William Adelin

William Ætheling (, ; 5 August 1103 – 25 November 1120), commonly called Adelin (sometimes Adelinus, Adelingus, A(u)delin or other Latinised 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 English throne. His early death without issue caused a succession crisis, known in history as the Anarchy. Early life William was born in Winchester. His father, King Henry I of England, had married his mother, Matilda of Scotland, to conciliate his English subjects. Matilda was descended from Edmund Ironside and was 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." Duke of Normandy During Henry I's lifetime, William was invested as Duke of Normandy, a title he held more in name than in practice. Henry made the investiture when he was pressed by the king of France, Louis VI, to do homage as Duke of Normandy. As a king in his own right, Henry was loath to comply, and in 1115 he offered to have William do this in his stead. This offer was eventually accepted in 1120, after an intervening period of war, and William did homage to Louis VI in the middle of 1120. For this reason William is sometimes counted as Duke of Normandy (as either William III or William IV). William received, as the heir to the throne, the homage and fealty of the barons of Normandy in 1115 and of the barons of England in March 1116.