William Theling

William Ætheling, miniature from the 13th century

William Ætheling (actually William , also William Aetheling ; William Adelinus or William Adelingus ) (* before November 23, August 1103 , † November 25, 1120 before Barfleur ) was an Anglo-Norman prince.

origin

William came from the Norman Rollonid dynasty . He was the only son of King Henry I of England and his first wife Mathilda of Scotland . He was believed to be born in the third quarter of 1103 or earlier. On November 23rd, Pope Paschal II congratulated the king on the birth.

childhood

William was the king's only legitimate son. He was a great-nephew of Edgar Ætheling and a great-grandson of Eduard Ætheling . In the Chronicle of Ordericus Vitalis he received the old Anglo-Saxon title Ætheling ( Anglo- Norman Adelin , later also Latinized Adelingus ), which was given in Anglo-Saxon England to a member of the royal family who had the right to the throne. Other English chronicles are not used in this title, but simply call him a son of the King ( the king's son ). The name of Ordericus, however, meant that William is still called Ætheling or Adelin. According to the Chronicle of William of Malmesbury , the Ætheling was carefully raised for his role as heir to the throne. Supervision of his upbringing was Otuel Fitzearl , an illegitimate son of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester . The king made Otuel Castellan of the Tower of London , where William probably grew up. Otuel also oversaw the upbringing of the king's illegitimate sons.

Recognized as an inheritance from his father

Williams' father took over the throne only after the death of his older brother Wilhelm Rufus and violently defended his claim against his eldest brother Robert Curthose . He therefore tried to make William the undisputed heir of England and the Duchy of Normandy . When William was ten years old, he was called as a witness in deeds. His father planned a dynastically advantageous marriage for him when he betrothed William in February 1113 at Alençon to Matilda (also Alice or Isabel ), the young daughter of Count Fulk V of Anjou and Maine . Two years later, his father began attempts to secure the line of succession for his son. In 1115 the barons of Normandy paid homage to William and swore allegiance to him. In March 1116 the English magnates paid homage to him in the presence of his father . After his mother's death on May 1, 1118, he presumably served as regent of England while his father was in Normandy. However, the documents issued in his name cannot be dated with certainty.

Battle for County Maine

Henry I tried to make his son the heir of Maine, a county south of Normandy . This was disputed between the dukes of Normandy and the Counts of Anjou even before the Norman conquest of England . Heinrich I's plans inevitably led to a conflict with the French King Louis VI. This represented the rights of Williams' Norman cousin Wilhelm Clito . This was the son of Robert Curthose, the older brother of his father, who had been in his captivity since 1106. The French king had succeeded in winning Count Fulko on his side, and in December 1118 Henry I suffered a heavy defeat when his troops at Alençon were defeated by an army of Count Fulko. The king was able to make up for the defeat quickly by bribing Count Fulko, whereupon the latter switched sides, no longer supported the French king and agreed to the planned marriage of William and Matilda. The wedding then took place in Lisieux in June 1119 . Count Fulko gave his daughter the County of Maine as a dowry and also promised her the Angevin if he should die during his planned crusade. Then it came to war with the French King Ludwig VI. William took part at the side of his father in the Battle of Brémule , in which Henry I was able to defeat the French king. Wilhelm Clito had fought on the side of the French king, and after the battle William is said to have returned the tent he had captured to his inferior cousin . In November 1119, William accompanied his father when he met Pope Calixtus II at Gisors , who was distantly related to him.

The sinking of the White Ship

Sinking of the White Ship

The king's efforts to have William recognized as his heir saw success when William was named King-Designate in a charter in mid-1119. On the other hand, only the Anglo-Norman chronicler Eadmer reported formal recognition of his succession to the throne. In 1120 William paid homage to the French king for the Duchy of Normandy. If he had ascended the throne after the death of his father, he would no longer have had to pay homage to the French king as king. The succession to the throne for William was now largely secured in Normandy, Maine and England when the king embarked with William in Barfleur on November 25 to return to England. The king declined Thomas Fitzstephen's offer to make the crossing with his new ship, called the White Ship , and set off first with another ship. Then William boarded the White Ship with his entourage. The crew is said to have been drunk, and in the dark the ship ran onto a rock in front of the harbor. Only one passenger of the White Ship survived the disaster, while Wilhelm drowned along with Otuel Fitzearl and numerous other nobles. Only a few bodies could be recovered; William's was not found.

consequences

William's wife, Matilda, had crossed over with his father and had not drowned as a result. Their marriage had remained childless, and after some delay she was able to return to her father in France. She entered a convent as a nun and eventually became Abbess of Fontevrault . She died in 1154. The sinking of the White Ship ruined all the king's plans with his only son. He remarried, but the marriage remained childless. He then tried to secure the succession to the throne for Wilhelm's sister Matilda . After the king's death, Stephan von Blois , a cousin of Matilda, claimed the throne, which led to a long war of succession, the so-called anarchy .

During his lifetime, great hopes were placed in the heir to the throne, because according to legend, Edward the Confessor is said to have preceded him on his deathbed in a prophecy. After his death, the chroniclers judged him rather negatively. According to Gervase of Canterbury , William and his companions were proud and driven by a desire for pleasure and luxury, which he saw as negative omens for a future king. The Malmesbury chronicler also had doubts whether William, despite his education and training, would have become a good king.

Web links

Commons : William III of Normandy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• JFA Mason: William (1103-1120). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Douglas Harper: Atheling . In: Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001 (English)