Duke of Normandy -- King of England Guillaume de Normandy

1024 - 1087  (63 years)

• Name	Guillaume de Normandy  [1, 2, 3]
  Title	Duke of Normandy -- King of England
  Birth	1024	Falaise, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France   [3]
  	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
  Gender	Male
  Kinfolk of Note	Direct Ancestor of Retha Zulma Gott
  Name	William the Conqueror  [3]
  _MILT	1066  [3]
  	He launched the Norman conquest of England, killing English King Harold at the Battle of Hastings
  		Battle of Hastings
  Religion	1070
  	Roman Catholic - William 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 those dead.
  		Battle Abbey
  Occupation	1085
  	William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings
  		(Historic) Domesday Book At Christmas 1085, William ordered the compilation of a survey of the landholdings of him and his vassals throughout the kingdom, organised by counties, a work now known as the Domesday Book. Each county's listing gives the holdings of each landholder, grouped by owners. The listings describe the holding, who owned the land before the Conquest,…
  _FUN	1087	Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France
  	At the Abbey of Saint-Étienne -- indignity occurred when the corpse was lowered into the tomb. The corpse was too large for the space, and when attendants forced the body into the tomb it burst, spreading a disgusting odour throughout the church
  		Abbey of Saint-Étienne
  Death	9 Sep 1087	France   [2, 3]
  	priory of St Gervase at Rouen
  Burial	Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France   [2, 3]
  	Abbaye-aux-Hommes
  		Tomb of Guillelmus Conquestor
  Person ID	I7793	A Tree Called Smith
  Last Modified	2 Mar 2023

  
  

  Father	Duke of Normandy Robert de Normandy, I,   b. 21 Jun 1000, Normandy, France d. 22 Jul 1035, Nicaea, Greece (Age 35 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Herleve Harlette Arletta de Falaise,   b. 9 Jun 1003, Falaise, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France d. 23 Apr 1078, Grestain, Eure, Haute-Normandie, France (Age 74 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Relationship	(never married)
  Family ID	F2537	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Queen consort of the Kingdom of England Matilda de Flanders,   b. 1031, Belgium d. 2 Nov 1083, Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France (Age 52 years)
  Marriage	1053	Normandy, France
  	When William sent his representative to ask for Matilda's hand in marriage, she said she was far too high-born to consider marrying a bastard. He found Matilda on her way to church, dragged her off her horse by her long braids and left her in the street
  Children	1. Duke of Normandy and King of England Henry Plantagenet, I,   b. 21 Feb 1068, Selby, Yorkshire, England d. 1 Dec 1135, Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France (Age 67 years)  [natural]
  Family ID	F2609	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Mar 2023

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1024 - Falaise, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France _FUN - At the Abbey of Saint-Étienne -- indignity occurred when the corpse was lowered into the tomb. The corpse was too large for the space, and when attendants forced the body into the tomb it burst, spreading a disgusting odour throughout the church - 1087 - Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France Burial - - Caen, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Places

  Battle of Hastings

  
  

• Sources

  [S4] Ancestry Family Trees, (Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.;), Ancestry Family Trees. [S794] Find a Grave: William the Conqueror, (Location: Caen, Departement du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France; Date: 9 Sep 1087;), William the Conqueror. ORIGINAL NAME de Normandie BIRTH c.Sep 1028 Falaise, Departement du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France DEATH 9 Sep 1087 (aged 58–59) Rouen, Departement de la Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France BURIAL Abbey of Saint Stephen Caen, Departement du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France MEMORIAL ID 1948 · View Source https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1948/william_the_conqueror William the Conqueror [S795] Wikipedia: William the Conqueror, (Name: Wikipedia;), William the Conqueror. William I[a] (c. 1028[1] – 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard,[2][b] was the first Norman monarch of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans 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. 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, Robert Curthose. William was the son of the unmarried Duke Robert I of Normandy and his mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy which 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 appointment of his supporters as bishops and abbots in the Norman church. His consolidation of power allowed him to expand his horizons, and he secured control of the neighbouring county of Maine by 1062. In the 1050s and early 1060s, William became a contender for the throne of England held by the childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. There were other potential claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson, whom Edward named as king on his deathbed in January 1066. Arguing that Edward had previously promised the throne to him and that Harold had sworn to support his claim, William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066. He decisively defeated and killed 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 William's hold was mostly secure on England by 1075, allowing him to spend the majority of his reign in continental Europe. William's final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his son, Robert, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes. In 1086, he ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey listing all the land-holdings in England along with their pre-Conquest and current holders. He 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, settling 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 continued to administer each part separately. His lands were divided after his death: Normandy went to Robert, and England went to his second surviving son, William Rufus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror