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William the Conqueror
Duke of Normandy; King of England (r. 1066–1087)
"I have conquered England — but I am not sure I shall keep it."
Biography
William, Duke of Normandy, was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert I and a tanner's daughter — known in his youth as 'William the Bastard.' He survived a violent minority in which several guardians were murdered, mastered his turbulent duchy by force, and built Normandy into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. When Edward the Confessor died childless in 1066, William pressed his claim to the English throne — based, he said, on a promise from Edward and an oath sworn to him by Harold Godwinson himself. His invasion was a colossal gamble: a Channel crossing with cavalry, archers, and a polyglot army of Normans, Bretons, and Flemings. Victory at Hastings made him king, but it took five more years of castle-building, siege, and ruthless devastation — above all the Harrying of the North — to subdue the country. As king he transformed England: dispossessing the English aristocracy, redistributing their lands to his followers, reforming the church, and ordering the unprecedented Domesday survey of 1086 to record exactly who held what. He died in 1087 from an injury during a campaign in France, and his funeral descended into farce when his swollen body burst as it was forced into a too-small stone coffin.
Did you know?
He was so heavy in later life that the French king joked he looked pregnant — and his corpse famously burst during his funeral.
Key Battles
Battle of Hastings
Normans (Duke William) victoryOctober 14, 1066 · 9,000 total casualties
Hastings is one of the most decisive battles in Western history. In a single day the Anglo-Saxon monarchy and its warrior aristocracy were destroyed, opening England to Norman conquest. Its consequences — for the English language, law, church, architecture, and England's permanent entanglement with France — are still felt nearly a thousand years later.
The Submission of London
Normans (Duke William) victoryDecember 1066 · 2,000 total casualties
The submission of London and William's coronation gave the conquest a legal and symbolic completion. Yet the burning chaos of the coronation itself foreshadowed the years of revolt and brutal repression still to come; William was king in name, but he would have to conquer his kingdom many times over.
Siege of Exeter
Normans (Duke William) victory1068 · 1,000 total casualties
Exeter was an early test of William's policy toward defiant English towns: siege, negotiated submission, and then the planting of a royal castle to hold the population down. The castle-building that followed every conquest became the physical signature of Norman rule across England.
The Harrying of the North
Normans (Duke William) victoryWinter 1069 – 1070 · 100,000 total casualties
The Harrying of the North was an act of deliberate, genocidal devastation that broke northern England's power to resist for a generation. The Domesday Book, two decades later, still recorded much of Yorkshire as 'waste.' It remains one of the most notorious atrocities in medieval English history and the grimmest episode of the conquest.
The Siege of Ely
Normans (Duke William) victory1071 · 2,000 total casualties
The fall of Ely extinguished the last major center of Anglo-Saxon resistance and effectively completed the conquest. Hereward the Wake became a folk hero of English defiance, his story retold for centuries as a symbol of native resistance to the Norman yoke.
Life Journey
Timeline
c. 1028
🌅 Birth
Born at Falaise, son of Duke Robert I
1035
📍 Posting
Becomes Duke of Normandy as a boy
October 14, 1066
⚔️ Battle
Defeats Harold at Hastings
December 25, 1066
📍 Posting
Crowned King of England at Westminster
September 9, 1087
✝️ Death
Dies at Rouen after an injury in France