William II of England (1042-1100) was the King of England from 1087 to 1100. Nicknamed "Rufus" because of his red-faced appearance, he was the son of William the Conqueror, assisting him in his 1066 conquest of England and his campaigns in Wales and northern England against rebellious Anglo-Saxons. He was killed in a hunting accident in 1100 when one of his own men shot him with an arrow. He was preceded by his father William, and was succeeded by his brother Henry I of England, who may have arranged for his assassination.
Biography[]
Prince Rufus at York
William was the son of William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, and Matilda of Flanders. At the age of 24 he accompanied his father on the invasion of England in 1066, personally commanding the Norman army during the Battle of Hastings under his father's tutelage. In the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings, he commanded one of his father's armies and headed to Normandy to reinforce the city against the French rebels from Bruges.
Extremely loyal, William defeated Ambrose Adames in 1072 after Adames broke off his siege of Caen, crushing the Norman revolt against his father's rule. In 1080, he was the general that captured York from the English rebels during his father's pacification of the English countryside, and William served as the governor of York before taking part in the campaigns against the Welsh in Caernarvon. He gained a reputation for chivalry, always peacefully occupying his conquests without harming the people. When his father died in the Siege of Mantes in 1087, William II became the new king. During his reign he crushed a rebellion against his rule in 1088 by Robert of Normandy, and he sent knights on the First Crusade in 1097. He died in 1100 at the hands of his brother Henry I of England in a plot to assassinate him during a hunting trip; he was killed by a "stray" arrow. Henry seized power for himself after his death, and he would be the last ruler of the House of Normandy in England.