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| William II |
When that most iconic of Kings William the Conqueror died, he left the throne to his younger son who became William II. Naturally, this caused intense anger with his older brother who fairly promptly organised a revolt. This challenge was supported by many of the Norman landowners who had been given their estates through the largesse of his father.
Quickly, William II in a truly duplicitous move, crushed this danger by promising the native anglo-saxons huge reforms in taxes and restrictive laws. But these pledges were immediately abandoned when any further threats had disappeared. Indeed, he actually increased taxes and enforced the laws more brutally. So it was within this mood of seething resentment that William arrived in the New Forest for a few days hunting in the year 1100.
It came then as no surprise that an “accident” happened which resulted in the death of this most hated King. An arrow was found neatly lodged in his chest.
One of the party, Sir William Tyrrel whose arrow it was, said that it was a ghastly mistake; but he didn’t hang around long enough to argue his case and re-appeared months later in France where he wisely stayed. Next, because William was so hated, his body was abandoned while all his companions fled to secure their estates against the retributions which the new regime would be bound to bring. So it fell to a lowly Charcoal worker who lived nearby to take the King’s body in the back of his crude wooden cart to Winchester for burial. A truly humiliating last journey for this most detested Monarch.
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| Rufus Stone, New Forest |
But now it gets far more interesting. Along the path the cart took to Winchester there was left a trail of royal blood which dripped remorselessly every few yards from the body. This forest blood-trail is reputed to lie there still, and the ghost of the King can sometimes be seen, mournfully following this his last journey.
In fact, a memorial stone called the Rufus Stone, has been erected to mark the spot where the king died. And this is where his ghost re-starts his last journey from time to time.
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