WI Edgar the Atheling had had Children?

What if Edgar the Atheling had gotten married and had children? (Let's give his decendants the surname Adelin) Who would he marry? Would he be given a Peerage? Will he and his heir's retain a claim to the throne? Discuss!!!
 
When and where?

Edgar settling down in Scotland and marrying is going to be different than Edgar settling down in England or in Sicily.

He's not much of a somebody, so he's probably not much of a marriage prize unless he's made a name for himself somehow ('cept in Scotland, where he's either brother in law or uncle to the king).

And well, the Adelins do have a claim to the throne, unless there's some "after X years it expires" thing I don't know about - but no one is going to care for very long.
 
Probably very little effect, unless one wants to have his descendants turn out to amount to something - TTL's light bulb inventors and pencillian discoverers say.

He's a modest landowner at best, Edgar marrying someone attempting to gain support to take the throne from William is certainly not going to settle down in England, and in general, Edgar who?.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket - I just can't see this prompting a dramatic change itself, though his descendants may make a name for themselves a splash that way, it wouldn't be on the basis of his name.
 
He had a good, hereditary claim to England. That, in itself, should be enough to get him a marriage to a rich heiress somewhere. His father had done that in eastern Europe; maybe Edgar could follow that example closer to England (i.e., in France or Scotland).

There were also opportunities in the Holy Land -- Edgar was friends with Robert Curthose, who could have helped set Edgar up with a barony.
 
He had a good, hereditary claim to England. That, in itself, should be enough to get him a marriage to a rich heiress somewhere. His father had done that in eastern Europe; maybe Edgar could follow that example closer to England (i.e., in France or Scotland).

There were also opportunities in the Holy Land -- Edgar was friends with Robert Curthose, who could have helped set Edgar up with a barony.

That, in itself, failed to even make him much of a threat (to William).

It's like trying to find a bride for an Edward of Westminister - if his father was already dead and you wiped out the Lancastrian faction in England.

Not really ideal marriage material.
 
Not really.

There are plenty of examples of the representatives of lost causes attaching themselves to sympathetic rulers either on principle or more often because the exile's claim could be useful one day. Malcolm III's reason for marrying Edgar's sister had to be because he saw some advantage in the Saxon claim. He could have tried to install Edgar as client king or, less drastically, used it for leverage in other ways.

[A few examples of exiles adopted as clients by outside rulers: Tostig; Edwin of Deira; William Clito; Edward the Confessor. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't].
 
Not really.

There are plenty of examples of the representatives of lost causes attaching themselves to sympathetic rulers either on principle or more often because the exile's claim could be useful one day. Malcolm III's reason for marrying Edgar's sister had to be because he saw some advantage in the Saxon claim. He could have tried to install Edgar as client king or, less drastically, used it for leverage in other ways.

[A few examples of exiles adopted as clients by outside rulers: Tostig; Edwin of Deira; William Clito; Edward the Confessor. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't].

Yes, really. It's one thing to want your line to have a claim - marrying Margaret - it's another thing entirely to treat an exile who doesn't have anything to his name except his bloodline (at least Tostig f'instance counts as "knows the area" and stuff, Edgar barely has that at all) as someone you want marrying your daughter.

I'm not saying it's impossible for Edgar to find a rich heiress - but he had all the opportunity he would have in any ATL OTL, and failed. Despite Malcolm marrying his sister.

And with William having done a number on the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, there aren't very many people who would join or lead a rising on his (Edgar's) behalf, which makes him less valuable to anyone who would want him as a client.
 
Whilst the chances of Edgar mounting a serious challenge to the Norman conquest of England faded as William I & his sons tightened their grip on the country an opportunity for a potential heir to Edgar's claim might have arisen during the anarchy of the reign of Stephen 1135-54.

How an heir to Edgar might have exploited a potential opportunity would depend on his personal situation. As a nephew/great nephew to Henry I's wife Edith/Matilda he might well have been favoured by Henry on the grounds of it's better having him in the tent spitting out than outside spitting in. If Henry, at the prompting of his wife gave him extensive estates the heir might become a major landowner and power in the land. Henry might even after the death of William the Athleing in the White Ship have strengthened the position of the heir so as to support Matilda's accession.

When Stephen usurped the throne the heir to Edgar might well have become a major player in the anarchy either supporting his niece (Henry's daughter the Empress Matilda) or else being bought off by Stephen (a marriage of Stephen's son Eustace to a possible daughter or the heir's son marrying one of Stephen's daughters).

It's not entirely beyond the realms of possibility for the heir to mount his own bid for the throne in all the confusion especially in 1135.
 
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