Conqueror's favour was his marriage to Matilda of Flanders, the daughter of Count Baldwin V of Flanders.
William the Conqueror enjoyed excellent health until old age, although he became quite fat in later life.
William the Conqueror was strong enough to draw bows that others were unable to pull and had great stamina.
William the Conqueror was not known as a patron of authors, and there is little evidence that he sponsored scholarships or intellectual activities.
Orderic Vitalis records that William the Conqueror tried to learn to read Old English late in life, but he was unable to devote sufficient time to the effort and quickly gave up.
Norman government under William the Conqueror was similar to the government that had existed under earlier dukes.
William the Conqueror cultivated close relations with the church in his duchy.
William the Conqueror took part in church councils and made several appointments to the Norman episcopate, including the appointment of Maurilius as Archbishop of Rouen.
William the Conqueror relied on the clergy for advice, including Lanfranc, a non-Norman who rose to become one of William's prominent ecclesiastical advisors from the late 1040s through the 1060s.
William the Conqueror gave generously to the church; from 1035 to 1066, the Norman aristocracy founded at least twenty new monastic houses, including William the Conqueror's two monasteries in Caen, a remarkable expansion of religious life in the duchy.
William the Conqueror was the grandson of Edward's maternal uncle, Richard II of Normandy.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the "D" version, states that William the Conqueror visited England in the later part of 1051, perhaps to secure confirmation of the succession, or perhaps to secure aid for his troubles in Normandy.
Whatever Edward's wishes, it was likely that any claim by William the Conqueror would be opposed by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, a member of the most powerful family in England.
Local nobles resisted the claim, but William the Conqueror invaded and by 1064 had secured control of the area.
William the Conqueror appointed a Norman to the bishopric of Le Mans in 1065.
William the Conqueror allowed his son Robert Curthose to do homage to the new Count of Anjou, Geoffrey the Bearded.
In 1064 William the Conqueror invaded Brittany in a campaign that remains obscure in its details.
William the Conqueror benefited from his campaign in Brittany by securing the support of some Breton nobles who went on to support the invasion of England in 1066.
Harold assembled an army and a fleet to repel William the Conqueror's anticipated invasion force, deploying troops and ships along the English Channel for most of the summer.
William the Conqueror would have preferred to delay the invasion until he could make an unopposed landing.
William the Conqueror probably learned of William's landing while he was travelling south.
The exact events preceding the battle are obscure, with contradictory accounts in the sources, but all agree that William the Conqueror led his army from his castle and advanced towards the enemy.
The English soldiers formed up as a shield wall along the ridge and were at first so effective that William the Conqueror's army was thrown back with heavy casualties.
William the Conqueror ordered the body thrown into the sea, but whether that took place is unclear.
William the Conqueror remained in England after his coronation and tried to reconcile the native magnates.
William the Conqueror left his half-brother Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux, in charge of England along with another influential supporter, William fitzOsbern, the son of his former guardian.
Orderic Vitalis states that Edwin's reason for revolting was that the proposed marriage between himself and one of William the Conqueror's daughters had not taken place, but another reason probably included the increasing power of fitzOsbern in Herefordshire, which affected Edwin's power within his own earldom.
Edwin and Morcar submitted, but William the Conqueror continued on to York, building York and Nottingham Castles before returning south.
William the Conqueror responded swiftly, ignoring a continental revolt in Maine, and symbolically wore his crown in the ruins of York on Christmas Day 1069.
In 1070 William the Conqueror founded Battle Abbey, a new monastery at the site of the Battle of Hastings, partly as a penance for the deaths in the battle and partly as a memorial to the dead.
William the Conqueror was able to secure the departure of Sweyn and his fleet in 1070, allowing him to return to the continent to deal with troubles in Maine, where the town of Le Mans had revolted in 1069.
William the Conqueror's rule was contested by Robert, Baldwin's brother.
William the Conqueror was opposed to King William's power on the continent, thus the Battle of Cassel upset the balance of power in northern France and cost William an important supporter.
In 1071 William the Conqueror defeated the last rebellion of the north.
