William the Conqueror

(noun)

The first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087.

Related Terms

Examples of William the Conqueror in the following topics:

  • William the Conqueror's Rule

    • William the Conqueror's rule was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England, which led to the compiling of the Domesday Book, a manuscript surveying the land of England in order to understand the holdings of each household.
    • Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 William's hold on England was mostly secure, allowing him to spend the majority of the rest of his reign on the continent.
    • William took over an English government that was more complex than the Norman system.
    • William's lands were divided after his death; Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert, and England to his second surviving son, William.
    • The Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the great survey, completed in 1086 on orders of William the Conqueror, of much of England and parts of Wales.

  • The Norman Invasion of 1066 CE

    • The Norman conquest of England was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton, and French soldiers led by Duke William II of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror.
    • William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne.
    • Harold's army confronted William's invaders on October 14 at the Battle of Hastings.
    • While the Bretons were fleeing, rumors swept the Norman forces that the duke had been killed, but William rallied his troops.
    • William of Jumieges claimed that Harold was killed by William.

  • The Magna Carta

    • At the death of William the Conqueror in 1087, his lands were divided into two parts.
    • His Norman lands went to his eldest son, Robert Curthose and his English lands to his second son, William Rufus.
    • The pursuit of this aim led them to revolt against William in favor of Robert in the Rebellion of 1088.
    • As Robert failed to appear in England to rally his supporters, William won the support of the English lords with silver and promises of better government, and defeated the rebellion.
    • William died while hunting in 1100.

  • Spread of Islam

    • The expansion of the Arab Empire in the years following the Prophet Muhammad's death led to the creation of caliphates occupying a vast geographical area.
    • Within the first century of the establishment of Islam upon the Arabian Peninsula and the subsequent rapid expansion of the Arab Empire during the Muslim conquests, one of the most significant empires in world history was formed.
    • Initially, conversion was neither required nor necessarily wished for: "[The Arab conquerors] did not require the conversion as much as the subordination of non-Muslim peoples.
    • The Arab conquerors did not repeat the mistake made by the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, who had tried and failed to impose an official religion on subject populations, which had caused resentments that made the Muslim conquests more acceptable to them.
    • The Great Mosque of Kairouan, founded in 670 CE by the Arab general and conqueror Uqba Ibn Nafi, is the oldest mosque in western Islamic lands and represents an architectural symbol of the spread of Islam in North Africa, situated in Kairouan, Tunisia.

  • William of Orange and the Grand Alliance

    • William III's main goals in the conflict over the Spanish succession was to ensure the Protestant accession in England and curb the power of France and Louis XIV.
    • From William III's perspective, losing the hard-won securities overturned the work of the last twenty years.
    • However, before the War of the Spanish Succession was even declared, William died.
    • By the same token, Anne continued William's policies and many leading statesmen of William's later years remained in office, which turned out fundamental to the success of the Grand Alliance in the early stages of the war.
    • Explain William's stake in the War of the Spanish Succession and the goals of the Grand Alliance.

  • The Glorious Revolution

    • William was also stadtholder of the main provinces of the Dutch Republic.
    • In December, William's forces met with the King's Commissioners to negotiate.
    • Detail of William and Mary as portrayed on the ceiling of the Painted Hall of the Greenwich Hospital.
    • William and Mary were the co-regents over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
    • Parliament offered William and Mary a co-regency, at the couple's behest.

  • The Aztec in the Colonial Period

    • The Aztec empire was defeated by an alliance between the Spanish and the Confederacy of Tlaxcala.
    • The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
    • The fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish overseas empire, with New Spain, which later became Mexico, a major component.
    • The indigenous of Central Mexico had practices rendering labor and tribute products to their polity's elites and those elites to the Mexica overlords in Tenochtitlan, so the Spanish system of encomienda was built on pre-existing patterns.The Spanish conquerors in Mexico during the early colonial era lived off the labor of the indigenous.
    • Describe the role of the Confederacy of Tlaxcala in the fall of the Aztec Empire

  • The Hittites

    • The Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family.
    • The head of the Hittite state was the king, followed by the heir-apparent.
    • It was superseded by the rank of the Gal Gestin (Chief of the Wine Stewards), who, like the Gal Mesedi, was generally a member of the royal family.
    • The kingdom's bureaucracy was headed by the Gal Dubsar (Chief of the Scribes).
    • Tarhunt was referred to as "The Conqueror," "The King of Kummiya," "King of Heaven," and "Lord of the land of Hatti."

  • Alexander's Empire

    • Alexander the Great's legacy was the dissemination of Greek culture throughout Asia.
    • However, the power vacuum he left in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent directly gave rise to one of the most powerful Indian dynasties in history.
    • Koine spread throughout the Hellenistic world, becoming the lingua franca of Hellenistic lands and eventually the ancestor of modern Greek.
    • Alexander attempted to create a unified ruling class in conquered territories like Persia, often using marriage ties to intermingle conquered and conquerors.
    • After the assassination of Perdiccas in 321 BCE, Macedonian unity collapsed, and 40 years of war between "The Successors" (Diadochi) ensued before the Hellenistic world settled into four stable power blocks: the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, the Seleucid Empire in the east, the Kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor, and Macedon.

  • Jainism

    • The ultimate aim of Jainism is to achieve liberation of the soul.
    • Sramana existed in parallel to, but separate from, Vedic Hinduism, which followed the teachings and rituals found in the Vedas, the most ancient texts of the Vedic religion.
    • The word Jain derives from the Sanskrit word jina, meaning conqueror, and the ultimate aim of Jain life is to achieve liberation of the soul.
    • The predominance of karma is one of the key features of Jainism.
    • The most important religious festival of Jainism is Mahavir Jayanti, which celebrates the birth of Mahavira—the 24th and last Tirthankara, or teaching god.