Walter Tirel

Walter Tirel III (1065 – some time after 1100), was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He is infamous for his involvement in the death of King William II of England, also known as William Rufus.

He was born in Tonbridge, Kent, the son of Walter Tirel II, a Norman lord. He was married to Adelize, the daughter of Richard Fitz Gilbert. He was lord of Poix-de-Picardie in France, and of Langham, Essex (as appears in the Domesday Survey). He died some time after 1100. His grandson Hugh Tyrrel took part in the Norman Conquest of Ireland and became the first baron of Castleknock.

On 2 August 1100, King William II organized a hunting trip in the New Forest. 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.")

On the subsequent hunt, the party spread out as they chased their prey, and William, in the company of Tirel, became separated from the others. It was the last time that William was seen alive.

In their search for prey, according to chroniclers, Tirel let loose a wild shot at a passing stag. However, instead of striking the stag as intended, the arrow pierced William in the chest, puncturing his lungs. Stricken with panic, Walter leapt upon his horse and fled to France. A version of this tale is given by William of Malmesbury in his Chronicle of the Kings of the English (c. 1128), in which Tirel is referred to as "Walter Thurold":

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 fire 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. It may be significant, as Henry's modern biographer remarks, that nobody at the time seems to have had any such suspicions: contemporaries took it for granted that the death was an accident, such accidents being common enough.

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