Around Britain in 40 monarchs
1 William the Conqueror (1066–87)
Domesday This exhaustive survey of more than 13,000 places, recorded in two massive volumes on the skins of some 1,000 sheep, was commissioned at Gloucester in December 1085 by William I. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he ‘sent his men over all England into every shire and had them discover… what land and cattle the King himself had… or what dues he ought to have… and how much each man who was a landholder in England had in land or livestock’. The survey, preserved at the National Archives, Kew, presents the most detailed account of an 11th-century society anywhere in the world—it was widely resented at the time—and charts the impact of the Norman Conquest on England.
Legacy William’s victory over Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 ultimately brought about the single largest transfer of land in British history. He and his followers founded castles, monasteries and towns that physically transformed England and became the focus of its future political, religious and economic life. His Anglo-Norman interests inextricably linked the affairs of England with those of the Continent. English monarchs are conventionally numbered from his reign.
2 William II (1087–1100)
Rufus Stone As the inscription declares, this monument in the New Forest was erected in 1841 and replaced an earlier stone of 1745. It reputedly marks the position of an oak tree that fatally deflected an arrow into the heart of William Rufus—as he was later named, for his ruddy complexion—when he was hunting on August 2, 1100. It’s one of two sites associated with this event —the other is at Beaulieu—and no contemporary accounts mention a tree. The yellow-haired third son of William the Conqueror is buried in Winchester Cathedral; since at least the 1680s, a 12th-century stone in the choir has been described as his tomb.
Legacy William Rufus enjoyed a brilliant reputation as a soldier who extended his power in Scotland, Wales and the territories around Normandy, but his critics accused him of many vices and ridiculed his interest in extravagant fashions.
His surviving buildings include the present shell of Westminster Hall and the keep of Norwich Castle.
3 Henry I (1100–35)
Reading Abbey On June 23, 1121, Henry I founded a great new abbey at Reading, a town conveniently close to Windsor Castle. The monastery was associated with the Benedictine foundation of Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, and was endowed with lands and privileges that immediately identified it as one of the greatest church institutions in his Anglo-Norman realm. Some fragments from its fabulously ornamented Romanesque cloister survive. When Henry died in Normandy, having feasted on lampreys, his embalmed body was brought back to Reading for burial. The precise position of the coffin was recently identified by archaeologist Tim Tatton-Brown beneath what is now a boundary wall with neighbouring Reading Gaol and perhaps awaits excavation.
Legacy Henry I was admired as a peacemaker; the monk chronicler Orderic Vitalis regretted his lasciviousness, but, nevertheless, described him as ‘the greatest of kings’. He played an important role in codifying the organisation of the Royal Household and the administration of justice. He also constituted the Exchequer, which met at Winchester, to account the finances of the realm. The drowning of his only legitimate son in the White Ship disaster of 1120 precipitated a civil war after his death.
4 Stephen (1135–54)
Lincoln Castle The first battle of Lincoln, fought to relieve a royal siege on February 2, 1141, led to the capture of Stephen, who won praise for fighting on foot with a double-headed axe. He was delivered to his bitter rival, the Empress Matilda, Henry I’s daughter, and his capture intensified the civil war, known as the Anarchy, that divided and devastated the kingdom during his 19-year reign. So, too, did the King’s propensity for acts of kindness.
Legacy ‘every powerful man made his castles… [and] filled them with devils… [who] seized those men whom they imagined had any wealth … and tortured them with unspeakable tortures… and it was openly said that Christ and his angels slept.’ Such was the judgment of a Peterborough monk on the reign of Stephen and the political chaos it generated.
5 Henry II (1154–89)
At sunset on December 29, 1170, four armed knights burst into Canterbury Cathedral. They came as self-appointed agents of the King’s rage against the archbishop, Thomas Becket, and confronted him in the north transept, where he was cut down). Becket’s cult enjoyed enormous late-medieval popularity, as Chaucer’s recount.
