William the Conqueror’s nephew was Britain’s wealthiest man in history

“India’s Lakshmi Mittal and Russia’s Roman Abramovich will now have to take a backseat in a new list of rich people in Britain, as a little-known French immigrant is said to have been a multi-billionaire more than 900 years ago. When he died more than 900 years ago, Alan Rufus was worth, in today’s terms, 81 billion dollars. According to The Daily Mail, Alan the Red – so-called because of the colour of his hair – tops a list of the 250 wealthiest people in British history in a book called The Richest Of The Rich. Using figures from probate records and ancient documents, authors Philip Beresford and Bill Rubinstein have calculated that this sum was more than seven per cent of the national income of the time.”