William Albert Chaney (December 23, 1922 – March 13, 2013) was an American historian of Anglo-Saxon England. Chaney spent his career at Lawrence University, where he taught from 1952 until his death; he held the George McKendree Steele endowed chair in history from 1962 until his official retirement in 1999, and was chair of the history department from 1968 to 1971. Chaney's studies focused on the conversion from paganism to Christianity and sacral kingship. His work culminated in his 1970 book, The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity.

Chaney was born in California and, at age 16, graduated from high school as valedictorian of his class. He completed both his Bachelor of Arts and Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Chaney was awarded two fellowships from Berkeley, and made a fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. The awards allowed him to spend time at Harvard and Princeton, and in Europe—the start to what would become 49 trips to the continent over the course of his career. As a 29 year old in 1952, Chaney began teaching at Lawrence. He said later that "I thought I would stay two or three years to see what a liberal arts college was like", but then "fell in love with the place", and never left.

Chaney was a popular presence on campus; he was Lawrence's second-longest-serving professor. A "Chaney course" was considered a rite of passage for many students, and, by the time of his retirement, 80% of all living alumni had passed through the college during his tenure. For more than four decades, Chaney hosted a "salon" three or four days a week at his apartment whereby students would gather for conversation and classical music. He was known as an engaging speaker, and conducted scores of lectures at Lawrence and in the broader community.

William Albert Chaney, who went by "Bill," was born in Lodi, California, on December 23, 1922. His mother, Esther Bowen Chaney, was from Ashland, Nebraska, and his father, Horace P. Chaney, from Monrovia, California. An older brother, Robert H. Chaney, was born in 1919. Their father died suddenly in 1925, when William Chaney was two years old, and his brother six. The brothers descended from what one colleague described as "southerners who had consistently backed the wrong horse in the great conflicts of American history"; during one conversation, when William Chaney asked his grandmother which president she was speaking of, she replied "Bill, you surely know that I'm talking about Jefferson Davis. He's the only president we've ever had."

Chaney later claimed that his interest in the Middle Ages started early in life, and that he was reading Walter Scott when his peers were reading children's books. He graduated as valedictorian of his class at Lodi Union High School in 1939, aged 16. After matriculating at the College of the Pacific he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. He was admitted into the honor society Phi Beta Kappa as a senior, and completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1943, majoring in medieval history. Chaney then began working on his master's degree there while working as a teacher's assistant, and in 1944 was granted a fellowship in the history department.

In 1947, while working on his Ph.D. at Berkeley, Chaney was awarded the Sigmund Martin Heller traveling fellowship by the university, to spend a year working towards his degree at Harvard and Princeton Universities. His mother traveled with Chaney to Cambridge, where she spent the year; Chaney's brother was at Harvard Medical School at the time. In 1949, Chaney, having returned to live in Berkeley again, was made a fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. He was recommended for the fellowship by Maurice Bowra, whom Chaney had met while traveling in Europe on a Berkeley fellowship. The distinction came with three years of room and board, along with traveling expenses and $1,500 annually (equivalent to $20,000 in 2025). In September, Chaney left for Harvard, where he stayed at Dunster House.

Chaney ultimately completed his Ph.D. at Berkeley in 1951, under Ernst Kantorowicz's advisement. His thesis was titled The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity.

In 1952, Chaney was appointed to a post at Lawrence University (then Lawrence College) in Appleton, Wisconsin. He started in the fall term, with his mother again coming along and living with him, and soon began greeting new students in turn. In 1954, Chaney started teaching the course "a history of western civilization," and organized a four-day medieval festival at the college, which included two lectures by him. Starting in 1956, Chaney became the college's representative for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which sought to recruit promising college graduates for academic careers. He also became the representative of the Rhodes Scholarship program at Lawrence. Chaney was promoted to associate professor in June 1958, and spent that summer as a visiting professor at Michigan State University. During a leave of absence from 1959 to 1960, Chaney spent 15 months in Europe—mostly at Oxford, with further time spent consulting manuscripts at Cambridge, the British Museum, and church and library archives throughout Britain, Heidelberg, Vienna, Spain, and Greece. Chaney was named the George McKendree Steele endowed chair in history in 1962, and made a full professor in May 1966. He took another sabbatical leave of absence from 1966 to 1967, with a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, to work at Oxford; much of his time was spent at the Bodleian Library, where he conducted research in support of a forthcoming book, provisionally entitled "Medieval Kingship". From 1968 to 1971 Chaney was the chair of the history department, then from 1971 to 1972 spent a year abroad at Lawrence's London Centre, which had been opened the year before. He spent two more years there over the course of his career: from 1986 to 1987, and 1992 to 1993.