Talk:William the Conqueror: Difference between revisions

Isis, as far as I can tell from the Lexikon des Mittelalters, Alfonso was the son of Ferdinand I (who was actually from Castile-Navarra) married the sister of the King of Leon. When they inherited, F. became King of Castile and Leon. His son Sancho (later murdered) inherited Castile, Alfonso inherited Leon, and Garcia inherited Galicia.

If anyone disagrees, I'll make further checks, but this source is generally pretty accurate. J Hofmann Kemp

Agree plus more details. The Alfonso was Alphonso VI the Brave of Castile, Ferdinand as Ferdinand the Great of Leon, Sancho as Sancho II of Castile, and Garcia as Garcia II of Galicia.

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I have made these changes to William's family out of deference to the work of Alison Weir and her well researched work on the royal families of the British Isles.

According to her, Gundred (or Gundrede) never existed - the limited details of her existance are based on spurious (or unreliable) sources.

Matilda is also so obscure that she seems unlikely have existed. Weir accepted her existance, but I am not so sure about her. Can anyone state an original and reliable source of information as regards her?

Adeliza's existance is also very questionable - it is pretty much based on one dubious account that gives the details of Harold's accidental imprisonment by William - the one where he swears on the saint's bones. Little else is added. Though thumbnail accounts in encyclopedias and the like have given the year of the incident as 1064 as a matter of proven fact, the original account does not say this. It gives no year at all. Historians have simply placed it there themselves, on the basis that Harold's whereabouts are not known in that year. He may well have been an unwilling "guest" in Normandy. On the other hand, he may also have spent that year hunting deer in England. We just do not know.

Another problem with Adeliza is that her name seems very similar to Adela,her sister. Perhaps they were the same??? Be that as it may, since this last bt especially is speculation rather than fact, Adeliza merits a mention in the article.

Arno

I have no idea why the below was in the first line, but I've moved it here:

Authority: King of England and Duke of Normandy

Also, I changed him from King of Britain to King of England. -- Zoe

Also, is there a standard Wiki-way to refer to his father? This page has him as "Robert the Magnificent": I've seen him more often as "Robert the Devil": in any case, I can't find an article in here on him under any name. -- Someone else 04:39 Mar 26, 2003 (UTC)

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The picture is almost certainly just an illustration from some later work. Short of an authentic coin, we don't have the primary sources for his image. PML.