Territorial evolution of France face up to the formidable challenge with which they were presented. The Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066 through his victory at Hastings over the Saxons. On the extinction of his male line of descent, his heir was the Duke of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, grandson by his mother of Henry I of England. Two months before he ascended to the English throne, as Henry II, he married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, the richest heiress in the French kingdom and ex-wife of the King of France. The kings of France nevertheless, held some trump cards:
Adolf William, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach Adolf married Marie Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. They had five children: Adolf lost all his sons shortly after birth, and his widow was pregnant with their fifth child at the time of his death. Eight days later, a son was born, called Wilhelm August, who inherited the estates of his father (under the regency of his uncle Johann Georg), until his death at only two years of age, whereupon Johann Georg inherited the estates. Adolf William, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach Adolf Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach (Weimar, 15 May 1632 – Eisenach, 21 November 1668), was a duke of Saxe-Eisenach. He was the