1087-1100: William II 'Rufus'

We are about to move into a duller period of English history, one of state formation in slow motion, two steps forward, one step back, a succession of dynasts, rebellions, civil wars and spats between Church and State, punctuated by major external events like the Black Death. This was the history of Britain between two revolutions - that of the introduction of feudalism by the Normans and that of the expulsion of the Roman Church under Henry VIII. England now moved from being a divided state with periodic bouts of unity constantly besieged by foreign warlords and kings to a unified state, with periodic bouts of division, that imperialistically expanded both against its own Celtic fringe and into Europe itself. From being the predated, it becomes the predator - a testament in itself to the Norman Revolution.

The Conqueror died at Rouen after falling from his horse in 1087. His third son William II, known as 'Rufus' or the Red, was crowned within a few weeks that same January. His right to rule was challenged by his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. There was never much love lost between the brothers - it is said that Robert's rebellion against his father in 1077 was caused by  his brothers pouring a full chamber pot over his head and the failure of his father to punish them for the misdeed. It was also said that William only reluctantly granted the Duchy of Normandy to a son who was widely regarded as weaker than his siblings. There was a failed rebellion in England in 1088 in Robert's favour - a number of barons preferred a weak king to a strong one - but the Duke failed to turn up to lead it. William then took the war to Robert in Normandy, leading to the Treaty of Caen in 1091 in which the brothers agreed that the survivor of the two would inherit the other's domains.This would create a problem a decade later when William died before Robert.

Rebellions also took place in 1094 amongst both the Welsh and the barons while William was frequently absent from the Kingdom, treating the country like a milch cow from afar. The long absences reached their peak when Robert of Normandy decided to join the First Crusade in 1096. Desperately short of funds (he was said to be so poor that he stayed in bed because of a lack of suitable clothes), he mortgaged Normandy to his brother for 25,000 marks (about 25% of William's English and private revenue) which William covered by levying a burdensome tax on England. This was the first but not the last of many fiscal depredations on the English people by post-Norman dynasts and their successor States. It would later become part of the legend of the Norman Yoke that would play its role in the English Civil War of the seventeenth century. William acted as regent in Normandy until his death in a hunting accident in 1100. Whether he was murdered or not will never be known for sure but there are circumstantial reasons for believing that this very unpopular figure's demise was no accident. Robert returned to Normandy within a month.