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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 3400401, member: 101855"]Before William the Conqueror died, he picked a younger son, William II (a.k.a. “Rufus”) to succeed him. Rufus was a good warrior, but another factor might have been that his oldest son, Robert, was short in stature. He was called “Robert Courtheuse” which in Norman French translates to “short stockings.” Word was that William I made fun of him because of that. The quality of the coinage really went down beginning with Rufus. This penny is fairly high grade, but the die is broken in the middle. As a result, not much of the portrait remains. [ATTACH=full]902960[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]902961[/ATTACH] Rufus liked to drink and he had a short temper. When he got angry, he face turned red which gave him his nickname, "Rufus the red." Rufus also didn't care for the church. He used foul language. When a bishop or abbot died he often took charage of the church property and took it for himself. Rufus was only corronated British king who never married. It was said that "young men minced their gait with lose garmens and walked around half naked in his court."  (You can draw your own conclusions.) It is therefore not surprising that monks of the period characterized him as "an evil person who had the characteristics of a witch." Rufus died in what I would call "a hunting accident." One day a Norman nobleman, Walter Tyrel, missed a deer and hit Rufus instead. Before Rufus was cold, his brother, Henry, was riding off to London to claim the royal treasury and the crown. In the mean time Walter Tyrel hightaliled it back to Normandy. Later Henry I granted special favors to Walter's brothers, Gilbert and Rober of Clare. Once more you can draw your own conclusions.[/QUOTE]

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