Crusade departure; William II acquires Normandy from Robert
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Ingram/Giles translation) records under 1096 that an immense multitude went forth with their wives and children to make war upon the heathens, and that through this expedition King William and his brother Earl Robert were reconciled, so that the king went over sea and 'purchased all Normandy of him', on condition that they should be united.
What this does and does not establish
A monastic chronicle known here through the 19th-century Ingram/Giles English translation; the Old English text was not checked. The record is what the Chronicle says, not independent confirmation. The Chronicle links the expedition to Pope Urban in the same entry but gives no number for the multitude; 'purchased' is the translation's word and the terms are not stated.
- Quoted from a published English translation, not from the original-language text.
- Region
- Europe
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- A.D. 1096.
- How we use it
- Placed in the year under which the Chronicle enters it. For events near the turn of the year this may differ from the modern calendar year, and some annals in the Chronicle are known to be dislocated.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
The year is the heading under which this translation of the Chronicle enters the passage; the Chronicle's own year-beginning (Christmas, Annunciation or September, varying by manuscript) is not converted.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (English translation by J. Ingram, with J. A. Giles)
Anonymous Anglo-Saxon chroniclers; translated by James Ingram (1823) and J. A. Giles (1847)
Published English translation, as quoted
And an immense
multitude went forth with their wives and children, that they
might make war upon the heathens. Through this expedition were
the king and his brother, Earl Robert, reconciled; so that the
king went over sea, and purchased all Normandy of him, on
condition that they should be united.Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. J. Ingram and J. A. Giles, Project Gutenberg eBook #657. Wording is a 19th-century translation; the Chronicle's year headings follow its own reckoning.
Exact source version
29fd0af2fcddbade6ab661734fa77c2d8fdd938b0ff3a639bdfc2c757cceb134Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-04. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
No correction has been made to this record’s statement or limits.
Revision s1p_1096_asc_1
Exact revision fingerprint
fc4a7b655968a9601739cc82ca074398614e00e83ca81f0a6e2f548e9171d11e