him again with a force of some 50,000 men. Again, de
Wet escaped with his force (11 August 1900), and he
moved to an area north of the Free State to recuperate.
By the end of the year, de Wet had moved his men south
to fight the British presence in the eastern part of the
Free State near what was called the Cape Colony. Lured
into a battle with General C. E. Knox at Sprinkaansnek
on 14 December 1900, de Wet again managed to es-
cape. Knox pursued him until the British lines could not
support any further marches, and de Wet still evaded his
pursuers.
Despite de Wet’s remarkable success at harassing
the British and forcing them to split their resources to
fight him, by the end of 1900 the Boer cause was plainly
lost. De Wet opposed the negotiations to end the war
that began in May 1901. At Groenkop on 25 Decem-
ber 1901, he defeated a vastly superior British force.
However, seeing the inevitable end of the conflict, he
decided to join peace negotiations and, serving as act-
ing president of the Orange Free State for a single day,
signed the Peace of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. He
had managed to elude every effort the British made to
capture him, and at war’s end he remained a free man.
He subsequently wrote his memoirs of the conflict, pub-
lished in 1902 as Three Years’ War.
In November 1907, de Wet was elected as a mem-
ber of the first legislative assembly of the Orange River
Colony and appointed minister of agriculture. In 1912,
he backed the policies of South African president Gen-
eral James B. M. Hertzog against those of Prime Minister
Louis Botha, especially regarding separation of the races.
Angered when his South African Party did not support
his stand, he left the party and formed the Nationalist
Party in 1914. The split grew larger when, with the start
of the First World War, de Wet opposed Botha’s decision
to invade and conquer German South West Africa (now
modern Namibia). He organized a rebellion against Bo-
tha’s government, for which he was arrested on charges
of treason in December 1914 and sent to prison for six
years. He served only a year before being released due to
his age, upon which he returned to his farm to live out
the remainder of his life.
Christiaan de Wet died at his home on 3 February
1922 at the age of 67. Although forgotten by many out-
side South Africa, his name is still revered in his native
land, and the British army still respects him as a brilliant
tactician whom they were never able to defeat.
References: Rosenthal, Eric, General De Wet: A Biogra-
phy (Cape Town, South Africa: Simondium Publishers,
1968); De Wet, Christiaan Rudolf, Three Years’ War (Oc-
tober 1899–June 1902) (Westminster, U.K.: A. Constable,
1902); Pretorius, Fransjohan, The Great Escape of the Boer
Pimpernel, Christiaan De Wet: The Making of a Legend,
translated by Stephan Hofstätter (Pietermaritzburg, South
Africa: University of Natal Press, 2001); “De Wet, Gen-
eral Christiaan Rudolf,” in Southern African Dictionary of
National Biography, compiled by Eric Rosenthal (London:
Frederick Warne, 1966), 96–97.William I (the Conqueror) (William, duke of
Normandy) (ca. 1028–1087) French commander,
king of England
From 1066, British monarchs can trace their descent
back to the Norman ruler known as William the Con-
queror. He was born about 1028, the son and eldest
of two children of Robert I (also known as Robert the
Devil), duke of Normandy, and his mistress Arlette (also
called Herleva), the daughter of a wealthy burgher from
Falaise. Because of this, William has been called “Wil-
liam the Bastard” by some historians. In 1035, when his
son was either seven or eight, Robert was killed in Asia
Minor (now Turkey) while returning from a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, and William, although still a child and
under the care of several guardians, succeeded to his
father’s dukedom; even King Henry I of France accepted
William as the duke of Normandy. During his minority,
anarchy reigned, and three of his four guardians and his
tutor were murdered. Despite this, William consolidated
his authority in Normandy, and he worked closely with
his mother’s husband, Herliun of Conteville, a Norman
lord, to protect his interests. In 1042, when he became
15, William was knighted.
Gathering an army to protect his estate, William
launched a series of wars against rival barons that lasted
from 1046 until 1055. He joined with the French king
Henry I, and at Val-ès-Dunes (1047), near Caen, the two
men defeated an alliance of Normans who had opposed
William’s rule. These wars aided in making William a
disciplined military commander, but he also became a
religious man, taking an interest in the welfare of the
church in Norman society. He pushed to have his half
brother Odo named as bishop of Bayeux in 1049, and
he played host to numerous monks and other religiouswilliAm i (the conqueRoR)