William the Conqueror probably secured earlier. Papal sanction of the marriage appears to have required the founding of two monasteries in Caen – one by William and one by Matilda. The marriage was important in bolstering William's status, as Flanders was one of the more powerful French territories, with ties to the French royal house and to the German emperors. Contemporary writers considered the marriage, which produced four sons and five or six daughters, to be a success. No authentic portrait of William has been found; the contemporary depictions of him on the Bayeux Tapestry and on his seals and coins are conventional
William Ketel from the reign of William the Conqueror fits in with this dating possibility. It is also possible that Ketel wrote late in the 11th century, if the two clerks mentioned in the dedication are two otherwise unknown officials of Beverley. The parallels in word choice between Ketel's work and the work of Alfred of Beverly who wrote around 1143 are probably due to Alfred using Ketel's writings. There is a reference in the stories to John's "former tomb", which likely refers to the erecting of a new tomb to the saint in 1197 and are most probably later insertions into