William II: Abominable to God?

 

On the death of his father, William The Conqueror, September 1087, William II became king of England. William was the third born son of The Conqueror. William’s older brother, Robert Curthose, was overlooked as a potential king of England as he had rebelled against The Conqueror and even got to the point where he could have killed him. Robert lost his nerve at the last moment and fled. But William I could not forget his sons’ treachery and Robert, instead, would have to make do with the Duchy of Normandy. Another of The Conquerors’ sons, Richard, the second born son, had died, in an eerie foreshadowing of later events, in a hunting incident in the New Forest. So the throne would pass to William II who was aged about 30 at the time of his succession.

Things would not be made easy for William II. Robert had no intention of remaining satisfied with being merely Duke of Normandy. As the eldest son, he felt, rightly despite his previous misbehaviour, that he should be king of England. And he had a fair share of support too. Among Robert’s key supporters was Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and a half brother of William The Conqueror. In Easter 1088, the plot against King William II began in earnest. The kings’ lands, and those of his supporters, were attacked and set ablaze. Bristol was attacked by Robert Mowbray along with a bishop named Gosfrith. Their forces stormed Bristol Castle, ravaged it before moving on to Bath and surrounding areas. To the king’s dismay, the uprising grew ever more serious as Robert’s followers roused men across the country into rebellion. Mowbray and his men gained further support in Hereford. From Wales, men streamed into England, delighted at the opportunity to wreak havoc in their neighbours’ lands. Worcestershire was burned although men loyal to the elderly Bishop Wulfstan marched out against the rebels and killed and captured a number of them. But destruction spread far and wide. In Kent, his own earldom, Odo, continued to ravage and plunder.

William was utterly dismayed when he got word of this rebellion. As a new king, he was still unsure of how much loyalty he could expect from his subjects. If he wasn’t able to muster enough support to put down this revolt, then potentially he could lose his crown to his brother. Desperate, the king made empty promises of ridding the country of burdensome taxation that had been imposed on the people by his father. Whether they believed him or not, William’s subjects did come to the king’s aid. A force loyal to the king marched into Kent, with the aim of capturing Odo, the chief architect in the plot to put Robert on the English throne. They stormed into Tonbridge Castle where many of Odo’s men were currently residing although the Bishop himself was absent. William marched on Rochester, believing Odo to be there but instead learned that Odo had retreated to his castle at Pevensey. William now began a six week long siege of Pevensey.

Meanwhile, in Normandy, Robert, keeping abreast of the situation across the channel, sent a force of men to back the rebellion. However, William’s supporters were prepared for this. William, at Pevensey, was ideally placed to keep an eye on any unwelcome visitors landing on the south coast and Robert’s force was swiftly destroyed upon its approach with many men either cut down by the sword or simply drowned. With provisions running low inside the walls of Pevensey Castle, Odo and his men had little option but to sue for peace. Odo agreed to leave England and also hand over to the king the castle at Rochester. But, just when it looked as though the king had done enough to see off this revolt,some inside Rochester Castle had other ideas. Odo travelled with some of the king’s men to formally hand over the castle to them but some young knights decided that they were not happy with this arrangement and took Odo and the king’s knights hostage. William was forced to besiege Rochester and, eventually, he took possession of the castle. Odo was now free to leave the country and he joined Duke Robert in Normandy. Odo vowed to join the First Crusade, which he did, but died in the early stages. 

With that done, William now turned his attention towards taking the attack to Robert in Normandy. The king imposed unpopular taxes in order to fund his campaign, with the Anglo Saxon Chronicles calling them illegal, and, by 1090, he was inflicting some heavy punishment on his brother. He took castles at St Valery and Aumale, garrisoning them with his own men. Robert asked the French king, Philip I, for support and Philip obliged. William, however, paid him off. By 1091, William was ready to come to terms with Robert and agreed to help the Duke gain back control over Maine in exchange for Fecamp and Cherbourg. The agreement also arranged for William to become heir to the Duchy of Normandy should Robert remain without an heir (which he didn’t as a son was born to him in 1102 although William II was already dead by then meaning this arrangement was futile). And, in return, Robert would be heir to the throne of England should William die childless ( which he did but Robert remained away on Crusade at the time, allowing their younger brother Henry to become king). 

This arrangement didn’t please everyone. Edgar Aetheling, son of Edward The Exile and grandson of King Edmund Ironside, had lands taken from him as part of the peace agreement and returned to William. Angry, Edgar sailed to the court of the Scottish king, Malcolm III who was married to Edgar’s sister Margaret, who was later made a saint. Whilst William may have been pleased with how things had gone in France, this was a potentially damaging oversight. Malcolm marched into England, sacking towns as he went. William, along with Robert, hastened across the channel and marched Northwards. Although the two armies faced off against one another, battle was avoided and peace talks were held. For the time, peace reigned. But not for long. Spending some time at William’s court, until Christmas of 1091, Robert began to grow suspicious of William and the strength of the agreement that they had reached. Robert returned to Normandy, accompanied by Edgar.

