William Adelin - Duke of Normandy

William Ætheling

William Adelin (William Ætheling) was the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England and heir apparent to the English throne. His premature death without issue triggered a major succession crisis that led to the civil war known as the Anarchy in England.

William was born in Winchester on August 5th, 1103, to King Henry I and Matilda of Scotland. Henry invested him as Duke of Normandy, a title held more in name than in practice. He did this after King Louis VI of France pressured him to pay homage as Duke of Normandy. As King of England, Henry did not want to pay homage to his peer, so he invested William as Duke of Normandy, allowing William to pay homage to Louis.

Henry betrothed William to Matilda of Anjou in 1113.

Henry's wife, Queen Matilda, served as his regent in England while he was in Normandy. When she died in 1118, William was old enough to serve in her stead. He was closely advised by the King's administrators, such as Roger of Salisbury, and William was sometimes called "rex designatus", King designate.

In 1119, William married Matilda of Anjou, daughter of Faulk V of Anjou, as part of Henry I's diplomatic strategy to secure alliances with the County of Anjou. They married in Lisieux, and she brought the lordship of Maine as dowry. They would have no children. Also in 1119, William fought at the Battle of Brémule and was said to have performed well.

On November 25th, 1120, William and a large party of nobles were returning from Normandy to England aboard the White Ship (la Blanche-Nef), a fast ship captained by Thomas FitzStephen. King Henry had left for England earlier on a different ship. The White Ship struck a submerged rock near Barfleur on the Normandy Coast, capsized, and quickly sank. Of roughly 300 people on board, only a butcher from Rouen named Berold is said to have survived.

Accounts state that William initially reached a small lifeboat and could have escaped, but he turned back after hearing his half-sister Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche, cry for help. As the boat neared the wreck, other desperate survivors thrashing in the water climbed aboard trying to save themselves, and the overloaded lifeboat capsized and sank, drowning William along with the others.

Henry now had no male heir and designated his daughter Matilda, later Empress Matilda, as heir. But when Henry died in 1135, his nephew Stephen of Blois seized the throne, sparking the Civil War between Stephen and Matilda, later known as the Anarchy.

William Adelin's body was lost at sea and never recovered. Very few were recovered despite extensive searches along the coast.

Henry I was devastated and reportedly never smiled again. He founded Reading Abbey in 1121, partly as a spiritual memorial to William; however, because William's body was never found, his remains were not interred there. The Abbey was later destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.

William's wife, Matilda of Anjou, was on another ship at the time of the wreck. She later became a nun and abbess of Fontevraud.