William+the+Conqueror

**William the Conqueror** William I (known as William the Conqueror, also William II Duke of Normandy) [|became King of England] after defeating King [|Harold II] at the [|Battle of Hastings] on the 14th October 1066.[1] Particularly famous for his style of administration and his authoring of the //[|Domesday Book]//, he died on 9th September 1087 and was succeeded by his son [|William II Rufus].[2]

// Portrait of William I, painted c. 1620 // // Image from National Portrait Gallery, England //.

** Reign and Administration ** After his coronation on Christmas Day 1066, William began restructuring England’s manorial fief system. He reduced England’s two thousand fiefs into two hundred large fiefs and, keeping a sixth for himself, divided the rest between his barons who swore fealty only to him.[3] To ensure that any lower vassals remained loyal ultimately to the King, he introduced a universal fealty oath which bound the vassal to the King before any other obligation.[4] By doing this, no Baron would be able to gather enough resources or troops to pose a serious threat to his rule, and it also reduced the likelihood of fighting between vassals. In order to keep the Church on his side, William created a special court with specially-chosen magistrates. The court’s role was to see that any damage or desecration inflicted to the Church was dealt with quickly, and always in the favour of the church.[5] William also introduced several wide-reaching reforms. The English ‘shire’ had no fixed boundary or uniformity, so William introduced the Norman concept of ‘counties’ – administrative divisions in roughly the same population and size.[6] William also introduced ordinal numbering for monarchs.[7] All Wessex and Saxon Kings before him had honorific titles for differentiation – and these titles were not uniform throughout England. Following the Norman standard, William decreed that after his death he would be styled William I.[8] In addition, William made the English ‘Earl’ equal to the French ‘Count’. This allowed the crossover into English of the title ‘Countess’ - one who is a female Earl or the wife of an Earl.[9]

** Domesday Book and its Effect ** In 1086, William ordered what became known as the //Domesday Book//. The book was to be a recorded survey of the land and livestock of everyone in the kingdom.[10] The [|Anglo-Saxon chronicle] [|recorded] the undertaking of the survey: “The king...sent his men over all England into every shire and had them find out how many hundred hides were in the shire, or what land and cattle the king himself had in the country, or what dues he ought to have in 12 months from the shire...So very narrowly did he have it investigated, that there was no single hide nor...ox nor one cow...which was left out.”[11] Extract from the //Domesday Book// concerning Westminster Image from the National Archives, England William used the survey for various purposes. Firstly, he aimed to completely stamp out royal tax evasion and ensure that every shire was paying its fair share – even if that meant reducing the current tax levy.[12] Secondly, William used the survey to discover the wealth and property of the aristocracy, and to ensure that none of his Lord’s became too much of a threat to his own authority.[13] Thirdly, the survey allowed William to settle inheritance disputes fairly, and allowed him to mediate in disputes between a vassal and his lord.[14] Finally, the survey allowed William to introduce the first organised property tax. Rather than taxing his people by class, payable tax was based on the goods and property people owned. [15] //White Tower, keep of the Tower of London. Ordered by William I in 1078, completed in 1097//. // Image from Columbia University // William used this new revenue to order the construction of a new castle in every shire of the Kingdom.<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[16] These castles were to be continuously maintained, both as a defence against attack and as a royal residence.<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[17]

** Legacy ** Whilst William’s reign ushered England into the Norman era – remnants of which survive even today, he was well-known for his bloodthirstiness and his cruel crushing of rebellion.<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[18] It is said that on his deathbed, William repented for his brutality by confessing, ‘I am stained with the rivers of blood that I have spilled.’<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[19] His consolidation of royal authority made him one of the most powerful medieval monarchs, and it wasn’t until King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215 that William’s style of rule permanently ended. The //Domesday Book// was the first survey of this kind undertaken since the Roman //census//, and its method of data collection and recording is still largely used today.<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[20] Incidentally, the survey was also the first time a complete list of all the peerages and titles of England were recorded.<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[21] The //Domesday// //Book// was last used as legal precedence in England in 1982.

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[1] Charles Phillips, //The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Kings and Queens of Britain// (Leicester: Hermes House, 2009), 32. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[2] Ibid. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[3] Friedrich Heer, //The Medieval World: Europe 1100- 1350// (London: Orion Publishing Group, 1998), 18-19; Marvin Perry, //Western Civilization: a Brief History, Volume I to 1789//, (Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011), 144. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[4] Heer, //The Medieval World,// 20. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[5] Ashley, //Life and Times of William I,// 193; Chibnall, //Anglo-Norman England//, 168. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[6] W. L. Warren, //The Governance of Norman and Angevin England 1086 – 1272//, (London: Edward Arnold, 1987), 25. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[7] Starkey, //Monarchy//. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[8] Ibid. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[9] Douglas, //William the Conqueror: the Norman Impact//, 294 – 295. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[10] Barbara H. Rosenwein, //A Short History of the Middle Ages// (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004), 185. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[11] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle “E”, a. 1085 in R. Allen Brown, //The Norman Conquest: Documents of Medieval History//, (New York: Edward Arnold, 1989), 78. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[12] Frank Barlow, //William I and the Norman// Conquest, (London: The English Universities Press Ltd, 1965), 125; Perry, //Western Civilization,// 144. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[13] Barlow, //William I//, 125-126. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[14] Ibid., 126. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[15] Barlow, //William I,// 124. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[16] Heer, //The Medieval World//, 346. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[17] Ibid. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[18] Starkey, //Monarchy//. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[19] Phillips, //Kings and Queens of Britain//, 32. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[20] Maurice Keen, //The Penguin History of Medieval Europe,// (London: Penguin Books, 1991), 107; Starkey, //Monarchy//. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[21] Barlow, //William I//, 125-126.