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William the Conqueror 1027 -- 1087
King of England; born c. 1027, in Falaise, Normandy, France. He was an illegitimate child of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, who died in 1035 while returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. At only eight years of age, William became the new Duke of Normandy. Violence and corruption plagued his early reign, as the feudal barons fought for control of his fragile dukedom. A few of William’s guards died and his teacher was murdered during a period of severe anarchy. With the help of King Henry I of France, William managed to survive the early years.
The king knighted William, still in his teens, in 1042. Taking a new stand on political events, William finally gained firm control of his duchy (although his enemies commonly referred to him as “the Bastard?due to his illegitimate birth). By 1064, he had conquered and won two neighboring provinces—Brittany and Maine. In the meantime, the childless King of England—Edward the Confessor, whose mother was a sister of William’s grandfather—promised William succession to the English throne. However, when Edward died in 1066, his brother-in-law and most powerful of the English lords, Harold Goodwin, claimed the throne of England for himself (despite an oath he made to William to support his claim). The Witan, a council of English lords that commonly took part in deciding succession, supported Harold. William, angered by the betrayal, decided to invade England and enforce his claim.