William I was
bishop of Utrecht
List of bishops and archbishops of the diocese and archdioceses of Utrecht.
Medieval diocese from 695 to 1580
Founders of the Utrecht diocese
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between 1054 and 1076. He was a typical representative of the German imperial system in which bishops (who couldn't inherit their lands) were the main officials of the empire. He was a loyal follower of king
Henry IV of Germany. William was appointed when a war was going on against West Frisia (later part of the
county of Holland
The County of Holland was a State of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part ...
), which was resisting imperial authority. The imperial army conquered large parts of West Frisia in 1061, when
Dirk V
Dirk V (1052 – June 17, 1091) was Count of Holland (called Frisia at that time) from 1061 to 1091.
Dirk V succeeded his father, Floris I, under the guardianship of his mother, Gertrude of Saxony. William I, Bishop of Utrecht, took advantag ...
became count. King Henry gave the whole county to the bishopric of Utrecht in 1064. The whole of West Frisia was conquered in 1076 with the help of duke
Godfrey III.
William took part in the
Great German Pilgrimage of 1064–65 The Great German Pilgrimage of 1064–1065 was a large pilgrimage to Jerusalem which took place a generation before the First Crusade.
Events
It originated in the Kingdom of Germany in 1064, and was led by Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, Bishop W ...
.
William supported the king during the
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monast ...
. He called for disobedience towards
Gregory VII at the
synod of Worms in 1076. Much of West Frisia was recovered by count Dirk after the death of bishop William in the same year.
1076 deaths
11th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Holy Roman Empire
Prince-Bishops of Utrecht
Year of birth unknown
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