William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant)

Almost 1,000 years ago,

a man assembled an armada of 15,000 warriors.

He had made Normandy a rich, powerful land,

but hatred was at his door.

Mocked, detested and envied, his burning ambition led him

to formulate a wild, yet meticulously planned scheme

to invade England and become king.

For this, he would go down in history

as William the Conqueror.

What remains of his story?

Largely erased, forgotten

and left in ruins, traces do remain.

Thus the line between one man's dream

and historic reality becomes blurred.

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It could be a bit higher,

but it's not bad.

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- Yes, the neck was totally bare.

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- We can see their shaven necks

on the Bayeux Tapestry.

It probably helped when wearing the helmet,

or the headgear that went underneath.

- Our story begins with a little riddle.

The exact date of William's birth

has never been known.

But it is commonly accepted

that he was born around 1027.

What we know for certain

is that he was raised in Falaise in Normandy,

in the castle of his father, Robert the Magnificent.

As the Duke of Normandy,

his father had influence.

His mother Arlette however

was a local girl with no noble blood.

William was therefore considered a bastard.

What was going on at this grandious ceremony?

What was Robert the Magnificent's plan?

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- Before setting off on a pilgrimage,

Robert the Magnificent,

the duke who ruled Normandy

from 1030 to 1035, officially enthroned

little William when he was only seven.

He inherited a duchy

with theoretically the recognition of nobles.

But they did not uphold their commitment.

- Upon the death of Robert the Magnificent,

the Normans contested young William for two reasons.

Firstly, because he was a bastard.

It wasn't as fashionable as in the previous century,

when practically all the Dukes of Normandy

were of illegitimate birth.

Secondly, because he was a child

and certain ambitious uncles of William

were staking their claim to power.

At one point, around 1045,

they tried to assassinate him in Valognes.

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- Luckily a jester in Valognes,

a close friend of William called Gaul,

overheard the would be assassins

and their accomplices plotting.

He went straight to wake the Duke in his bed,

and ordered him to leave as quickly as possible.

Taking only a cloak and jump on his horse

or be murdered in a matter of minutes.

William fled and rode all night towards Falaise.

He must have crossed the ford

of the Bois des Fays, which was extremely dangerous.

He must have crossed the Besson,

avoiding the towns where accomplices may be waiting.

He also crossed the forest of Boisville.

- This flight helped forge the myth

of William as young, brave and headstrong.

A bastard and a loner,

capable of riding 150 kilometers

with killers at his heels.

Texts of the time transform this event

into legend, but struggle to authenticate the details.

Was William's horse spooked?

Perhaps William was unseated.

What if there never was a river to cross?

What can historians say with certainty?

In fact, just what do we know about William?

It was all so long ago.

What was he really like?

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We obviously have portraits

of William from the 14th, 15th and 19th centuries.

Even statues like the one in Falaise.

And this is a more or less romantic vision

of the character, not based on anything historical.

William never doubted his own legitimacy.

Most of the Dukes of Normandy

came from illegitimate marriages.

Consequently, he was totally in line

with his ancestors and considered

that those who challenged his legitimacy were rebels.

And that it was his duty to punish them for that.

William took refuge in Falaise,

and there aged 18 took his first political initiative.

He called upon his sovereign, the king of France,

and with his help was able

to bring down the accomplices

who wanted to take his power,

that was the Battle of Val-es-Dunes.

William and the king

faced between one and 2,000 warriors

commanded by the rebel barons

with the bewitching names,

Ranulph de Briquessart, Grimoald du Plessis,

and Hamon le Dentu.

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Historians consider

that it was a great battle

and a chance for William to prove his worth.

They even say that the fighting was so terrible,

and the massacre on such a scale

that the river Orne ran red with blood.

William settled in Caen,

where he built his castle

making the town the capital of lower Normandy.

It's hard to pick one's way

through this warren of ruins today.

What here dates back to William?

The ramparts, the ditches, the keep,

the artillery turrets are just a succession

of changes wrought through the centuries.

Yet on the ground there are traces

that give us a clue

as to what the castle and the town

might have been like around the year 1000.

Perhaps a castle, peace, wealth,

all that was missing from the perfect picture

was a wife.

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William and Matilda

formed a couple unlike most others

in the Middle Ages.

All their lives, they were faithful to one another,

and William had no known mistress, nor bastard.

He chose Matilda, daughter of the Count of Flanders,

one of the most powerful figures of the time.

Matilda was a descendant

of the kings of France, the Carolingians,

so the bastard was marrying into the highest royal line.

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- News of the marriage was heard in Rome,

where Pope Leo IX did not accept it for reasons

of fifth degree consanguinity

between William and Matilda.

He therefore banned the marriage.

But that did not stop William

from marrying Matilda,

either in 1050 or in 1051,

in Eure on the edge of the duchy of Normandy.

William was a builder.

He and Matilda built the men's abbey

and the woman's abbey in Caen.

Acts of allegiance that must have

gone down well in Rome with Pope Nicholas II,

with whom William had made his peace.

Could we imagine that William's story ends here?

Good husband and father,

pious Christian, occasional builder,

could William have become a provincial nobleman?

No.

- No, there was no room for routine.

The surprise, when it came, came from England.

Edward the Confessor took the throne

after a 28 year exile in Normandy.

He had no heir and so he chose William

to succeed him.

Thus he overlooked

his English brother-in-law Harold.

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In 1064, Harold set sail

to come and meet William.

And when he landed on the Ponthieu coast

to the north of Normandy,

he was taken prisoner

and William ordered his release.

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It was at that time in fact,

that the Bayeux Tapestry was begun.

A treasure of humanity,

a treasure trove for any historian.

A work of propaganda,

as well as a powerful testimony

of the manners of the time.

The Bayeux Tapestry also told

of what was to come,

of the upheaval in William's life,

and far more besides.

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We know the Bayeux Tapestry