"Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years..." begins Genesis 24. The Hebrew phrase for "old, well advanced in years" appears just a handful of times in the Bible. Two of then are in Joshua 23:1 and 1 Kings 1:1, where the same thing is said of Joshua and David, respectively.
In all three of these chapters an aging leader takes steps to advance God's purposes for a coming generation. In the case of David, when the king is unable to respond sexually to Abishag, the young virgin who has been brought in to keep him warm in bed (1 Ki 1:1-4), people in the royal court assume that he is effectively out of the picture. He didn't "know" Abishag (verse 4) or what was going on around him.
At this stage Adonijah, David's oldest remaining son, began to gather support in a bid to become king. The narrative pictures him as similar to his older brother Absalom, who had earlier tried to usurp the throne (vv 5-6) Those supporting Adonijah included Joab and Abiathar, members of the tribe of Judah and allies of David going all the way back to his pre-Jerusalem days.
Nathan the prophet moved quickly to counter Adonijah's plans. He and Bathsheba went to David and told him what was happening, and David responded with decisive action, having Solomon anointed as the next king of Israel. Adonijah, who at the time was having a banquet with his friends, was taken by surprise. David wasn't impotent after all.
Commentators have noticed some wordplay with names in 1 Kings 1---see for example Iain Provan's commentary on First and Seond Kings. Adonijah's mother is Haggith, a name with the same root in Hebrew as chag, the word for "feast." Solomon's mother is Bathsheba, the second part of whose name is close to the word for "oath." Provan explains, "While the son of the feast-lady eats, the daughter-of-the-oath reminds the king of what he has sworn and so ensures that Adonijah for his life is dependent for his life upon Solomon's own oath" (p 30).
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