WILLIAM II, (RUFUS) (c1060-1100) King of England, 1187-1100. Second son of William I, The Conqueror, was granted the Crown of England at the deathbed of his father, whilst Robert ‘Curthose’, the oldest son, became Duke of Normandy; decisions that caused much unrest amongst the barons who preferred a single ruler of both lands, and resentment from Robert.
William Rufus had a busy reign that left no discernible lasting legacy. Within a year of his accession he had to put down a rebellion on behalf of Robert led by his uncle Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Two years later saw him invading Normandy, with the aim of destablizing his brother, whilst at the same time resecuring parts of the duchy in danger of being lost to barons. In 1091 he forced King Malcolm III of Scotland to swear homage, and captured the town of Carlisle. In 1094 he was back in Normandy, and managed to persuade Philip I of France to cease aiding Robert.
In 1096 Robert left to join the First Crusade, pledging Normandy to William for finance for the Crusade, effectively giving William complete control of the duchy. He also made an unsuccessful foray into Wales.
He fell out with St. Anselm, the widely respected theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury, over the matter of ecclesiastical investitures and banished him. Anselm only returned after William’s death.
During his reign he was widely resented by the clergy for his rapaciousness and brutality. Whilst he was probably no worse than his father, he had not his predecessor’s tact. He had a short temper and a rough manner. He never married and there are no records of children; almost unheard of for royalty in that age. There were rumours of homosexuality. He was a good commander, and successful in most of his campaigns; but had few inclinations of mercy. He was a ruthless pillager of all he could get his hands on.
William Rufus is remembered as an irreligious king who deliberately kept bishoprics vacant in order to collect their revenues for himself, and who openly mocked religion and was a homosexual. More modern theories, such as those of Dr Margaret Murray in the 1920s, have proposed that he was not just an atheist but actually a devil worshipper. Certainly, his death while hunting in the New Forest on August 2, 1100 (he was shot with an arrow by a knight named Walter Tyrrol in what was allegedly an accident), bears all the hallmarks of some sort of pagan ritual, in which the king was sacrificed in order to bring fertility to the land. Suspicion has also fallen on his younger brother Henry, who rushed to London to have himself crowned king as Henry I. Walter Tyrrol, William's killer, fled to France, but later returned to England and was never prosecuted.
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