Death of William Rufus in the New Forest

August 2, 1100

An arrow pierced the lung of England's red-faced king while he hunted stag among the oaks. Walter Tirel fled for France without stopping to bury him. Within three days William's younger brother Henry had seized the royal treasury at Winchester and crowned himself. Whether the death was accident, plot, or something stranger, no investigation was ever conducted, and the charcoal-burner who found the body carted it to Winchester in a farm wagon.