The Bower & Collier Family History

Research by Colin Bower

The Death of William II (William Rufus)

The Booklet:Death of Rufus by Arthur Lloyd 2000

I had aimed to look at all the books together but a search on the internet meant that I studied Arthur Lloyd's booklet earlier than I expected:

Newsletter No 3 September 2017 by Beaulieu History Society

The Newsletter contained an article about the place where King William Rufus was killed

The content of the article is almost entirely taken from Arthur Lloyd's booklet. The article does not include all the contents of the booklet and some sections chosen have been edited.

The key (and from my point of view ground-breaking) sections of the article are:

1. John Leland visited Sir William Berkeley at Berkeley Castle; the Berkeleys were familiar with the New Forest. From 1339-1484, the Berkeley family possessed Exbury, a property on the Eastern side of the Beaulieu River opposite the Truham estate.

Sir William told John Leland that the place, where it is said Tyrel killed King Willam Rufus, was called Thorougham, where a chapel stood.

2. The rest oif the article gives other sources that back up 1. above including:

A. The medieval chronicler Florence of Worcester had remarked that the King was killed where a chapel once stood.

B. Some place names were read then written down incorrectly, e.g. Chorengham and Drucam.

C. A monk of Waverley Abbey noted in its Annals that Beaulieu Abbey has been built close to the site where Rufus was killed.

D. In 1203 a year or two before Beaulieu Abbey was founded, King John had a hunting lodge in the New Forest at Bellus Locus.

In 1204, Beaulieu Abbey was founded and called Bellus Locus Regis suggesting it was built close to the hunting lodge.

The article's author expresses the view, based on the evidence from Arthur Lloyd's booklet, that the death of Rufus took place very close to the village of Beaulieu.

Arthur Lloyd's Booklet

We know of some of the contents of the booklet from the History Society's Newsletter:

Newsletter

The booklet has a few other interesting comments:

1. There are references to the arrow being fired "carelessly", including by Florence of Worcester.

2. Matthew Paris stated that the arrow that killed the King had glanced off a tree - he was the first to do so.

3. No medieval source mentions the name of Purkis (Purkess) nor that the man with the cart was a charcoal burner.

4. Though historian Dr Anne Ross writes that the King was based at his hunting lodge at Brockenhurst, yet according to tradition, he stayed the night of August 1 st at Malwood Castle.

Arthur Lloyd points out that there is no tradition but sheer invention (there is no mention of a hunting lodge at Malwood as early as 1100)

5. Brother Henry's hurried dash to the treasury at Winchester was in keeping with the way Rufus had reacted to his father's death.

Conclusions

Arthur Lloyd conducted detailed research into where William Rufus was killed and was satisfied that it was at Thorugham/Truham (the name was in the Domesday Book but disppeared from use on the formation of the New Forest).

Arthurs's booklet is very detailed and there is more about the portents to William Rufus' death, the death itself and the interpretation of Anglo-Saxon writing!

I have listed this additional information in a separate article:

Additional Information

Colin Bower
31 October 2024

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