"William the Conqueror" Topic

A few years ago, I started putting a serial number on each miniature I painted. I'm just coming up to miniature number 1066, so I've decided that it must be a model of William the Conqueror. I'd appreciate some advice on a few aspects of his appearance.

The base model will be a Perry Minatures First Crusade Mounted Leader – the clean-shaven one with the bare head. I'll replace the sword with a wooden cudgel, as seen on the Bayeux Tapestry, and use Green Stuff to make the cloth sleeves into mail.

If I can find a way to do it with minimal effort, I'll have him holding a helmet somehow (the Tapestry shows him just pushing back his helmet during the Battle of Hastings to prove he was still alive, but that would involve major repositioning of an arm, and I'm after a portrait effect, anyway).

I know that William grew fat in later life, but as he was still in his 30s at Hastings, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and not expand his waistline.

Hair. As per William of Malmesbury's description, I'll file away and remodel some of his hair to give him a receding hairline. But what colour was his hair? I've seen some secondary sources refer to it as "red" or "russet", but I don't know the primary source for this. I'm a bit skeptical, because it would seem odd to give the identically named son of a red-haired man the nickname "Rufus" as a way of distinguishing him from his father.

Shield Was there any particular colour or device associated with Duke William?

Horse The Tapestry shows William's horse a different colour each time. Is there any other source that mentions a favourite horse of a particular colour?

Thanks for any help you can give with these questions.

I know the tapestry depicts William with a cudgel, but most people would assume you've done Bishop Odo, William's half brother, who fought with a club "so as to shed no man's blood." (It's the origin of the D&D rule for clerics.)

Possibly true, Parzival, but at least it will be a talking point!

Curiously, Ian Heath makes a similar mistake in the WRG Armies of the Dark Ages. He says that William is shown carrying a flanged mace on the Tapestry, but he's wrong – that's Odo. William is clearly the one with the cudgel. He is, for example, holding is while tipping back his helmet under the caption "Hic Est Wilelm Dux".

In case there's anyone else who cares, I've done a bit more poking around. The arms of the Duchy of Normandy are (translated from the heraldese) two "passant" (horizontally-oriented) gold lions on a red field. There's a tradition that claims that these stand for Normandy and Maine, and that William the C added a third lion for England, thus creating the arms that the England football team wear to this day. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of any English king using this device until Henry II and Richard III – and they both used a single gold lion rampant on a red field as well.

Now, if William did display arms (and if the concept existed that early – there is a lot of dispute), it would have been on a banner, not a shield. But I'd like to show willing. Two lions passant won't fit sensibly on a kite shield, but one lion rampant might. I'm tempted to use that, perhaps using the blue tongue and claws of the Normandy lions for a bit of added flavour.

Duh! That's Richard I, not Richard III, of course!

I have always heard the William I's hair was red.

"Rufus" I I remember correctly received his nickname from the redness of his face, probably had rosatia or something similiar.