biography
| name: |
William II (of England),
|
| |
known as William Rufus
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1056–1100)
|
| biography:
| King of England (1087–1100), the second surviving son of William the Conqueror. His main goal was the recovery of Normandy from his elder brother Robert Curthose. From 1096, when Robert relinquished the struggle and departed on the First Crusade, William ruled the duchy as de facto duke. He also led expeditions to Wales (1095, 1097), conquered Carlisle and the surrounding district (1092), and after the death of Malcolm III he exercised a controlling influence over Scottish affairs. Contemporaries condemned his government of England as arbitrary and ruthless. He exploited his rights over the Church and the nobility beyond the limits of custom, and quarrelled with Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. His personal conduct outraged the moral standards of the time, for he was most probably a homosexual. He was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. It has been supposed that he was murdered on the orders of his younger brother, who succeeded him as Henry I, but his death was almost certainly accidental. |
|
|
