William Adelin

William Adelin

William (5 August 1103 – 25 November 1120), designated or titled Adelin (alternately rendered as Adelinus, Adelingus, A(u)delin Latinized or Norman-French variants of Ætheling), was the son of Henry I of England by his wife Matilda of Scotland, and was thus heir-apparent to the throne. His early death without issue caused a succession crisis.

William was born in Winchester. His father, Henry I of England, was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, King of England and Duke of Normandy, and Matilda of Flanders. Robert Curthose, the eldest son of the Conqueror, had inherited Normandy, while William Rufus, one of Robert's younger brothers, had inherited England. In 1100, William was killed in a hunting incident, and Henry took the throne. By 1105, he had also dispossessed Robert of Normandy.

William's mother was Matilda (also called Edith), the daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland by Saint Margaret of Scotland. Henry had arranged the marriage to conciliate his Anglo-Saxon subjects: Saint Margaret was a granddaughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Edmund Ironside, and a great-niece of Edward the Confessor; as such, the marriage represented a union between the new Norman rulers of England and the old Anglo-Saxon dynasty.

Henry's hopes for his succession rested upon William, who was, according to Henry of Huntingdon, "a prince so pampered" that he seemed "destined to be food for the fire."