Lecture Seven: Williams' successors

Unit 7: Williams' successors

William Successors

When William died, in 1087, he left the Duchy of Normandy to his  son , Robert. He gave England to his second son , William, known as "Rufus" (Latin for red). When Robert went to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, he left William 11 (Rufus) in charge of Normandy..William Rufus died in a hunting accident in 1100. He had not married, and therefore had no son to take the crown .

At the time of William 's death, Robert was on his way home to Normandy from the Holy Land. Their younger brother. Henry. knew that if he wanted the Eng lish crown he would have to act very quickly. He had been with William at the time of the accident. He rode to Winchester and took charge of the king's treasury. He then rode to Westminster. where he was crowned king three days later. Robert was very angry and prepared to invade. But it took him a year to organise an army.

The Norman nobles in England chose Henry because he was in London, with the crown already on his head. Robert's invasion was a failure and he accepted payment to return to Normandy . But Henry wanted more. He knew that many of his nobles would willingly follow him to Normandy so that they could win back their Norman lands. In 1106 Henry,invaded Normandy and captured Robert. Normandy and England were reunited under one ruler. Henry l's most important aim was to pass on both Normandy and England to his successor. But in 1120 Henry 's only son was drowned at sea.

During the next fifteen years Henry hoped for another son but finally accepted that his daughter, Marilda, would follow him . Henry had married Marilda to another great noble in France, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Henry hoped that the family lands would be made larger by this marriage. He made all the nobles promise to accept Matilda when he died. But then Henry himself quarrelled publicly with Marilda's husband , and died soon after. This left the succession in. At the time both the possible heirs to Henry were on their own estates. Marilda was with her husband in Anjou and Henry's nephew. Srephen of Blois, was in Boulogne, only a day's journey by sea from England . As Henry had done before him , Stephen raced to England to claim the crown. Also as before, the nobles in England had to choose between Stephen, who was in England, and Marilda. who had quarrelled with her father and who was still in France. Most chose Stephen, who seems to have been good at fightighting but little else. He was described at the time as "of outstanding skill in arms, but in other things almost an idiot, except that he was more inclined towards evil."

Matilda fought with Stephen when invading England four years later. ledding to a terrible civil war. Neither side could win, and finally in 11 53 Marilda and Srephcn agreed that Stephen could keep the throne  but only if Marilda's son, Henry, could succeed him . Fortunatelv for England, Srephen died the following year,Henry thus overtook the throne. It took years for England to recover from the civil war.