Death of King William in Normandy
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Ingram/Giles translation) records under 1087 that King William, after returning to Normandy, fell sick and died in Normandy on the next day after the Nativity of St. Mary, and was buried at Caen in St. Stephen's minster, which he had formerly built.
What this does and does not establish
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a monastic chronicle, used here through the 19th-century English translation of Ingram/Giles (Old English not checked); this records what the Chronicle says, not independent confirmation. The day is given only by the church feast and is not converted here. The surrounding annal adds a long moral assessment of the king, which is not part of this record.
- 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. 1087.
- 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
This being thus
done, King William returned to Normandy. Rueful was the thing he
did; but a more rueful him befel. How more rueful? He fell
sick, and it dreadfully ailed him. What shall I say? Sharp
death, that passes by neither rich men nor poor, seized him also.
He died in Normandy, on the next day after the Nativity of St.
Mary, and he was buried at Caen in St. Stephen's minster, which
he had formerly reared, and afterwards endowed with manifold
gifts.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_1087_asc_1
Exact revision fingerprint
e263058c839f9dc5087ed843e1269680256692dec1660f45921a2dce33622053