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When Robert Duke Of Normandy died on returning from a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in July 1035 he was succeeded by his seven year old illegitimate son William. The duchy was still seeing the effects of civil war, many private wars occurred between the landowners and the region was prone to anarchy. Stability was weakened further by the death of Robert Archbishop of Rouen two years later. He had been a father figure to the region in his role as bishop for nearly fifty years and was the start of a series of deaths of the small group of William’s guardians, his father’s counsellors that supported the young boy.
Count Alan III of Brittany died suddenly soon after, to be followed by the boy’s tutor Count Gilbert of Brionne who a few months later was murdered while out riding. At the same time Turchetil of Meufmarché was similarly killed as was Osbern the court’s steward, in the Duke’s bedchamber. Things were getting so bad that at night the boy’s uncle Walter often used to take him away to sleep in the cottages of the poor nearby.
The King of France, Henry I, had a right of wardship during the Duke’s minority and as such was responsible for his protection. This was to be needed by William when the 1047 revolt broke out led by the two viscomtes Nigel of Cotentin and Rannulf of Bessin to make Guy of Burgundy the new Duke. There was a plot to murder William at Valognes which he was warned of and that night he escaped by riding through the estuary of the Vire at low tide. He made his way to Henry at Poissy and threw himself at his feet saying he was a faithful vassal.
The King drew up an army and marched towards Caen where at the plain called Val -ès - Dunes they met the rebels and defeated them driving them into the river Orne where Wace claims that the mills of Borbillon were stopped with dead bodies.
This battle established William as Duke but five years later another crisis broke out and this time he could not rely on Henry’s help. In 1051 the English King Edward the Confessor made William his successor. He was a cousin of the Duke, through his mother Emma, and had been protected in Normandy from the Danes for nearly thirty years until he became King in 1042. His greatest rival Godwine earl of Wessex he held responsible for the blinding and death of his brother Alfred and though he married the Earl’s daughter Edith he was childless.
The French King Henry could see that if William became King of England he would no longer be able to control his vassal so at Orleans in 1052 he met Geoffrey Martel the Count of Anjou and William’s long term rival for control of Maine. When the Duke’s Uncle William the Count of Arques revolted it gave the King the excuse to enter Normandy. He was firstly defeated outside Arques at St Aubin but this didn’t deter him and invaded again with his army split in two either side of the Seine. The Northern half under his brother Odo was surprised at the battle of Mortemer in 1054 and destroyed.
In 1057 Henry invaded again this time through the Hiemois with the Count of Anjou and it was while their army was crossing a ford over the river Dive at Varaville that William seized his chance. The rising tide meant that only half of the force had been able to get across those left behind were cut off and attacked by the Duke. The King was so heavily defeated that he never again attacked the Duchy. On Henry’s death in 1060 he was succeeded by his son Philip I who was a minor and in no position to interfere with Norman affairs. This made William safe on the continent and gave him the opportunity on Edward’s death in 1066 to gain control of England from Godwine’s son Harold.
Ironically though Philip’s minority was to provide opportunity, when he reached maturity he was to be a fierce opponent of Norman independence. While campaigning against Philip in 1087 William’s horse is said to have trod on the cinders of a burning house and reared up. The Duke’s stomach hit the horse’s pommel and he was soon to die of the injury.