William the Conqueror eldest son. William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Robert's mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, as did the anarchy that plagued the first years of his rule. During his childhood and adolescence, members of the Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy, a process that was not complete until about 1060. His marriage
On the Death of His Grace, the Duke of Albemarle or History, indure." Indeed, the general consensus among both historians and the author of this ballad is that Monck was essential to the eventual unification of England, Scotland, and Ireland under the banner of Charles II: "Yet who like You, when Fate seem’d most to frown, / Sav’d an Usurp’d, Secur’d on Envied Crown, / And Three Great Kingdoms did from Ruine free, / Deserves those Honors which are pay’d to Thee." On the Death of His Grace, the Duke of Albemarle On the Death of His Grace, the Duke of Albemarle is an English broadside ballad published in 1670,