William II of England: Encyclopedia II - William II of England - Power struggles

William II of England - Power struggles

William Rufus inherited the Anglo-Norman settlement whose details are reflected in Domesday Book (1086), a survey that could not have been undertaken anywhere in Europe at that time and a signal of the control of the monarchy, but he did not inherit William's charisma and political skills. Within a few years he lost William's advisor and confidant, the Italian-Norman archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, in 1089.

Much of William's reign was spent feuding with the church; after the death of Lanfranc, he delayed appointing a new archbishop while he appropriated ecclesiastical revenues in the interim, which was protracted, and for this he was much criticised. Finally, in a time of panic during William's serious illness in 1093 another Norman-Italian was made Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm of Bec, the greatest theologian of his generation, and this led to a long period of animosity between church and state. Anselm was a stronger supporter of the Gregorian reforms in the Church than Lanfranc had been. William and Anselm disagreed on a range of ecclesiastical issues, and the English clergy, beholden to the king for their preferments and livings, were unable to support Anselm publicly. William called a council at Rockingham in 1095 to bring Anselm to heel but the churchman appealed to Rome. In October 1097, Anselm went into exile, taking his case to the Pope. The new pope was the diplomatic and flexible Cluniac Urban II who was not in a position to make further royal enemies. The Emperor of Germany supported an antipope, and Urban came to a concordat with William Rufus: William recognized Urban as pope and Urban gave sanction to the Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical status quo. William was able to claim the revenues of the archbishopric of Canterbury as long as Anselm remained in exile, and Anselm remained in exile until the reign of William's successor, Henry I.

William Rufus was less capable than his father at channelling the Norman lords' propensity for indiscipline and violence. In 1095, Robert de Mowbray, the earl of Northumbria, would not come to William's Curia Regis the thrice-annual court where decisions were made and delivered to the great lords, and William subsequently led an army against him and defeated him; the earl was dispossessed and imprisoned. Another noble, William of Eu, was also accused of treachery and blinded and castrated. That same year, William II also made an unsuccessful foray into Wales. He tried again in 1097 with an equal lack of success. He returned to Normandy in 1097 and from then until 1099 campaigned in France, securing and holding northern Maine but failing to seize the French-controlled part of the Vexin region. At the time of his death he was planning to occupy Aquitaine in south-western France.

William also quarrelled with the Scottish king, Malcolm III, forcing him to pay homage in 1091 and seizing the border city of Carlisle and Cumbria in 1092. At the Battle of Alnwick, November 13, 1093 Malcolm and his son were slain; William gained effective control of the Scottish throne after Malcolm's death, when he backed a successful bid by Edgar Atheling to dethrone Malcolm III's brother Donald Bane in favour of his nephew, also named Edgar. The newly crowned King Edgar, who ruled Scotland from 1097 to 1107, thus owed his position to William.

In 1096, William's brother Robert Curthose joined the First Crusade. He needed money to fund this venture and pledged his duchy to William in return for a payment of 10,000 marks; a sum equalling about one-fourth of William's annual revenue. In a display of the effectiveness of Norman taxation inaugurated by the Conqueror, William raised the money by levying a special, heavy, and much-resented tax upon the whole of England. William then ruled Normandy as regent in Robert's absence—Robert did not return until September 1100, one month after William's death.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Power struggles", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki