Walter Tirel

Walter Tirel III (1065 –1136), nicknamed the "Red Knight of Normandie", was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He is infamous for allegedly accidentally killing King William II of England.

Life Walter Tirel was born in Tonbridge, Kent, the son of Norman Walter Tirel, and was lord of Poix-de-Picardie in Ponthieu (now in France), and of Langham, Essex (as appears in the Domesday Survey). By marriage, he became linked to the English royal family, having wed Adeliza, the daughter of royal kinsman Richard Fitz Gilbert, who was of the family of Clare. Tirel's father-in-law owned lands in Essex, which he enfeoffed to Tirel. He died in 1136. He was a friend of St Anselm's.

The grandson of Walter and Adeliza, Hugh Tyrrel, took part in the Norman Conquest of Ireland and became the first baron of Castleknock.

Death of William II

Confirmed events On 2 August 1100, Tirel was among a party of noblemen who joined King William II for a hunt in the New Forest. The hunt began at an unusually late hour; it was after midday lunch instead of the customary early morning. Among the hunting party were Henry (William's younger brother, future King Henry I), Robert de Beaumont (Count of Meulan), Henry de Beaumont (Earl of Warwick, Robert's brother), Robert fitzhamon, William of Breteuil, Gilbert of Clare (Tirel's brother-in-law) and Roger of Clare (Gilbert's brother, another brother-in-law of Tirel). That afternoon, the king was shot and killed by an arrow.

William's dead body was left deserted in the forest, and was found by peasants. The peasants brought the late king's body to Winchester.

William of Malmesbury According to the chronicler William of Malmesbury, who wrote his account circa 1125, William II died from an arrow to the chest. Both Malmesbury and Orderic Vitalis accuse Tirel of loosing the arrow which killed the king.

William was presented with six arrows, on the eve of the hunt; taking four for himself, he handed the other two to Tirel, saying, "Bon archer, bonnes fleches" ("[To the] good archer, [the] good arrows.")

According to Malmesbury, William's hunting group dispersed as they moved further into the forest, and William was left alone with Tirel.

Possible conspiracy by Henry

Due to the striking nature of William's death, it has evoked various conspiracy theories and hypotheses.

At the time, William's death was accepted as an accident, but it has been suggested that it was an assassination.

Tirel fled to his lordship in France, an action which has been viewed by historians as an admission of guilt. However, at the time hunting was unsafe and not well-managed,

Murder or accident?

To some chroniclers, such an "Act of God" was a just end for a wicked king. However, over the centuries, the obvious suggestion that one of William's many enemies may have had a hand in this extraordinary event has been repeatedly made. Even chroniclers of the time point out that Walter was renowned as a keen bowman, and unlikely to loose such an impetuous shot. William's brother Henry, who was among the hunting party that day, benefited directly from William's death, as he was shortly after crowned king. Henry, who once threw a man off a tower to his death, was not normally troubled by moral scruples: on the other hand it has been argued that fratricide was then regarded as a particularly horrible crime, and even the suspicion of it would have done great harm to the new King's reputation. The "Sir Walter Tyrrell" pub is nearby.