In 1093, William II became extremely sick. As he lay bed ridden in Gloucester, rumours spread that he was, in fact, dead. This wasn’t the case but, at one stage, prospects looked grim for the king. He recovered but William still had problems. Malcolm III, like Robert, had grown suspicious of the English king’s intentions and demanded that William respect their treaty. In response, William sent Edgar to Scotland and also some hostages in order to appease Malcolm. But when a meeting was held between William and Malcolm, the relationship between the two kings broke irreparably. The Scottish king had been insulted by William’s attitude towards and now returned home with the full intention of invading England once again. But Malcolm was defeated and killed at the Battle of Alnwick along with his son and heir. Malcolm’s Queen, Margaret, died not long after hearing the news of her husband and son’s demise.

William was now presented with an opportunity to meddle in Scottish affairs. At his court was Duncan, a son of Malcolm III, who had been handed to William as hostage. Duncan wanted to travel to Scotland, to claim the crown. But the Scots had proclaimed Duncan’s uncle, Donald, as their new king. William, eager to help, aided Duncan’s cause by providing him with men, both English and French, for an invasion army. Duncan was initially successful, becoming king for a few months before his uncle returned and defeated him, establishing himself, once again,as king Donald III.

By 1094, William and Robert’s relationship continued to be tense. Although peace talks were held, they were done so in an extremely fraught atmosphere and it was obvious that William was stringing Robert along. He wanted to gain control of Normandy, hook or by crook. William gained the support of his other brother Henry, and throughout 1094 and into 1095, continued to make gains against Robert. Meanwhile, in England, William was plagued by issues with the Earl of Northumbria. William marched northwards, capturing Tynemouth before marching on the historically important castle of Bamburgh. Realising the siege would be difficult, William built a temporary fort which he garrisoned with his men before he returned southwards. The Earl would eventually be captured. William then campaigned in Wales but failed to subdue the Welsh in satisfactory fashion as the Welsh employed guerrilla warfare tactics against the king. William returned home, having achieved little. 

In 1095, Pope Urban II preached what would become known as the First Crusade. All of European Christendom was seized by a feverish desire for Holy War as they sought to aid their Christian brothers and sisters in the Holy Land who were under attack from the Seljuk Turks. Men and women, from both great and lowly rank, responded to the Pope’s calls in astonishing numbers. This included Robert, Duke of Normandy. Even though what the Pope asked from his Crusaders was practically unheard of, it was obvious that huge expenses would be involved. Robert needed money and so, in return for a generous financial payment, he handed over control of Normandy to William and prepared to travel eastwards. Robert would know that, should he return, he would have a difficult time establishing himself in any sort of position of power again but fighting what he and many others would have considered to be Gods’ War, this would have mattered very little. As for William, he now had both England and Normandy in his grasp.

But this all came at a price for the king, literally. To raise the sum of money that Robert required, the king had to impose heavy taxes on the people of England once again. This caused huge discontent in the realm and, to make matters worse, it coincided with a dreadful famine.

Also, In 1096, a count named William of Eu was accused of treason. He was forced to fight a trial by combat and lost. The king ordered William of Eu’s eyes to be put out before he was castrated. The count died soon after. 

In 1097, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, travelled into self imposed exile. Anselm had been at odds with William II for some time and had grown disillusioned with not only the king but also with what he saw as widespread corruption across the country. In the North, William continued to meddle in Scotland, sending Edgar Aetheling on campaign to depose Donald III. This was achieved and Edgar installed as king another Edgar, who was a son of Malcolm III. The final couple of years of William II’s reign were dominated by complaints of heavy taxes.

William II died whilst hunting in the New Forest on 2nd August 1100. A man named Walter Tyrel had been aiming at a stag when he let fly of an arrow which, instead, struck the king through the heart. Was it an accident? Possibly. The sun was setting at the time and so vision would have been far from ideal. Years later, Tyrel swore blind that he had nothing to do with it. Also out hunting that day was the king’s youngest brother, Henry. The death of William II, combined with the absence of Robert on Crusade, played nicely into Henry’s hands. But this is circumstantial evidence and we’ll likely never know whether it was an accident or murder. But as for William II, what type of king was he? He was not without his good points. He was clearly a capable soldier and leader of men. But he lacked tact when it came to his relations with the church. Like his father, his handling of taxation was obviously excessive. However, the Anglo Saxon Chronicles description of him as being “hateful to nearly all his people and abominable to God” is clearly over the top. William II won’t rank as one of the greatest medieval kings England ever had, or even middling for that. He lacks charm and was quite obviously greedy but his reign was certainly not the disaster that it’s sometimes made out to be.