:Edling

{{Short description|Former title for the Welsh heir apparent}}

{{Other uses}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Edling ({{langx|cy|etifedd}}) was a title given to the agreed successor or heir apparent of a reigning Welsh monarch.John Thomas Koch (2006) Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia. ABC CLIO. p. 946. {{ISBN|1-85109-440-7}} It is related to the English term Æþeling.

While Æþeling or "noble child" (for example, see Edgar the Ætheling) was used in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest to denote one of "royal blood",{{cite journal |last1=Dumville |first1=David N. |title=The ætheling: a study in Anglo-Saxon constitutional history |journal=Anglo-Saxon England |date=1979 |volume=8 |pages=1–33 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44510715 |access-date=24 February 2025 |issn=0263-6751}} the Welsh use had a more precise meaning and denoted the acknowledged heir to the throne, usually the ruler's eldest son, although any son (legitimate or illegitimate) could be chosen as edling.[https://web.archive.org/web/20111002004335/http://www.welshicons.org.uk/main/a-history/medieval-wales/ Medieval Wales]. welshicons.org.uk

In 1923, the academic T. H. Parry-Williams identified the title as being borrowed from Old English.{{cite book |last1=Parry-Williams |first1=T. H. (Thomas Herbert) |title=The English element in Welsh; a study of English loan-words in Welsh |date=1923 |publisher=London Issued by the Honourable society of Cymmrodorion |pages=12, 26 |url=https://archive.org/details/englishelementin00parruoft/englishelementin00parruoft/page/12/mode/2up?q=edling |access-date=24 February 2025}} However, David Dumville has argued that the term may have been borrowed at a later date from Middle English.{{cite journal |last1=Matonis |first1=A. T. E. |title=Traditions of Panegyric in Welsh Poetry: The Heroic and the Chivalric |journal=Speculum |date=1978 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=667–687 |doi=10.2307/2849780 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2849780 |access-date=24 February 2025 |issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription }}

The term has been used in Welsh poetry, including by Iolo Goch when praising Roger Mortimer as heir to Richard II.