William Rufus

Known to his contemporaries as William Rufus, William II was the son of William the Conqueror. He held the English throne for just over a decade, from 1087 to 1100, before his death in a mysterious killing. Frank Barlow's biography portrays a ruler who was lively, bold and far removed from the grim kings usually found in medieval sources. This edition has been updated and comes with a new preface.

Barlow sets the king's personal story against the wider workings of Anglo-Norman government. He argues that William strengthened royal authority in England, recovered ducal rights in France, and secured the results of the Norman conquest.

Rufus was sociable, openly generous and personally brave, with many friends and little of the cold cruelty associated with medieval monarchs. He is also widely understood to have been homosexual. His court, marked by excess, eccentricity and flamboyance, drew criticism from Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and later from historians who disapproved of it.

The book suits readers interested in Anglo-Saxon and medieval England or in unusual royal lives, offering a close look at a reign that was short but important.