William I - King of England

Cleveland State Community College

William I of England

Social Science Department

World Civic II

Present by Kaleb Sanchez

Cleveland, Tennessee

February 14, 2012

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William I, King of England

Most people have heard of the famous William I of England, aka William the Conqueror William started his reign as the monarch of England in a nontraditional method: He was not the birth son of a king. As a matter of fact, he was correctly deemed a bastard since his father and mother were not married. Yet this king is one of the most notoriously remembered kings in history.

William was born circa 1028, in Falaise, Normandy. William's father was Robert I, the sixth Duke of Normandy, who served under King Edward the Confessor. His mother was Herleva, a tanner's daughter. At the age of seven, William's father died. William, as the first son, became the new Duke of Normandy. This time in history was full of savagery and fighting for domination. In 1051 King Edward the Confessor, a distant cousin, took refuge in William's estate. Since Edward had no son, he promised William the English throne when he died. At Edward's return to England, Harold Godwinson, an English nobleman, was furious at Edward's plan to have a Norman succeed him to the English throne. Yet, as the King of England there was little he could do while Edward was still alive.

In 1066 upon the unexpected death of Edward, Harold placed himself upon the throne and the English people accepted him as their king. When the news reached William in Normandy, he was furious at his half-brother. William gathered support from many of the French nobles in Normandy. William's troops invaded England and defeated Harold and his

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English supporters at what has been named the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. Harold had only been on the throne for ten months upon the date of his defeat. William may have taken the throne by force, but he was elected and crowned king on Christmas Day in London, England. With William's victor, a Norman aristocracy became the new governing class; thus many members of the original English aristocrats, including religious leads, were replaced by William's Norman supporters. Historians have declared this regime change as the end of the Anglo Saxon period: Harold was the last of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs. The English were rebellious about a Norman ruling Englishmen, but Pope Gregory sanctioned his reign.

William is historically remembered as a great strategist. The medieval tactic for warfare involved building castles. This scheme was instituted by William. He built many of the castles in England, including the famous Tower of London. (The Tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison, particularly for noble and royal prisoners.) This was not the only change William made in England. William commissioned the record of all holdings in England. The statistic kept in this book allowed William to charge taxes that he and the French

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