organize the defense of the kingdom against a threat-
ened Danish invasion. But the most important result
of this visit was the Domesday Book. Its purpose has
been much debated. Probably it was a guide to both the
resources of the country and the ownership of particular
estates, made necessary by the large-scale redistribution
of land caused by the Conquest.
The fi rst draft of the Domesday survey was probably
nearly completed when William held a court at Salisbury
in August 1086, where he exacted a comprehensive
oath of loyalty from his magnates and the more impor-
tant of their undertenants. Eleven months later, when
campaigning at Mantes on the Norman border, he was
taken seriously ill. He was carried to Rouen, where he
died on 9 September 1087. On his deathbed he agreed
to Robert’s succession as duke of Normandy, his second
surviving son, William Rufus, succeeding as king of
England. He was buried at the monastery of St. Étienne
at Caen, which he himself had founded a quarter of a
century earlier.
Much of William’s success came from a partnership
with a small group of Norman nobles, such men as
William Fitz Osbern, Roger de Montgomery, and his
own half-brothers. It was not surprising that this group
of seven or eight men were the chief benefi ciaries of
the Conquest. In ecclesiastical matters his chief adviser
was Lanfranc, abbot of St. Étienne at Caen in 1063 and
archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. Though favoring the
moral reform of the clergy, William was always con-
cerned to vindicate his own control of the church and to
limit papal interference. He was not above appointing
his half-brother Odo as bishop when the latter was well
below the canonical age. After 1066 he was generally
content to adopt existing English laws and institutions
but to exploit them to the full; contemporaries agreed
that his government was harsh and predatory. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle called him “stern beyond all
measure to people who resisted his will.”
William was tall, strong, and of harsh voice and
imposing appearance, tending to corpulence in later
life. He married ca. 1050 Matilda, daughter of Bald-
win V of Flanders, by whom he had four sons (one of
whom, Richard, died young) and four or perhaps fi ve
daughters.
See also Edward the Confessor;
Harold Godwinson; Lanfranc of Bec
Further Reading
Primary Sources
Chibnall, Marjorie, ed. and trans. The Ecclesiastical History of
Orderic Vitalis. 6 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969–80.
Foreville, Raymonde, ed. and trans, (into French). Histoire de
Guillaume le Conquérant. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1952
[the chronicle of William of Poitiers].
van Houts, Elisabeth M.C., ed, and trans. The Gesta Norman-
norum Ducum of William of jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and
Robert of Torigni. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1992–95.
Wilson, David M., ed. The Bayeux Tapestry: The Complete
Tapestry in Colour. London: Thames & Hudson; New York:
Knopf, 1985 [fascinating illustrated account of the campaign
of 1066].
Secondary Sources
Barlow, Frank. Edward the Confessor. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1970.
Bates, David. Normandy before 1066. London: Longman, 1982
Bates, David. William the Conqueror. London: Philip, 1989
[excellent bibliography].
Douglas, David C. William the Conqueror. London: Eyre &
Spottiswoode, 1964.
John, Eric. “Edward the Confessor and the Norman Succession.”
EHR94 (1979): 241-67.
Le Patourel, John. The Norman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon,
1976.
Loyn, H.R. The Norman Conquest. 3d ed. London.
Hutchinson, 1982 [the best of several general books].
van Houts, Elisabeth M.C. “The Origins of Herleva, Mother of
William the Conqueror.” EHR101 (1986): 399–404.
Graham A. LoudWILLIAM OF AUVERGNE
(WILLIAM OF PARIS; 1180/90–1249)
Born in Aurillac in the Auvergne, William was canon
of Notre-Dame in Paris by 1223, regent master at Paris
in 1225, and bishop of Paris in 1228. A secular master
himself, William was, however, an early champion of the
mendicant orders, allowing Roland of Cremona to hold
the fi rst Dominican chair in theology (1229). Known for
his fairness and good sense, he was confessor to Blanche
of Castile and friend and adviser to Louis IX.
William left a vast corpus of works in encyclopedic
style, including a series of tracts sometimes called
his Magisterium divinale (1123–40), which included
De universo. Cur Deus homo, De fi de et legibus, and
De Trinitate. His De vitiis et virtutibus rivaled that of
William Peraldus (the two men were often confused)
in popularity. One of the fi rst theorists of Purgatory, he
was also among the fi rst theological users of Aristotle
in Paris, and he sought out texts of Avicenna, Mai-
monides’s Guide, Avicebrol, and others in the service
of orthodox belief.
See also Blanche of Castile; Louis IXFurther Reading
William of Auvergne. Opera omnia. 2 vols. Paris: Andraeas
Pralard, 1674; repr. Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1963.
——. De Trinitate, ed. Bruno Switalski. Toronto: Pontifi cal
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1976.
——. The Immortality of the Soul = De immortalitate animae,
trans. Roland J. Teske. Milwaukee: Marquette University
Press, 1991.WILLIAM OF AUVERGNE