William was crowned king of England in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1066. However, the coronation went awry – nervous Normans standing guard outside the church heard the Anglo-Saxon crowds inside cheering on William’s rule and promptly panicked. Fearful the commotion signalled treachery, they put their torches to the surrounding buildings, setting them ablaze.

William II, also known as William Rufus, was the second surviving son of William the Conqueror and widely regarded as his favourite. His achievements included starting the construction of Westminster Hall and stopping the severing of political ties between Normandy and England.

 On 25 November 1120 the White Ship, carrying England’s heir William the Ætheling and other key Anglo-Norman nobles, hit a rock and sunk. Around 300 people died, and it left the future of the crown shrouded in uncertainty.

The fiery Eleanor of Aquitaine was kept under house arrest for 15 years, for supporting her sons’ rebellion against their father and her husband, King Henry II. When Richard the Lionheart came to the throne in 1189, he promptly freed her.

Before the credits roll in every Robin Hood movie, an unexpected character appears: Richard the Lionheart. The crusader monarch always comes back to England to chastise the Sheriff of Nottingham and his brother, Prince John.

Magna Carta’s 3,550 words (all in Latin) are divided up into 63 chapters or clauses. The document – which King John sealed on 15 June 1215 – was meant to limit the king’s previously almost unrestricted power.