White Ship
The
White Ship, a
12th century vessel, sank in the
English Channel near the
Normandy coast off
Barfleur, on
November 25,
1120. Those drowned included
William Adelin, the only unquestionably legitimate son of King
Henry I of England. Only one sailor survived.
The
White Ship was a new
snakeship owned by Thomas FitzStephen, whose father Stephen had been sea captain for
William the Conqueror when he invaded England in 1066. He offered to let Henry I use it to return to England from Barfleur - Henry had already made travelling arrangements, but suggested that his son William travel on it instead.
But when the
White Ship set off in the dark, its port side struck a submerged rock (this rock can still be seen from the cliffs of Barfleur), and the ship quickly capsized. The only survivor was a butcher from
Rouen - he was wearing thick ramskins that saved him from exposure, and was picked up by fishermen the next morning. In his account of the disaster, chronicler
Orderic Vitalis claimed that when Thomas FitzStephen came to the surface after the sinking and learned that William Adelin had not survived, he let himself drown rather than face the king. (The accuracy of this account is debatable - it describes a full moon, but sky tables show that the moon was actually new that night.)
William of Malmesbury wrote:
"Here also perished with William, Richard, another of the King's [Henry I] sons, whom a women of no rank had borne him, before his accession, a brave youth, and dear to his father from his obedience; Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester, and his brother Otheur; Geoffrey Ridel; Walter of Everci; Geoffrey, archdeacon of Hereford; [Matilda] the Countess of Perche, the king's daughter; the Countess of Chester; the king's niece Lucia-Mahaut of Blois; and many others..."The cause of the shipwreck remains unclear. Various stories surrounding its loss feature a drinking binge by the crew and passengers (it is also suggested that the captain was dared to try and overtake the king's ship ahead of them), and mention that priests were not allowed on board to bless the ship in the customary manner. However, the Channel has often proven a notoriously treacherous stretch of water.
Stephen of Blois, King Henry's nephew, had allegedly disembarked just before the ship sailed. If so, his action appears ironic, since, as a direct result of William's death, Stephen would later usurp the English throne, resulting in the period known as
the Anarchy. However,
Orderic Vitalis attributes this to a sudden bout of diarrhoea.
The death of
William Adelin in this shipwreck had enormous implications for the future of English history and English religion in particular. Great chaos followed the death of Henry I. The English barons were reluctant to accept
Matilda as
Queen Regnant.
Stephen usurped the throne, as noted above. This awful controversy surrounding the succession was one of the reasons that
King Henry VIII was reluctant to leave his crown in the 16th Century to a daughter. Thus, one of the root causes of the
English Reformation can be traced back to this
1120 shipwreck.
* Victoria Chandler, "The Wreck of the
White Ship", in
The final argument : the imprint of violence on society in medieval and early modern Europe, edited by Donald J. Kagay and L.J. Andrew Villalon (1998)
* Robert Lacey, "Henry I and the
White Ship" in
Great Tales from English History (2003)
