Laughter and Grief in Twelfth-Century Accounts of the Death of William Rufus

Abstract

The death of King William Rufus while hunting in August 1100 is often acknowledged as a fitting end for an unpopular and ineffective monarch, based largely on descriptions of the event in several twelfth-century texts. While it will never be possible to arrive at a definitive explanation of what happened, near-contemporary representations of the king’s behaviour and death reveal much about perceptions and expectations of medieval kingship. By examining varying descriptions of the king’s laughter – sometimes cynical and manipulative, sometimes generous and inclusive – and the corresponding portrayals of the extent of his subjects’ grief at their monarch’s passing, it is possible to reconstruct the outlines of a debate over appropriate emotional performance and its contribution to successful – or unsuccessful – rulership. The very positive depiction of Rufus’s emotional regime in Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis sits in stark contrast to the more negative mainstream view, represented especially in the Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis.