Flanders in 1070–71, and an anti-Norman pact between Philip, Foulques, and Count
Robert of Flanders resulted. Security in William’s empire was further compromised by
vassals who held land both on the Continent and in England. Raoul de Gael rebelled
against William in 1075 and continued his struggle from his Breton lands. Philip came to
relieve the besieged Raoul at Dol in 1076 and formed a Breton-Angevin-Capetian
alliance. William’s rivals were also able to exploit tensions within his own family. In
1078, his eldest son, Robert Curthose, demanding independent control of Normandy and
Maine, rebelled and fled Normandy. He retained considerable support within the duchy
and found immediate allies in Flanders and France. Robert defeated his father at Gerberoi
in 1079, but a Scottish invasion of England that same year forced a speedy reconciliation.
Robert rebelled again in 1083 and again became the tool of all those who opposed
William.
In 1087, William took ill on campaign in the Vexin, a region of particular contention
between Normandy and France. He died outside Rouen that same year, leaving
Normandy and Maine to Robert but England to his second son, William II Rufus (himself
succeeded by his younger brother, Henry I). Both William II and Robert spent the rest of
their lives trying to attain full possession of the empire their father had created.
Robert S.Babcock
[See also: CAEN; HENRY I (OF ENGLAND); NORMANDY; ROBERT (DUKES
OF NORMANDY); VEXIN]
Bates, David. Normandy Before 1066. London: Longman, 1982.
——. William the Conqueror. London: Longman, 1989.
Chibnall, Marjorie. Anglo-Norman England 1066–1166. New York: Blackwell, 1986.
Douglas, David C. William the Conqueror. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.
LePatourel, John. The Norman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976.
WILLIAM II RUFUS
(d. 1100). The second son of William I the Conqueror, William II acquired England in
1087 when his father left the duchy of Normandy and the county of Maine to his eldest
surviving son, Robert Curthose, and England to William (called “Rufus” for his ruddy
complexion). William II faced some opposition in the kingdom but devoted much of his
English resources to trying to win the continental lands from his brother. Most often these
attempts were in the form of bribes to Robert’s vassals. William II finally did gain
possession of the continental dominions, though not the title of duke or count, in return
for financing Robert’s participation in the First Crusade in 1096. Robert had been a weak
duke, so William II took possession of territories near to the point of anarchy. Through
quick military action and judicious bribery, William II was able to quell the baronial wars
that had become commonplace in Normandy and to restore Norman power in Maine.
Determined to hold all that his father had held, he launched unsuccessful campaigns to
retake the French Vexin from Philip I in 1097–98 and 1098–99. William II died in a
hunting accident in England, but during his brief reign he had managed to maintain royal
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