William the Conqueror - FULL
Audio Book - by
Jacob Abbott
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William I (
Old Norman:
Williame I; circa 1028[1] --
9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes as
William the Bastard,[2][a] was the first
Norman King of
England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. Descended from
Viking raiders, he had been
Duke of Normandy since 1035 under the title of
William II. After a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on
Normandy was secure, and he launched the
Norman conquest of England in 1066. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands and by difficulties with his eldest son.
William was the son of the unmarried
Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by his mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued the first years of his rule. During his childhood and adolescence, members of the
Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy, a process that was not complete until about 1060. His marriage in the 1050s to
Matilda of Flanders provided him with a powerful ally in the neighbouring county of
Flanders. By the time of his marriage, William was able to arrange the appointments of his supporters as bishops and abbots in the
Norman church. His consolidation of power allowed him to expand his horizons, and by 1062 William was able to secure control of the neighbouring county of
Maine.
In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by his childless cousin
Edward the Confessor. There were other potential claimants, including the powerful
English earl
Harold Godwinson, who was named the next king by
Edward on the latter's deathbed in January 1066. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, and that
Harold had sworn to support William's claim. William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the
Battle of Hastings on
14 October 1066. After further military efforts William was crowned king on
Christmas Day 1066, in
London. He made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 William's hold on England was mostly secure, allowing him to spend the majority of the rest of his reign on the
Continent.
William's final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his eldest son, and threatened invasions of England by the
Danes. In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the
Domesday Book, a survey listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings. William died in September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern
France, and was buried in
Caen. His reign in England was marked by the construction of castles, the settling of a new Norman nobility on the land, and change in the composition of the English clergy. He did not try to integrate his various domains into one empire, but instead continued to administer each part separately. William's lands were divided after his death: Normandy went to his eldest son,
Robert, and his second surviving son, William, received England.
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Norsemen first began raiding in what became Normandy in the late
8th century.
Permanent Scandinavian settlement occurred before
911, when an agreement was reached between
Rollo, one of the Viking leaders, and
King Charles the
Simple of France, surrendering the county of
Rouen to Rollo. The lands around Rouen became the core of the later duchy of Normandy.
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- published: 27 Feb 2013
- views: 3871