Page "William II of England" Paragraph 19

To the chroniclers – men of the Church – such an ' act of God ' was a just end for a wicked king.

Over the following centuries, the obvious suggestion that one of William's enemies may have had a hand in this extraordinary event has repeatedly been made: chroniclers of the time point out themselves that Walter was renowned as a keen bowman, and thus was unlikely to have loosed such an impetuous shot.

Moreover, William's brother Henry, who was among the hunting party that day, benefited directly from William's death, shortly thereafter being crowned king.

Modern scholars have reopened the question and some have found the assassination theory credible or compelling, but the theory is not universally accepted.