William Of Normandy
...his age because he was a bastard. However, he exacted his revenge onto the boys who had mocked him so willingly when he gained the duchy of Normandy. The stern and merciless duke of Normandy, William of Normandy, rightfully invaded England, conquered it, and assumed because the former king of England promised him the throne, William was cheated out of it, and the person who took the Anglo-Saxon throne of England did not submit the throne to William after he promised he would do it; William proved to be a strict and brutal ruler by his firm laws that would incur severe punishment if disobeyed and by his book "The Domesday Book", which was a detailed layout of land ownership that assessed property and established a tax base.
A council consisting of noblemen and William's appointed guardians ruled Normandy but ducal authority waned under the Normans' violent nature and the province was wracked with assassination and revolt for twelve years. In 1047, William reasserted himself in the eastern Norman regions and, with the aid of France's King Henry I, crushed the rebelling barons. He spent the next several years consolidating his strength on the continent through marriage, diplomacy, war and savage intimidation. By 1066, Normandy was in a position of virtual independence from William's feudal lord, Henry I of France and the disputed succession in England offered William an opportunity for invasion.
Edward the Confessor attempted to gain Norman support while fighting with his father-in-law, Earl Godwin, by purportedly promising the throne to William in 1051. (This was either a false claim by William or a hollow promise from Edward; at that time, the kingship was not necessarily hereditary but was appointed by the witan, a council of clergy and barons.) Before his death in 1066, however, Edward reconciled with Godwin, and the witan agreed to Godwin's son, Harold, as...
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