William rufus
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One story is that he stopped at a Blacksmith’s at the first stream he came to and had his horse’s shoes put on backwards so that he could not be followed, this place is still known as Tyrell’s Ford. Walter Tyrell, whose arrow killed him, certainly escaped very quickly to France, where he disappeared never to be seen again. The knights and nobles fleeing from the incident, whether out of fear that they might in some way be accused of regicide or as it is recorded to pay their respects to Prince Henry is not known. It is said his corpse was abandoned in the forest. The evening sun made the King take poor aim at a deer that ventured out into the open glade and it was at that moment that Tyrell let off an arrow that glanced off an oak tree and hit William in the chest killing him.Īll sorts of tales describe what happened next. There may well have been others, the accounts are not clear but when the fatal arrow was fired, Malmesbury says that Rufus and Tyrell were alone. Included in the hunting party was Prince Henry, William of Breteuil, Walter Tyrell and FitzHamon. Interestingly, Archbishop Anselm, who had been sent into exile by William Rufus, heard of his death the day before it happened, a messenger arrived at Lyons with the news on the 1st August…. Just before they set out yet more messages of bad omens were brought to the party, again one can’t help but think, that if these tales are in any way true, that the company were setting out their story, ready for the questions they would surely face when news of the King’s death broke.
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He handed Sir Walter Tyrell his arrows saying as he did so, “The keenest arrows to the best marksman.” However William Rufus was undeterred and looking forward to a good day’s hunting, called for the horses. Now one might be forgiven for thinking that the ground was being laid by his friend, so that his death would be seen as something supernatural… It is said that the night before William was killed that he had a vision of his own death and that when his friend,FitzHamon came to breakfast with him, he too recounted a terrifying vision delivered by a monk, which saw the King trying to destroy a crucifix, which in turn set upon him. Now each of these accounts are extremely colourful but somewhere in them lies a vestige of the truth. The circumstances of his death were captured in an account by the ecclesiastical historian, Vitalis in “Patrologiae Cursus Completus” and by Malmesbury in “Gesta Regum Anglorum”. His immoral conduct offended everyone, but especially the Church, who were particularly angry when he defied the Pope and banished Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to Normandy.
![william rufus william rufus](https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/styles/main_image__r/public/images/william-rufus-death.jpg)
That William Rufus should be killed in the New Forest, whilst out hunting therefore, is a bitter irony. Those that shot at a deer had their hands cut off and blinding was the penalty for disturbing the deer. He handed out death and mutilation as the penalties for interference with the King’s deer. The penalties for breaking the various laws were severe but under Rufus they became even more so. This operated outside the common law, and served to protect game animals and their forest habitat from destruction. The Forest Laws were a set of laws instigated by William the Conqueror, a great lover of hunting. Like his father before him, Winchester became his base and from here he extended his father’s feudal system including a significant strengthening of the Forest Laws. Winchester held the treasury and William Rufus was determined that he would control the fortune amassed there. On hearing the news that his father, King William I, was dying, he hurried from St Gervaise in France to Southampton, from where he rode quickly to Winchester. Quite possibly, because of its unusual circumstances, it is the one royal death that we all remember. The life of King William Rufus is inextricably bound to the county of Hampshire but it is his death in Hampshire’s New Forest that seems to have captured the imagination of every schoolchild in England.