The making of a monster
The historical image of William Rufus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11892580 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Callahan (0000-0001-5281-7598, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 175-185 |
| Publication date | 1981-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Medieval History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0304-4181 • E-ISSN: 1873-1279 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1016/0304-4181(81)90026-9 |
| OpenAlex | W2040139920 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 2 |
Few writers, medieval or modern, have had much good to write about William Rufus, the second Norman king of England (1087–1100). Beginning in the twelfth century, chroniclers and historians have portrayed William as a cruel, grasping, and sacriligious ruler. This study traces the development of this unflattering historical image from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries and notes that the religious convictions which encouraged medieval churchmen to condemn Rufus were offset in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by a more political and anti-catholic approach to his reign. Beginning in the eighteenth century, however, historians abandoned this more flattering portrayal and returned once again to the evil image concocted by the monastic chroniclers
Ancient history · Art history · Monster · Politics · Reign · Ruler · Classics · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.05 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2005 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |