The White Ship

in 1066 the entire history of england pivoted upon the successful invasion of duke william of normandy whom we now call william the conqueror but the politics of power are complex and after his death his realm fell into instabilities his sons fought over their father's kingdom and just as it seemed as if that realm would find peace and stability once again united under a single king another event in 1120 brought instability again years of instability that would give rise to the house plantagenet which would rule england until 1485. it was a disaster that reverberates throughout history one of those moments upon which history turns the tragedy of the white ship is history that deserves to be remembered after his victory at the battle of hastings williams spent years completing the norman conquest of england and fighting both on the continent and in england against foes both foreign and domestic he faced revolts by the recently conquered raids by the danes opposition from the french king and the would-be english king edgar etheling william the conqueror died in 1087 while on campaign in france the age of 59. william had three surviving sons at his death the eldest was robert followed by william ii and the youngest henry the practice of giving the kingdom only to the eldest son was not well entrenched at the time and william followed an earlier tradition that split the kingdom between his heirs robert received the lands that william had gotten from his own father normandy william ii also called william rufus received the newly conquered kingdom of england henry received money in some of his mother's holdings in england but as still can happen today immediately the heirs started fighting over their father's inheritance both robert and william ii immediately started preparing for war against each other each seeking to claim the others part of their father's kingdom henry youngest of the three was caught in the middle he initially stayed in normandy with robert likely because robert extorted him by threatening to withhold the monetary part of his inheritance taking advantage of the situation william ii seized the holdings meant for henry in england henry supported robert with money in exchange for becoming a count but robert didn't trust henry and soon had him arrested convinced mine advisor who thought henry was conspiring with william he was released but did not receive the count ship back when william helped instigate a rebellion by a noble enormity in 1090 henry supported robert and it was henry's forces that won the day he had the rebellious noble killed by tossing him off a castle henry gained significant fame for his actions in the battle which only made robert jealous and repayment for protecting his realm robert banished henry from normandy most likely because robert henry was becoming too popular but possibly because henry pressed his brother to give him back his title of count in 1091 william rufus invaded normandy with an army large enough to convince robert to give up his claim on the english throne instead both vowed to support each other's claims to their own lands and named each other as heirs specifically leaving henry out of the secession of either country both of the brothers then turned on henry taking control of his lands in normandy but politics in the high middle ages were never static and william and robert started fighting again this time henry sided with william who supported henry in taking his lands back to weaken robert henry became a fixture williams court and even campaigned together robert then decided to go to the holy land and participate in the first crusade in 1096 but by then he was so impoverished from all the fighting that he was forced to mortgage his duchy to william to afford joining the crusade on august 2nd 1100 william was hunting when he was killed by an arrow while william had many enemies and some particularly henry had much to gain from his death most chroniclers at the time accepted that it was a simple hunting accident though conspiracy theories have abounded in the century since his death historians have generally discredited those theories his injury or death during a hunt was fairly common still henry would benefit significantly from that errant arrow henry moved quickly to seize his brother's throne occupying winchester castle and taking control of the royal treasury he was crowned three days later robert was still returning from his crusade and was in no place to press his own claim henry announced that he would correct many of his brother's unpopular policies specifically williams treatment of the clergy and abuses of baron's property rights to help secure his power he also married matilda of scotland daughter of the late king malcolm iii of scotland and descendant of the west saxon kings and alfred the great henry and matilda had two children a son named william adeline and a daughter who they also named matilda in addition henry now king henry the first had a number of illegitimate children with various mysteries when robert returned he tried to press his claim to the english throne but henry had consolidated power by that henry easily beat back an invasion by robert in 1101 and then henry invaded normandy and 1106 defeated robert the battle of tinchpray and robert was captured while he didn't take the title of duke for several years she held robert as a prisoner and administered normandy effectively controlling all of his father's former kingdom the decades of war between the siblings following the death of william the conqueror seemed to come to an end at last although he seemed the least likely of the three it was henry who outlasted his brothers and consolidated his father's lands under a single ruler and these lands that had seen so many years of war finally saw the prospect for peace and stability henry's rule is generally considered effective as he maneuvered politically to strengthen his friendships and eliminate troublesome barons eventually reconstructing the government to more fully rely on himself as king problems remained as other forces such as the french king louis vi threatened over control of the norman dachi is dead another norman neighbor folk count of banjo but the political adept henry won folk's support by promising to have his son william adlin marry folk's daughter yet another matilda henry continued to squabble with louis vi until they reached an agreement in 1120 in which louis accepted william adlin as the rightful heir to the duchy of normandy in exchange for william adlan's homage to the french crown finally everything seemed to be going henry's way his kingdom was largely secure and no one had risen against him in england in years he had humbled or allied with the major power surrounding normandy and his heir at 17 was already helping to rule england with the assistance of advisors it was even called rex designatus or king designate despite being called by one chronicler a prince so pampered that he would be destined to be food for the fire he seemed to be meeting henry's expectations we know relatively little about adeline but he seemed to have been the center of a relatively hard parting group of young nobles as might be expected from a teenage heir he married matilda of anjou in 1119. in 1120 henry and william adeline were sailing from france to england from the port of bar fleur barf floor was henry's favorite place to sail from france to return to england and offered a fairly safe easy trip of 10 to 12 hours in bar floor king henry was approached by a captain thomas fitzsteven the son of a man who had been captain of the flagship of william the conqueror's 1066 invasion fleet thomas was the owner of a large ship called the white ship and wished to have the honor of taking henry across the channel to england but henry had already made other arrangements though he did consent to allow thomas and his ship to take william adlin across along with a large number of other nobles including several of henry's illegitimate children one chronicler quoted henry your request meets my approval i've indeed chosen a fine ship for myself and will not change it but i entrust you my sons william and richard whom i love as my own life and many nobles of my realm henry left early that evening expecting adeline and the white ship to follow shortly after according to the contemporary chronicler order vitalis hard partying williams supplied the nobles and the crew of the ship with a considerable amount of wine prior to their departure perhaps sensing disaster several members of the party chose not to sail saying that they found the ship overcrowded with riotous and headstrong use others left the ship as they were ill or because they were concerned about overcrowding including one of william's cousins steven of blah the white ship was described as a square sailed timber longboat she was recently refitted and one of the fastest and most modern ships in the fleet the party may have delayed leaving because they were confident the fast ship would bring them quickly to english shores retalis claims that by the time they left the ship was carrying some 300 passengers in addition to the air one of the most powerful earls was aboard as well the earl of chester and many of his associates at least seven chroniclers recorded what happened next chronicler william of malmsbury describes a group of priests arriving to bless the ship common practice at the time but they were chased off by the drunk revelers he goes on to say that the crew began bragging they could overtake the king's ship and the passengers egged them on a large crowd gathered to watch the ship leave some time a little before midnight drunk and proud the ship took off in the middle of the night swifter than the winged arrow sweeping the rippling surface of the deep and straight into a rock just offshore the ship was struck on the shallow rocks and the crew attempting to free it using hooks but as soon as the ship began to break away so with the ship's hull and it immediately began to sink the crowd on the beach heard a cry go out though there was little they could do and most assumed it was merely the sound of the party on board on the chilly november night the passengers had little chance of survival dressed in thick heavy clothing drunk very few of them would have known how to swim even in good conditions the cold would likely have struck the struggling lords and ladies with cold water shock which can cause immediate and involuntary inhalation filling the lungs with water it also constricts the body's blood vessels and makes it difficult to coordinate muscles most of the unfortunate victims would have died quickly but there was at least a single row boat aboard and bodyguards quickly found the air and deposited him inside he and a very small number of people may have escaped except that william heard the cry of one of his half-siblings on board began shouting at him about how awful it would be to leave his sister to die william ordered the ship to return for her and between the water and the struggling passengers the little boat was overturned william his bodyguards and his sister all drowned 12th century historian henry of huntington wrote that william instead of ascending a lofty throne found his grave at the bottom of the sea according to vitalis the captain was still alive when he learned that william had drowned and instead of facing the king chose to allow himself to drown as well but telus wrote that the passengers and crew raised cries of distress but their mouths were soon stopped by the swelling waves and all perished together we only know about the details of what happened after the crash because a single man survived according to vitalis he was a butcher from ruin called barreled he clung to wreckage all night it was eventually rescued the news spread quickly but no one wanted to tell henry the king was rare and that he had recognized a number of his illegitimate children and along with william two of them had also died in the wreck when the news finally did reach henry he was overcome so sudden was a shock so veer his anguish that he instantly fell to the ground but began raised up by his friends he was conducted to his chamber and gave free course to the bitterness of his grief the sorrowful king mourned for his sons the flower of his nobility and his principal barons his son's death may have inspired henry's construction of reading abby in its time one of the largest royal monasteries in europe everything that henry built began to fall apart he had no heir and his wife had died several years earlier with william dab the alliance with folk of anju disintegrated although his daughter-in-law remained at his court for many years the peace with king louis also died with the air and henry was again embroiled in conflict and desperate for a solution to succession he married a second time in 1121 but by the time of his death in 1135 failed to produce another heir in 1125 henry v holy roman emperor and husband to henry's other legitimate child matilda died henry bought the empress home and declared her his heir forcing his parents to pledge allegiance to her matilda was married to jeffrey folk of anju's oldest son henry's attempts to salvage the situation however were all for naught when he died in 1135 many of his parents turned immediately to stephen abroad another grandson of william the conqueror who had so nearly died in the sinking of the white ship crowned king stephen the next years were a long string of conflicts for most of two decades between matilda and stephen in the civil war called the anarchy many chroniclers spake ill of william adlan describing him as spoiled or insufficient or religious or generally bad tempered but the truth of those stories is difficult to determine because it was common practice at the time for chroniclers to think of excuses for why god would allow something like the tragedy of the sinking of the white ship some conspiracy theories have risen in the 900 years or so since the ship sank but generally historians discount ideas that the ship might have been deliberately sabotaged mostly because there's no good way that the ship could have been sunk deliberately without the saboteurs themselves being killed regardless the sinking was a pivotal moment that would direct the course of english history eventually after a bloody 18 years of war over the throne matilda and jeffrey's son henry ii became king beginning the rule the house of anjou over england in the beginning of the plantagenet dynasty henry the first was one of the most effective rulers of his time but despite all his careful preparations for the future history dashed his hopes upon rocks just off the coast of france in 2021 divers found some wreckage near those rocks that appear to be those of the white ship the chronicler william of malmsbury wrote no ship that ever sailed did england such disaster i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise at teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 236,897

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, british history, medieval history

Id: ORhQebiTxns

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 24 2021