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King Guillaume "Le Conquerant" de Normandie - also known as: Willam The Conqueror - was born on 14 Oct 1024 in Falaise, Calvados, Normandy, France and died on 9 Sep 1087 in Hemmenbraville, Rouen, Normandie and was buried in Abbey of St. Stephen, Caen, France .
He was the son of Duke Robert I "The Magnificent" de Normandie and Herleva de Falaise.
King Guillaume married Queen Matilda van Vlaanderen in 1053.
Queen Matilda was born about 1031, lived in Flandres.
She was the daughter of Count Badouin V of Flanders and Countess Adele of France.
She died on 2 Nov 1083 in Caen, France .
Queen Matilda -
daughter of Boudewijn V van Vlaanderen and Adèle de France
(Sources: - 1)
King Guillaume -
William I, called "William the Conqueror", was an illegitimate son of Robert I, duke of Normandy. His mother was a tanner's daughter. William succeeded his father when he was only 7 years old. At 24 he had made himself the mightiest feudal lord in all France by various conquests, but his ambition was not satisfied. He laid plans to become king of England also.
William's wife Matilda was descended from the old Anglo-Saxon line of kings. Among their children were four sons: Robert, future duke of Normandy; Richard, who died as a youth; William Rufus, who succeeded his father as king of England; and Henry, who succeeded William Rufus. One daughter, Adela, became the mother of England's King Stephen.
Edward the Confessor, king of England, was William's cousin. William used his connection with Flanders to put pressure on Edward to extort a promise that he would become heir to the English throne. It is probable that Edward made some kind of pledge to William as early as 1051. Edward died childless on Jan. 5, 1066. William then claimed the throne on the basis of this promise. The English, however, chose Harold, earl of Wessex, as their king.
William prepared a large expedition and set sail for England. On Oct. 14, 1066, he defeated and killed Harold at Hastings in one of the decisive battles of the world (see Hastings, Battle of). Then he marched on London, and on Christmas day he was crowned king.
After subduing England's powerful earls, William seized their lands for his Norman nobles and ordered the nobles to build fortified stone castles to protect their lands. As payment for their fiefs, the nobles supplied the king with armed knights. French became the language of the king's court and gradually blended with the Anglo-Saxon tongue.
William won the loyalty of the mass of the people by wisely retaining the old Anglo-Saxon laws, courts, and customs with only a few changes. Thus the principle of self-government, which lies at the root of the political system of English-speaking peoples, was preserved and strengthened. At the same time, William taught the English the advantages of a central government strong enough to control feudal lords.
Toward the end of his reign, William ordered a great census to be taken of all the lands and people of England. This survey was called Domesday Book. Two of the original books may still be seen at the Public Records Office in London. "So very narrowly did he cause the survey to be made," complained the old Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "that there was not a single rood of land, nor an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by, and that was not set down in the accounts."
William was often on the continent dealing with his widespread holdings. He died there in 1087 from injuries received while warring with Philip I of France. William was a man of great stature and had a tremendous voice. Such was the good order he established that, according to a quaint historian of his time, "any man, who was himself aught, might travel over the kingdom with a bosom of gold unmolested, and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he might have received from him." He was succeeded in Normandy by his eldest son, Robert, and in England by his second son, William II, called William Rufus.
He invaded England defeating the English forces in the Battle of Hastings in Oct. 1066. He became King of England on Christmas Day 1066 and ruled until his death in 1087.
He appointed the Norman nobles to high positions and divided the land among Norman's, forcing most Anglo-Saxons to become servants. William had England surveyed to determine how much property there was in England and who owned it. This survey became known as Doomsday Book. It is claimed that the ancestral lineage of William also is directly traceable to Charlemagne and then on back to Julius Caesar.
William and Matilda founded two monastic communities in Caen, France. The Abbaye-auz-Hommes, dedicated to St. Stephan for men, and the Abbaye-aux-Dames for women.
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Children: (Quick Family Chart) |
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King Henry I "Beauclerc" of England was born in 1068 in Shelby, Yorkshire, England and died Dec 1135 in St. Denis, Seine-St.Denis, France and was buried in Reading Abbey, Berkshire, England .
King Henry -
Henry I (born 1068, ruled 1100-35). The youngest son of William the Conqueror was born in England. His nickname, Beauclerc, which means "good scholar," was given him because of his fine education. He seized the crown in the year 1100, when his brother King William II was killed in a hunting accident and his brother Robert, duke of Normandy, who was next in the line of succession, was absent on a crusade (see William, Kings of England). At his accession Henry I issued the famous Charter of Liberties, which, over a hundred years later, was used as the basis of Magna Carta, the foundation of the liberties of the Anglo-Saxon world. He also favored the church in order to gain its backing against the claims of his brother Robert to the English throne. The Charter of Liberties helped gain Henry the support of the nobles. He conciliated the English, conquered by his father, by marrying Matilda, who was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland and who was descended from the Anglo-Saxon kings. The support of the common people was assured by the justice he administered through the King's Court. Henry's only son, William Aetheling, was drowned in 1120 when the White Ship sank in the English Channel. According to legend, the king never smiled again. The accident left his daughter Matilda, widow of the Holy Roman emperor Henry V, and his nephew Stephen contestants for the throne at his death.
The youngest and ablest of William I the Conqueror's sons, Henry strengthened the crown's powers and modernized royal administration.
He was crowned at Westminster three days after his brother, William II, had been killed in a hunting accident in 1100.
See of England
family for continuation of family line.
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Princess Gundred of England was born about 1063 in Normandy, France and died on 27 May 1085 in Castle Acre, Acre, Norfolk, England .
Princess Gundred married William de Warenne I before 1077 in Normandy, France.
William was born about 1055, lived in Bellencombe, Seine Inferieure, France.
He was the son of Ralph de Warenne and Beatrix do Rouen.
He died on 24 Jun 1088 in Lewes, Sussex, England .
Princess Gundred -
It has been said that Gundred was not the daughter of William, the Conqueror, but that she was the daughter of Matilda of Flanders by, perhaps, a previous marriage. The Invincible Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, p. 26, says that the inseription on Gundred's tombstone describes her as wife of William de Warren and daughter of Wm., the Conqueror. Also in Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerage, pp. 154, 568 and 588, she is called daughter by Wm., the Conqueror, in a charter signed by Wm., William de Warren and Henry I, son of William, the Conqueror. Thus proving this much discussed question. E. E. W)
See de Warenne family for children.
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Princess Adaele of England was born about 1062, lived in Normandie and died on 8 Mar 1135 in Marsilly, Aquitaine .
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King William de Normandie "the Conqueror"
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William the Conqueror acknowledges Harold's of allegiance
Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry
(Click here to view full size image.) |
Statue of William the Conqueror
erected in Falaise, his birthplace, in 1851.
(Click here to view full size image.) |
Abbaye-aux-Dames
founded by William the Conquerer and Matilda, in Cane France.
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Abbaye-aux-Hommes
founded by William the Conquerer and Matilda, in Cane France.
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Queen Matilda of Flanders
1031-1083
from "Queens of England" - 1894 - provided by Cindy Jackola.
(Click here to view full size image.) |
King Henry I
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Reading Abbey
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