13. William Adelin, a spoiled prince of England, drowned after leaping into and capsizing a lifeboat after his companions drunkenly crashed the royal yacht
William Ætheling, also known as William Adelin, was the son of Henry I of England and heir apparent to the throne until his untimely death in 1120. Born 1103, a product of the marriage between Henry and Matilda of Scotland, designed to appease objectors to Norman rule of Anglo-Saxon England, his father placed enormous hopes on his only son to unite the divisions in his kingdom. As a result of this preferential treatment, however, William became “a prince so pampered” that, according to contemporary chroniclers, he seemed “destined to be food for the fire” and was totally unprepared to inherit the contested throne.
Invested as the Duke of Normandy from 1115, William partook little in the minutiae of ruling. Whilst crossing the English Channel aboard the Blanche-Nef, the fastest ship in the royal fleet, William was killed as part of the White Ship incident. After a night of drinking ashore in France, William and his retainers sought to navigate the still seas. The helmsman, drunk, unintentionally rammed the ship in a rock, resulting in the ship filling with water. Launching a life-dinghy, the drunken prince leapt from the ship into the emergency vessel and in so doing caused it to capsize. Killing all aboard, the death of William precipitated a major succession crisis in England.