The first was Duchess Anna of Prussia, daughter of Duke John William's eldest sister, Marie Eleonore of Cleves.

The second was Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg, who was the son of Duke John William's second eldest sister, Anna of Cleves.

Duchess Anna of Prussia claimed Jülich-Cleves-Berg as the heir to the senior line, while Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg claimed Jülich-Cleves-Berg as Duke John William's eldest male heir.

William's father was Robert Pitt ( 1680 – 1727 ), the eldest son of Governor Pitt, who served as a Tory Member of Parliament from 1705 to 1727.

As well as promising a large sum of money, the ailing William agreed to his elder daughters marrying English nobles and, when the treaty was renewed in 1212, John apparently gained the hand of William's only surviving legitimate son, and heir, Alexander, for his eldest daughter, Joan.

William's final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his eldest son, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes.

William's lands were divided after his death: Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert, and his second surviving son, William, received England.

After King William's death in 1087 Edgar supported William's eldest son Robert Curthose, who succeeded him as Duke of Normandy, against his second son, William Rufus, who received the throne of England as William II.

William's eldest son Albert died at age 20 while attending the newly formed University of Michigan as a sophomore.

The crowns of Hanover and Great Britain, which had been in personal union since 1714, were separated in 1837 upon the death of King William IV: his niece Victoria inherited the British crown under male-preference primogeniture but, because of semi-Salic law, was ineligible to that of Hanover, which passed to William's eldest surviving brother, Ernest I.

William's wife, Maud, and eldest son, William, once captured, were murdered by King John, possibly starved to death while incarcerated at Windsor Castle and Corfe Castle in 1210.

William's eldest daughter Matilda ( also called Maud ) married a prominent Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Rhys II of Deheubarth.

William's eldest brother was General George Howe, who was killed just before the 1758 Battle of Carillon at Fort Ticonderoga.

William's eldest brother Thomas Canynges was Lord Mayor of London in 1456-7, having been elected Alderman for Aldgate ward in 1445, and was a Grocer.

It was William's will that his eldest son succeed him and his second son receive the principality of Capua.

A proposal to marry William's elder daughter Isabella to Andronikos, eldest son of Michael VIII, was strongly opposed by the Achaean nobility, who had no desire to come under Byzantine rule.

He was the eldest son of Raymond IV of Toulouse, and had ruled Toulouse since Raymond left on the First Crusade in 1095-although, between 1098 and 1100, he was dispossessed by his cousin Philippa and her husband Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who marched into Toulouse and captured it, before mortgaging it back to Bertrand in 1100 to fund Duke William's expedition to the Holy Land.

When in 1602 John William's son and successor Frederick William I died, the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar passed to his younger brother John II, while in 1603 Frederick William's eldest son John Philip in compensation received the newly created Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg.

The family was continued by Sir William's eldest son, Erasmus ( b. 1502-d. 1540 ), whose son William succeeded to his grandfather's estates in 1554, and to those of his uncle Clement in 1597.

William's eldest brother, Colonel Samuel Wells, and his father-in-law, Frederick Geiger, were both at the Battle of Tippecanoe ; Geiger was wounded in the initial attack.

She was usually the first daughter in lists of William's children, and thus probably the eldest.

William left Normandy to Robert, and the custody of England was given to William's second surviving son, also called William, on the assumption that he would become king.

It remained in the de Ferrers family until 1445, when it passed to the Grey family after William's only surviving daughter married Edward Grey.

The earliest surviving mention of William's epithet, Longsword, said to refer to his military abilities, and differentiating him from his father, known as " William the Elder ", is in the song En abril, quan vei verdeyar, composed in late 1176-early 1177 by the troubadour Peire Bremon lo Tort:

The couple went on to have three surviving children, Elisabeth ( 1793 – 1872 ), Mary ( 1797 – 1869 ) and Ann ( 1804 – 1878 ), prior to William's birth.

The benefits of greater authority were reaped by William's son Alexander II and his son Alexander III, who pursued a policy of peace with England to expand their authority in the Highlands and Islands.

Eight years later, after William's death in 1120, a much more momentous union was made between Henry's daughter, ( the former Empress ) Matilda and Fulk's son Geoffrey Plantagenet, which eventually resulted in the union of the two realms under the Plantagenet Kings.

Even though Gospatric and Siward's son Waltheof submitted by the end of the year, the arrival of a Danish army under Sweyn Estridsson seemed to ensure that William's position remained weak.

The King's brother Prince William ( the future King and Emperor William I ) had fled to England, and Bismarck intrigued with William's wife Augusta to place their teenage son ( the future Frederick III ) on the Prussian throne in King Frederick William IV's place — Augusta would have none of it, and detested Bismarck thereafter, although Bismarck did later help to restore a working relationship between the King and his brother, who were on poor terms.

Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry I's son, William Adelin, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120 ; William's death left the succession of the English throne open to challenge.

William departed Normandy in July 1080, and in the autumn William's son Robert was sent on a campaign against the Scots.

William's son Robert, still allied with the French King Philip I, appears to have been active in stirring up trouble, enough so that William led an expedition against the French Vexin in July 1087.

Rebellions continued, and William's son William Rufus decided to partition Northumbria.

William's mother showed little personal interest in her son, sometimes being absent for years, and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society.

In June, James's wife, Mary of Modena, bore a son ( James Francis Edward Stuart ), who displaced William's wife to become first in the line of succession.

It was in November 1555, shortly after Charles had abdicated in favour of his son, Philip II of Spain that the gout-afflicted Emperor leaned on William's shoulder during his abdication ceremony.

William's son Noel Van Horn is also a Disney comics artist, focusing on Mickey Mouse-stories.

The French conquest of Poitou in 1246 created great difficulties for William's family, and so he and his brothers, Guy de Lusignan and Aymer, accepted Henry III's invitation to come to England in 1247.

The General Stud Book simply states, without reference to his origins, that both man and horse were in Ireland: BYERLY TURK, was Captain Byerly's charger in Ireland, in King William's wars ( 1689, & c .).

* Elizabeth Howard ( c. 1583-17 April 1658 ) married: ( 1 ) William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury had issue ( 2 ) Edward Vaux, 4th Baron Vaux of Harrowden ( some say that Elizabeth's and William's children were illegitimate )

Sir William's second son John Paston ( 1510 – 1575 ) was the father-in-law of Sir Edward Coke ; Sir William's third son, Clement ( c. 1515-1597 ), served his country with distinction on the sea, and was wounded at the battle of Pinkie.

* Elizabeth Howard ( c. 1583-17 April 1658 ) married: ( 1 ) William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury had issue ( some say that Elizabeth's and William's children were illegitimate ) ( 2 ) Edward Vaux, 4th Baron Vaux of Harrowden