William I to John
A quick overview of the Kings of England from William I in 1066 to John in 1199.
King William I 1066-1087 to King John 1199-1216
A quick overview of the Kings of England from William I in 1066 to John in 1199.
King William I 1066-1087 to King John 1199-1216
This post is number 3 in the series Kings and Queens of England
Below is a brief overview of the Kings of England from William the Conqueror, who seized the crown in 1066, to John, whose disgruntled barons forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.
WILLIAM, Duke of Normandy in France, seized the English crown from Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.* It passed first to his son William Rufus, a rough and uneducated man, and then to Rufus’s brother Henry I, Rufus’s opposite in nearly every way.
When Henry’s son William died in an accident in the English Channel,* the King appointed William’s sister Matilda as heir; but after Henry died in 1135, her cousin Stephen intervened, and won the support of the public in London.
Their quarrel threw the country into a lawless chaos known as ‘the Anarchy’, until Stephen’s death in 1154. Matilda’s son Henry II succeeded Stephen, but the family strife continued. In 1189, Henry was harried into an early grave by his son Richard, who raised a revolt against him in France.
Richard won the nickname ‘Lionheart’ for his swashbuckling exploits in the Crusades, but died from a crossbow wound sustained in France,* and was succeeded in 1199 by his brother John.
Next in series: John to Henry IV
See The Disaster of the White Ship.
On Richard’s fortunes in the Crusades in the Holy Land, and his death in France, see The Lion and the Ant.