Then laid his cheek to her cold grave,
And word spake never more.
William, king of Scotland, introduced by Sir W. Scott in The Talisman (1825).
William of Cloudesley (3 syl.), a north country outlaw, associated with Adam Bell and Clym of the Clough (Clement of the Cliff). He lived in Englewood Forest, near Carlisle. Adam Bell and Clym of the Clough were single men, but William had a wife named Alyce, and “children three,” living at Carlisle. The three outlaws went to London to ask pardon of the king, and the king, at the queen’s intercession, granted it. He then took them to a field to see them shoot. William first cleft in two a hazel wand at a distance of 200 feet; after this he bound his eldest son to a stake, put an apple on his head, and, at a distance of “six score paces,” cleft the apple in two without touching the boy. The king was so delighted that he made William “a gentlemen of fe,” made his son a royal butler, the queen took Alyce for her “chief gentlewoman,” and the two companions were appointed yeoman of the bed-chamber.--Percy, Reliques (“Adam Bell,” etc.), I. ii. 1.
William of Goldsbrough, one of the companions of Robin Hood, mentioned in Grafton’s Olde and Auncient Pamphlet (sixteenth century).
William of Norwich (Saint), a child said to have been crucified by the Jews in 1137. (See Hugh of Lincoln and Werner.)
Two boys of tender age, those saints ensue,
Of Norwich, William was, of Lincoln, Hugh.
Whom th’ unbelieving Jews (rebellious that abide),
In mockery of our Christ, at Easter crucified.