William I

 

After the rebellion was settled, a period of peace fell over Normandy. This allowed William to help Henry in his efforts to control France. One of Henry's vassals, Geoffrey the Hammer, was getting Henry mad. Most specifically because he annexed Tours without Henry's permission. To help get back at him, Henry asked William to fight Geoffrey to "put him in his place." After hearing about this, Geoffrey took over two castles that were technically in William's control. The two castles were Domfront and Alençon. William first chose to take back Domfront. He first set up a siege around the castle. This lasted for some time. Over the winter, William got word that Geoffrey was moving towards Domfront to fight William. William sent out to knights to inform Geoffrey that William would meet him. So William and many of his knights went to meet Geoffrey. He left a small amount of his troops at Domfront to maintain the siege. When William got to the point that he was supposed to meet Geoffrey at, they could not find him. He fled. So William moved on to Alençon. William's siege of Alençon is very brutal. The guards in the guard tower who thought they were safe, hung ox skins on the walls. This was to remind William of his illegitimate birth (his mother was a tanner's daughter). To get back at them, he ordered for their hands to be cut off. He then had their severed hands tossed into the walls of Alençon. The people inside surrendered immediately.