English history is rich in internationally famous figures, beginning with Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, who defended his kingdom successfully against the invading Danes and became the founder of the united English monarchy in the late 9th century. Other famous English historical characters include William the Conqueror, who brought the French-speaking Norman dynasty to the English throne in 1066; Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in the cathedral by King Henry II’s knights and became the most famous English medieval saint; Richard I the Lionheart, one of the most famous knights of medieval Europe who fought in the Third Crusade in the early 1190s; Edward I, the “Hammer of the Scots”, who conquered Wales and temporarily occupied Scotland as well in the late 13th century; Henry VIII, famous for having six wives, had a quarrel with the Pope over his first divorce, which ultimately persuaded him to create a new Protestant Church of England in 1534; his second daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, whose long rule in the late 16th century became a golden age of English poetry and drama; Charles I, the only monarch who was convicted for treason and publicly beheaded in 1649; Oliver Cromwell, who temporarily turned England into a Puritan Republic during the Commonwealth; William III of Orange from Holland, who agreed to the creation of the constitutional monarchy in 1689; Horatio Nelson, the victorious admiral in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805; Queen Victoria, the longest-reigning monarch in English history; Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II; and the list could be continued.