Four Medieval English Princes Who Died Before Taking the Throne

Key facts

• William Adelin, born in 1103 to King Henry I and Edith-Matilda, drowned at age 17 on November 25, 1120, when the White Ship hit a rock crossing from Barfleur, Normandy to England.
• Henry I named his daughter Matilda as successor after William's death, but Stephen of Blois seized the throne in 1135, causing the civil war known as the Anarchy.
• Henry the Young King, born in 1155 to Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, was crowned in 1170 but rebelled against his father and died of dysentery in 1183.
• Alphonso of England, born in 1273 to Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, died at Windsor Castle in 1284; his heart was buried at Blackfriars, London and his body at Westminster Abbey.
• Edward the Black Prince, born in 1330 to Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, was made Prince of Wales in 1343 and won at Poitiers in 1356, capturing King John II of France.
• The Black Prince fell ill on campaign in Castile in 1367 and died in 1376 at age 45; his son Richard II was deposed by Henry IV in 1399.
• Medieval infant mortality was high, with some estimates suggesting a third of children died before age five, and dysentery mortality in armies reached 80% according to contemporaries.
• The deaths of these heirs led to civil war, invasion, and dynastic change, including the rise of the Angevin dynasty and the Lancastrian regime.