William's parents were Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet from early Connecticut.

All that is known of his parents or ancestry is that he had two brothers, Ranulf and Helgot ; his brothers appear as witnesses on William's charters.

There is some speculation that Deborah Read was William's mother, and that because of his parents ' common law relationship, the circumstances of his birth were obscured so as not to be politically harmful to William.

A member of the British Royal Family being reliably diagnosed with porphyria subsequently added credence to the theory – first proposed by Professor Macalpine in the late 1960s – that porphyria was the source of the ill-health of both Mary, Queen of Scots ( an ancestor of both of William's parents ) and of George III and that the disorder had been inherited by some members of the Royal Families of Great Britain, Prussia and several minor German dukedoms and principalities.

The story also focuses on William's and Marygay's relationship to their children, who do not agree with their parents ' views, but still have to deal with their parents ' fleeing ' into the future.

An innovation in William's coronation ceremony was that before the actual crowning, Ealdred asked the assembled crowd, in English, if it was their wish that William be crowned king.

The hostility to Agnes, it must be admitted, may be exaggerated by the chronicler William of Tyre, whom she prevented from becoming Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem decades later, as well as from William's continuators like Ernoul, who hints at a slight on her moral character: " car telle n ' est que roine doie iestre di si haute cite comme de Jherusalem " (" there should not be such a queen for so holy a city as Jerusalem ").

On his return to Naples, Nelson was greeted with a triumphal procession led by King Ferdinand IV and Sir William Hamilton and was introduced for only the third time to Sir William's wife Emma, Lady Hamilton, who fainted violently at the meeting, and apparently took several weeks to recover from her injuries.

William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England.

James tried again to gain William's support but William responded by advising James to keep to the law and not to try to extend his prerogative powers.

John invaded Scotland and forced William to sign the Treaty of Norham, which gave John control of William's daughters and required a payment of £ 10, 000.

Peter W. Edbury, on the other hand, argues that William, as well as the thirteenth-century authors who continued William's chronicle in French and were allied to Raymond's supporters in the Ibelin family, cannot be considered impartial.

* 1689 – King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.

The King's brother Prince William ( the future King and Emperor William I ) had fled to England, and Bismarck intrigued with William's wife Augusta to place their teenage son ( the future Frederick III ) on the Prussian throne in King Frederick William IV's place — Augusta would have none of it, and detested Bismarck thereafter, although Bismarck did later help to restore a working relationship between the King and his brother, who were on poor terms.

After the death of King William II of Sicily his cousin Tancred of Lecce had seized power and had been crowned early in 1190 as King Tancred I of Sicily, although the legal heir was William's aunt Constance, wife of the new Emperor Henry VI.

Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry I's son, William Adelin, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120 ; William's death left the succession of the English throne open to challenge.

The second was Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg, who was the son of Duke John William's second eldest sister, Anna of Cleves.

Duchess Anna of Prussia claimed Jülich-Cleves-Berg as the heir to the senior line, while Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg claimed Jülich-Cleves-Berg as Duke John William's eldest male heir.

As well as promising a large sum of money, the ailing William agreed to his elder daughters marrying English nobles and, when the treaty was renewed in 1212, John apparently gained the hand of William's only surviving legitimate son, and heir, Alexander, for his eldest daughter, Joan.

William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, and that Harold had sworn to support William's claim.

William's lands were divided after his death: Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert, and his second surviving son, William, received England.

Earlier dukes had been illegitimate, and William's association with his father on ducal charters appears to indicate that William was considered Robert's most likely heir.

Although many of the Norman nobles engaged in their own private wars and feuds during William's minority, the viscounts still acknowledged the ducal government, and the ecclesiastical hierarchy was supportive of William.

William of Poitiers claimed that the battle was won mainly through William's efforts, but earlier accounts claim that King Henry's men and leadership also played an important part.

William's next efforts were against Guy of Burgundy, who retreated to his castle at Brionne, which William besieged.

But in 1052 the king and Geoffrey Martel made common cause against William at the same time as some Norman nobles began to contest William's increasing power.

The second, which included some who became William's firm supporters, such as Robert, Count of Eu, Walter Giffard, Roger of Mortemer, and William de Warenne, faced the other invading force.

This was the last invasion of Normandy during William's lifetime, and the deaths of the count and the king in 1060 cemented the shift in the balance of power towards William.

By 1073 there were only two Englishmen in episcopal sees, and by the time of William's death in 1089, there was only one, Wulfstan II of Worcester.

The benefits of greater authority were reaped by William's son Alexander II and his son Alexander III, who pursued a policy of peace with England to expand their authority in the Highlands and Islands.

Due to the terms of the Treaty of Falaise, Henry II had the right to choose William's bride.

Harold then apparently accompanied William to battle against William's enemy, Conan II, Duke of Brittany.

Due to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War that went disastrously for the Dutch, the Patriot party staged a revolt against the authoritarian regime of stadtholder William V that was struck down through the intervention of William's brother-in-law Frederick William II of Prussia in June 1787.

After King William's death in 1087 Edgar supported William's eldest son Robert Curthose, who succeeded him as Duke of Normandy, against his second son, William Rufus, who received the throne of England as William II.

It was in November 1555, shortly after Charles had abdicated in favour of his son, Philip II of Spain that the gout-afflicted Emperor leaned on William's shoulder during his abdication ceremony.

Ironically, the name of Philip II of Spain, William's adversary, appears on the official foundation certificate, as he was still the de jure count of Holland.

After William's death in 1164, the Honour of Lancaster again came under royal control when Henry II gained possession of the Honour.

Their joint reign began in February 1689, when they were offered the throne by the Parliament of England, replacing James II & VII, Mary's father and William's uncle / father-in-law, who was " deemed to have fled " the country in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

After travelling to Rome to receive his pallium, the symbol of his authority as an archbishop, William discovered that Thurstan had arrived before him, and had presented a case against William's election to Pope Callixtus II.

Contemporaries were grudging in their praise, and William's reputation suffered after the accession of Matilda's son, Henry II, to the English throne.

Monreale Cathedral, built during William's II reign.

William's eldest daughter Matilda ( also called Maud ) married a prominent Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Rhys II of Deheubarth.

William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England.

William's head faces right on his coins, with the legend, while the reverse design of William and Mary's reign was judged to be unsuccessful, so the design reverted to that used by Charles II and James II, but with a small shield with the lion of Nassau in the centre, with the legend.

The Nine Years ' War was fought primarily on mainland Europe and its surrounding waters, but it also encompassed a theatre in Ireland and in Scotland, where William III and James II struggled for control of the British Isles, and a campaign ( King William's War ) between French and English settlers and their Indian allies in colonial North America.

William's head faces right on his coins, with the legend, while the reverse design of William and Mary's reign was judged to be unsuccessful, so the design reverted to that used by Charles II and James II, but with a small shield with the lion of Nassau in the centre, with the legend.