Circa 1028-1087
Duke Of Normandy And King Of England

Establishing Authority. William I (William the Conqueror or William the Bastard) was the son of Robert I, duke of Normandy, and his concubine Herleva, a peasant girl. This illegitimacy did not, however, keep him from becoming one of the most important military and political leaders of the Middle Ages. As a youth he developed an intelligence and shrewdness that served him well as an adult. Succeeding his father as duke in 1035, William I began to put down rebel elements of the duchy who questioned his right to rule, a process not completed until 1060, when he defeated a combined army sent against him by King Henry I of France and Count Geoffrey Martel of Anjou. He then conquered the county of Maine in 1063.

Across the Channel. When Edward the Confessor died in 1066, William I made...