William Rufus, King of England (1087 – 1100)

The second son of William the Conqueror, designated on the death of his father as heir to the kingdom of England. The reign of William Rufus was marked by difficult relations with the major barons and with the church. As an excellent military leader he was able to impose his authority on England. He won homage from the King of Scotland (1091), consolidated his frontier with Wales, and repelled an invasion by the King of Norway (1098). He frequently intervened at the request of the Norman barons against his elder brother Robert Curthose and resisted or supported, as it suited his interests, the ambitions of his younger brother Henry I Beauclerc (1091, 1094, 1095). Following the departure of Robert for the crusades (1096), William undertook the re-imposition of Norman domination in the Vexin and Maine regions (1097, 1099). Having continually resisted marrying, he died without an heir in a hunting accident just before the return of his brother from the Holy Land (1100).