13. William II, son of William the Conqueror, also died in undignified circumstances, being killed in a hunting “accident” by one of his own men and left to rot in the New Forest until discovered by a peasant
William II, also known as William Rufus, was the third son of William the Conqueror, whom he succeeded as the second Norman King of England. Surviving an attempt to reunify the holdings of the House of Normandy under a singular ruler in 1088, divided upon the death of William I among his sons, William II responded by invading his antagonistic brother Robert’s lands before eventually settling into an uneasy truce. Never fathering children, nor marrying, historical debate continues regarding the personality of William II. An inveterate belligerent, quick to anger, it has also been suggested the Norman monarch was a closet homosexual.
Becoming increasingly unpopular, in August 1100, during a hunting expedition in the New Forest, William was struck and killed by an arrow through the lung. Shot by one of his own men, later identified as Walter Tirel, who fled the scene and abandoned the body, the deceased king was found by a peasant. William’s younger brother, Henry, rushed to Winchester to take command of the royal treasury, whereupon he was crowned in such haste that the archbishop had not yet arrived. As a result of these circumstances, it has been strongly suggested William was deliberately assassinated by his relatives, with chroniclers claiming it was an “act of God”.