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História da Língua Inglesa   

The Death of William

by Mike Ibeji

William the Conqueror died in 1087, before the completion of Domesday Book. His life was one of ruthless brilliance, that met a demeaning end.

William never lived to see the completion of Domesday Book. Late in 1086, he was back in Normandy, mounting an invasion of the French Vexin, from which vassals of the French King Philip of France had been raiding his territory. Once again, he used as a pretext for invasion the hoary old excuse that the Vexin had been promised to his father in 1033 - the third time that he had claimed such a princedom on a secret promise.

...his body lay abandoned in Rouen for half a day...

In July 1087, he took the town of Mantes, but was taken ill during the sack of the city and was carried back to Rouen. His half-brother, Robert of Mortain was the only member of his family present at his deathbed. Robert persuaded him to release Odo from prison and give custody of England into the hands of William Rufus, though he did not name Rufus as his successor. William died on 9th September 1087. Everyone was so preoccupied with securing their position after his death that his body lay abandoned in Rouen for half a day until the monks of the abbey took it into their own hands to look after it, and an unknown knight called Herluin paid for the burial. His body was transferred by river to Caen, where it was to be buried at St Etienne, but during the funeral procession a house caught fire and the pallbearers fled in panic. William was buried alone.

It was a pathetic end to a harsh but brilliant career, which Orderic Vitalis summed up in this fictional deathbed speech attributed to the King:

I appoint no-one my heir to the crown of England... For I did not attain that high honour by hereditary right, but wrestled it from the perjured King Harold in a desperate battle, with much effusion of human blood; and it was by the slaughter and banishment of his adherents that I subjugated England to my rule. I have persecuted its native inhabitants beyond all reason. Whether gentle or simple, I have cruelly oppressed them; many I unjustly disinherited; innumerable multitudes, especially in the county of York, perished through me by famine or the sword... Having therefore made my way to the throne of that kingdom by so many crimes, I dare not leave it to anyone but God alone, lest after my death worse should happen by my means.

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