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Post by Admin on Jan 17, 2023 15:49:54 GMT
William II and Henry I as well as Robert Curthose can be discussed in here.
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Post by Admin on Feb 23, 2024 17:10:57 GMT
Taken from a blog I wrote about William II. It also went into one of my YouTube videos.
THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM II
William II was the third born son of William The Conqueror. He was born around 1057 in Normandy, nearly a decade before his father conquered England. Throughout his early years, becoming a king would have been beyond William's expectations, even when his father, then only Duke of Normandy, launched his invasion of England in September 1066. The odds were heavily stacked against Duke William but overcome those odds he did at the Battle of Hastings and he was crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066.
But for the younger William, the chances of him becoming king were still remote. His older brothers Richard and Robert were ahead of him in the line of succession. But the prospects of a young prince could change rapidly in the Middle Ages and so it would prove for William. In 1070, his oldest brother Richard would die in a hunting accident in the New Forest in an almost eerie foreshadowing of later events. Richard was just 16 when he died.
The next in line to the throne, Robert, blew his chances of succeeding William The Conqueror as king of England by going into repeated rebellions against his father. On one occasion, Robert had been angered by his younger brothers William and the youngest of the boys Henry when they decided to throw a chamber pot full of water over Robert's head in a boyish prank. Robert protested to his father who may have disregarded this incident as boys being boys but it's safe to say Robert didn't see it that way and not long after relations between he and William The Conqueror broke down with Robert perhaps being guilty of listening to people he shouldn't have been.
Things got so serious between the king and Robert that Robert even got close to killing his father but lost his nerve and fled. Given all this, it's hardly surprising the Conqueror only made Robert his heir to the Duchy of Normandy and the king of England would pass to the third son William. William The Conqueror died in 1087 and England had a new king, William II.
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