FREE ESSAY ON WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

Introduction
He is Lord of lords and King of kings...
(Rev.17:14)
"If hundred thousand people have to die, they will die. But we'll seize the power..."
V.I. Lenin.
Oh, Mother-Earth, how many battles have you seen?! How many brave and great sons of yours
have died in the fields of massacre and shame?! They have been led by those, who want to
own you, by those who desire their names to be written on "your face." They could flood
you with blood of innocent people, with tears of mothers, wives and children; they could
cover you with the broken lives of those who were left to lie on the battlefields. They
forget about your Creator, about the One, who gives them power... One of those leaders,
who wanted to seize the power, was William the Conqueror.
William the Conqueror - Duke of Normandy, King William I of England - was born at Falaise
in 1027 or 1028, and probably during the autumn of the latter year. His father was known
as "Robert the Devil" and "Robert the Magnificent." William was born of a liaison between
the devilish duke and a tanner's daughter, named Herleve of Herleva, and popularity
remembered as Arlette or Arletta. According to legend, Robert and Arlette met when they
were both in their late teens. Robert was riding his horse one day when he saw the lovely
Arlette washing her clothes in a river. Instantly smitten, the duke sent one of his
servants to summon Arlette to his castle. She agreed to become Robert's mistress, but
insisted on living with him openly rather than conducting the affair in secrecy. Their
son William was born within a year of their first meeting. 
Having read about the William's childhood, it made me to realize why he wanted to be the
first, and why his anger in the future would come out on people. William became the Duke
of Normandy at the very early age. Even though his father's barons swore fealty to
William, after all they were trying to kill him. First one of William's guardians,
Gilbert of Brionne, was murdered; then William's uncle Osbern, Arlette's brother, was
killed while protecting the young William from kidnappers who had invaded the boy's
bedroom. William's tutor was also murdered. 
William grew up very fast. At the age of fifteen he was knighted, and at the age of
nineteen he started to war everyone. First he went to war against his cousin Guy of
Burgundy to defend his inheritance. He defeated Guy and then forced the rebels to swear
allegiance to him. It was a beginning of "William the Bastard's" era, as his enemies
called him. Almost for his whole life, he has always been fighting someone; even his own
allies. A nice boy became a ruthless, powerful, and greatly feared conqueror.