William I

William I may refer to:

Kings

Nobles

William I (Bishop of Utrecht)

William I was bishop of Utrecht between 1054 and 1076. He was a typical representative of the German imperial system in which bishops (who couldn't inherite their lands) were the main officials of the empire. He was a loyal follower of king Henry IV of Germany. William was appointed when a war was going on against West Frisia (later part of the county of Holland), which was resisting imperial authority. The imperial army conquered large parts of West Frisia in 1061, when Dirk V became count. King Henry gave the whole county to the bishopric of Utrecht in 1064. The whole of West Frisia was conquered in 1076 with the help of duke Godfrey III.

William took part in the Great German Pilgrimage of 1064–1065.

William supported the king during the investiture controversy. He called for disobedience towards Gregory VII at the synod of Worms in 1076. Much of West Frisia was recovered by count Dirk after the death of bishop William in the same year.

William I of Sicily

William I (1131 – May 7, 1166), called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second King of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own in 1166. He was the fourth son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile.

William's title "the Bad" seems little merited and expresses the bias of the historian Hugo Falcandus and the baronial class against the king and the official class by whom he was guided.

Early life

William was the son of King Roger II of Sicily, grandson of Roger I of Sicily and great-grandson of Tancred of Hauteville. He grew up with little expectation of ruling. The deaths of his three older brothers Roger, Tancred, and Alfonso between 1138 and 1148 changed matters, though when his father died William was still not well-prepared to take his place.

Kingship

On assuming power, William kept the administration which had guided his father's rule for his final years. Only the Englishman Thomas Brun was removed, and the chancellor Maio of Bari was promoted. The real power in the kingdom was at first exercised by Maio, a man of low birth, whose title ammiratus ammiratorum was the highest in the realm. Maio continued Roger's policy of excluding the nobles from the administration, and sought also to curtail the liberties of the towns. The barons, always chafing against the royal power, were encouraged to revolt by Pope Adrian IV, whose recognition William had not yet sought, by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.