test please delete

[n5gooner]

On the subsequent hunt, the party spread out as they chased their prey, and William, in the company of Walter Tirel (or Tyrell), Lord of Poix, became separated from the others. It was the last time that William was seen alive.

William was found the next day by a group of local peasants, lying dead in the woods with an arrow piercing his lungs. William's body was abandoned by the nobles at the place where he fell, because the law and order of the kingdom died with the king, and they had to flee to their English or Norman estates to secure their interests; William's younger brother, Henry, hastened to Winchester to secure the royal treasury, then to London, where he was crowned within days, before either archbishop could arrive. Legend has it that it was left to a local charcoal-burner named Purkis to take the king's body to Winchester Cathedral on his cart.

[n5gooner]

According to the chroniclers, William's death was not murder. Walter and William had been hunting together when Walter let loose a wild shot that, instead of hitting the stag he aimed for, struck William in the chest. Walter tried to help him, but there was nothing he could do. Fearing that he would be charged with murder, Walter panicked, leapt onto his horse, and fled. A version of this tale is given by William of Malmesbury in his Chronicle of the Kings of the English (c. 1128):

[n5gooner]

Another version of the above story was that William was ducking down for some strange reason and Walter mistook William's red hair for a squirrel and shot at him. But is this really believable; judging by the size of William's head and the fact that William was not with him so he would havebeen much more careful as to what he was shooting?

[n5gooner]

The day before the king died he dreamt that he went to heaven. He suddenly awoke. He commanded a light to be brought, and forbade his attendants to leave him. The next day he went into the forest... He was attended by a few persons... Walter Tirel remained with him, while the others, were on the chase. The sun was now declining, when the king, drawing his bow and letting fly an arrow, slightly wounded a stag which passed before him... The stag was still running... The king, followed it a long time with his eyes, holding up his hand to keep off the power of the sun's rays. At this instant Walter decided to kill another stag. Oh, gracious God! the arrow pierced the king's breast. On receiving the wound the king uttered not a word; but breaking off the shaft of the arrow where it projected from his body... This accelerated his death. Walter immediately ran up, but as he found him senseless, he leapt upon his horse, and escaped with the utmost speed. Indeed there were none to pursue him: some helped his flight; others felt sorry for him. The king's body was placed on a cart and conveyed to the cathedral at Winchester... blood dripped from the body all the way. Here he was buried within the tower. The next year, the tower fell down. William Rufus died in 1100... aged forty years. He was a man much pitied by the clergy... he had a soul which they could not save... He was loved by his soldiers but hated by the people because he caused them to be plundered.

[n5gooner]

To clerical chroniclers, such an 'Act of God' was a just end for a wicked king. However, over the centuries, the obvious suggestion that one of William's many enemies may have had a hand in this extraordinary event has been repeatedly made. Even chroniclers of the time point out that Walter was renowned as a keen bowman, and unlikely to fire such an impetuous shot. And William's brother Henry, who was among the hunting party that day, benefited directly from William's death, as he was shortly thereafter crowned king.

[n5gooner]

Abbot Suger, another chronicler, was Tirel's friend and sheltered him in his French exile. He said later:

It was laid to the charge of a certain noble, Walter Tirel, that he had shot the king with an arrow; but I have often heard him, when he had nothing to fear nor to hope, solemnly swear that on the day in question he was not in the part of the forest where the king was hunting, nor ever saw him in the forest at all.

[n5gooner]

A stone known as the Rufus Stone marks the spot where some believe he fell. grid reference SU270124

The inscription on the Rufus Stone reads:

Here stood the oak tree, on which an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrell at a stag, glanced and struck King William the Second, surnamed Rufus, on the breast, of which he instantly died, on the second day of August, anno 1100. King William the Second, surnamed Rufus, being slain, as before related, was laid in a cart, belonging to one Purkis, and drawn from hence, to Winchester, and buried in the Cathedral Church, of that city.

[Clownio]

More from VIZ......

Planet is "All Bolloxed up"

A study by an environmental task force has concluded that Earth is
"completely bolloxed". And leading scientists announced today
that any attempts to stop the effects of global warming would be
like "pi**ing in the wind"

The findings published in Nu Scientist magazine overturn
conventional thinking that by changing our habits, worsening
freak weather conditions can be reversed.

Speaking next to a pile of burning tyres, the governments chief
meteorologist Cliff Spawn told reporters: "Turning your heating
down one degree is going to change precisely f**k all. There are
chemical factories and all sorts pumping tonnes of sh1t into the
atmosphere all day every day. Think about that next time you
walk to work in the pouring rain."

Reporting to the house of commons Spawn told MPs: "For years we've
been telling everyone to only boil one cup of water in a kettle to
make a cuppa. Now it would appear that everything we've been told
recently by beardy types is utter wa*k. We might as well face the
fact we're doomed. We can only hope that when the end comes its
quick."

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth admitted being disappointed
by the findings. "It would seem that not leaving your TV on
'standby' and putting a brick in your toilet cystern are f**king
futile gestures. It's unfortunate but there it is" he told us.

Spawn went on to tell MPs that the report recommends 'every man,
woman and child go out today and buy as much booze as they can'
and 'spend as much of their remaining lives in a alchohol-fuelled
stupor'

[n5gooner]

The main source for William Rufus is the history of Orderic Vitalis. The modern biography by Frank Barlow, William Rufus 1983, has replaced the judgmental Victorian account of Freeman, The Reign of William Rufus, which saw him as a precursor of the United Kingdom who combined "the habits of the ancient Greek and modern Turk" with unseemly irreligion.

[n5gooner]

The main source for William Rufus is the history of Orderic Vitalis. The modern biography by Frank Barlow, William Rufus 1983, has replaced the judgmental Victorian account of Freeman, The Reign of William Rufus, which saw him as a precursor of the United Kingdom who combined "the habits of the ancient Greek and modern Turk" with unseemly irreligion.

bbb