Earl Edwin was betrayed by his own men and killed, while William the Conqueror built a causeway to subdue the Isle of Ely, where Hereward the Wake and Morcar were hiding.
In 1072 William the Conqueror invaded Scotland, defeating Malcolm, who had recently invaded the north of England.
William then turned his attention to the continent, returning to Normandy in early 1073 to deal with the invasion of Maine by Fulk le Rechin, the Count of Anjou.
William the Conqueror returned to England to release his army from service in 1073 but quickly returned to Normandy, where he spent all of 1074.
William the Conqueror left England in the hands of his supporters, including Richard fitzGilbert and William de Warenne, as well as Lanfranc.
William the Conqueror's ability to leave England for an entire year was a sign that he felt that his control of the kingdom was secure.
The French king, seeking a focus for those opposed to William the Conqueror's power, proposed that Edgar be given the castle of Montreuil-sur-Mer on the Channel, which would have given Edgar a strategic advantage against William the Conqueror.
Waltheof, the earl of Northumbria, although one of William the Conqueror's favourites, was involved, and some Breton lords were ready to rebel in support of Ralph and Roger.
William the Conqueror remained in Normandy while his men in England subdued the revolt.
William the Conqueror returned to England later in 1075 to deal with the Danish threat, leaving his wife Matilda in charge of Normandy.
William the Conqueror celebrated Christmas at Winchester and dealt with the aftermath of the rebellion.
William the Conqueror was able to make peace with Philip in 1077 and secured a truce with Count Fulk in late 1077 or early 1078.
William the Conqueror immediately attacked the rebels and drove them from Remalard, but King Philip gave them the castle at Gerberoi, where they were joined by new supporters.
William the Conqueror was unhorsed by Robert and was only saved from death by an Englishman, Toki son of Wigod, who was himself killed.
William the Conqueror's forces were forced to lift the siege, and the king returned to Rouen.
William the Conqueror visited Wales in 1081, although the English and the Welsh sources differ on the purpose of the visit.
In 1082, William the Conqueror ordered the arrest of his half-brother Odo.
William the Conqueror was always described as close to his wife, and her death would have added to his problems.
William the Conqueror required his newly created magnates to contribute fixed quotas of knights towards not only military campaigns but castle garrisons.
William the Conqueror granted some lands to his continental followers from the holdings of one or more specific Englishmen; at other times, he granted a compact grouping of lands previously held by many different Englishmen to one Norman follower, often to allow for the consolidation of lands around a strategically placed castle.
William the Conqueror was known for his love of hunting, and he introduced the forest law into areas of the country, regulating who could hunt and what could be hunted.
William the Conqueror took over an English government that was more complex than the Norman system.
William the Conqueror crossed back and forth between the continent and England at least 19 times between 1067 and his death.
William the Conqueror spent most of his time in England between the Battle of Hastings and 1072; after that, he spent the majority of his time in Normandy.
William the Conqueror appointed deputies who could make decisions while he was absent, especially if the absence was expected to be lengthy.
William the Conqueror retained control of much of the lands of Harold and his family, which made the king the largest secular landowner in England by a wide margin.
At Christmas 1085, William the Conqueror ordered the compilation of a survey of the landholdings held by himself and by his vassals throughout his kingdom, organised by counties.
The other, the De obitu Willelmi, or On the Death of William the Conqueror, has been shown to be a copy of two 9th-century accounts with names changed.
William the Conqueror ordered that all of his prisoners be released, including his half-brother Odo.
William the Conqueror's grave is marked by a marble slab with a Latin inscription dating from the early 19th century.
The immediate consequence of William the Conqueror's death was a war between his sons Robert and William the Conqueror over control of England and Normandy.
William the Conqueror's sons lost much of their control over Maine, which revolted in 1089 and managed to remain mostly free of Norman influence thereafter.
The impact on England of William the Conqueror's conquest was profound; changes in the Church, aristocracy, culture, and language of the country have persisted into modern times.
William the Conqueror's government blended elements of the English and Norman systems into a new one that laid the foundations of the later medieval English kingdom.
William the Conqueror's reign has caused historical controversy since before his death.