The death of William Rufus - accident or murder?

Hunting accidents were a feature of life in the 11th century just as they are today in an age of high visibility jackets. Notoriously Vice President Cheney shot one of his friends while they were out hunting only a few years ago. There are any number of incidents that go unreported unless the injury is fatal.

It does appear that contemporaries and for many years after took the death of William to be a pure accident. the first account, in the Anglo Saxpon Chronoicle, merely says this: In the morning after Lammas King William when hunting was shot by an arrow by one of his own men." Later accounts add detail, that he was shot through the heart and that the culprit was Walter Tirel, Count of Poix.  The fullest account was written by Orderic, writing about 1135. It is possible that Orderic could have had access to eye-witness accounts and he would almost certainly have heard secondary tales. Orderic does not condemn Tirel and saw the killing of the king as God's judgement. Contemporaries agreed, and judged William for his depraved lifestyle and his tendency to tyranny. The monks at Winchester only agreed to bury the body under protest.

Having said that, two men left the scene in almost indecent hate. Walter Tirel fled for France and William's younger brother Henry made speed to Wnchester to secure the treasury and have himself proclaimed king before his oldest brother Robert, duke of Normandy, could set sail from northern France. Henry held on to his kingdom for the next 35 years. The possible involvement of Walter Tirel was officially ignored. Henry neither punished nor rewarded him and both men lived to die in old age.

It is only later historians who have seen darker motives behind the death of William II. Cui bono? as Cicero asked. Who benefited from William's death? That answer is plain enough - Henry. This had led some to speculate that the death was no accident and that Henry engineered it on his own behalf. But there it remains, as simply speculation. There is no contemporary evidence to suggest that it was other than an accident and nobody in Henry's lifetime or after raised this thought. In any case, even if there were a conspiracy of sorts, its effectiveness would depend upon many uncertain factors - moving targets, men being out of position, the behaviour of Tirel or other men designated to do the deed - that its outcome would have been most unpredictable. In addition, we might wonder that if Henry had indeed planned this deed, he might have found it politic not to be present in the hunting party.

This may be one conspiracy theory that has nothig to support it,