It was perhaps the worst maritime disaster of the Middle Ages, not just because it cost 300 lives, but because one of them was the heir to the Anglo-Norman Empire. One scholar has a theory that the sinking of the White Ship on the night of November 25, 1120 was not a tragic accident, rather a case of mass murder.
In the year 1120, King Henry I was at the peak of his power. He had taken control of both England and Normandy having defeated and imprisoned his brother Robert Curthose, and crushed several rebellious barons. He had also succeeded in convincing the French king to acknowledge that his son, William the Atheling, would succeed him as Duke of Normandy.
King Henry had at least a dozen children, but only two were with his wife Matilda of Scotland, a daughter also named Matilda and a son named William. The rest of his children were born to his mistresses, although Henry treated his illegitimate sons and daughters very well and gave them important positions in his government. William, as his only legitimate son, stood to inherit his kingdom. With the recent agreement between Henry and the French king, and the marriage of William with the eldest daughter of Count Fulk V of Anjou a year earlier, it now seemed that his son would face no obstacles in inheriting the Anglo-Norman empire.
In November of 1120, King Henry and his party (including his son) were preparing to sail from Normandy to England. Henry had often crossed the English Channel although such a trip was not always easy or safe (see William the Conqueror and the Channel Crossing of 1066). A fleet was assembled at the Norman port of Barfleur and on November 25th the winds became right to make the trip. It was then that a man named Thomas FitzStephen approached the King, saying to him, “I have a vessel which is aptly called the White Ship, excellently fitted out and ready for the royal service.”
He added that his grandfather Airard had served Henry’s father, William I, in carrying the Norman Duke across the Channel when he invaded England back in 1066. Now, Thomas wanted to gain similar accolades with his newly built ship.
Henry replied, “Your request meets my approval. I have indeed chosen a fine ship for myself and will not change it; but I entrust to you my sons William and Richard, whom I love as my own life, and many nobles of my realm.”
As the King set sail, his son William and others began to board the White Ship – it seems that many young noble men and women took this opportunity to travel without the stern gaze of Henry. Among those who got on the ship were two of William’s half-siblings – Richard and Matilda. One report suggests that close to 300 people were on board, including fifty crew who manned the oars.
Soon wine was being handed out freely, with the passengers and crew indulging themselves. At this point, a few people decided to get off the boat, as, according to the chronicler Orderic Vitalis, “they realized that there was too great a crowd of wild and headstrong young men on board.” This included Stephen of Blois, who said he was too sick from diarrhea to make the trip.
Orderic Vitalis notes that “priests came there with other ministers carrying holy water to bless them, they laughed and drove them away with abuse and guffaws.” Instead, William and the other passengers called upon the ship’s captain, Thomas, to depart and see if the ship was fast enough to catch up with the King’s boat.
It was now just before midnight. Orderic explains what happens next:
At length he gave the signal to put to sea. Then the rowers made haste to take up their oars and, in high spirits because they knew nothing of what lay ahead, put the rest of the equipment ready and made the ship lean forward and race through the sea. As the drunken oarsmen were rowing with all their might, and the luckless helmsman paid scant attention to steering the ship through the sea, the port side of the White Ship struck violently against a huge rock, which was uncovered each day as the tide ebbed and covered once more at high tide. Two planks were shattered and, terrible to relate, the ship capsized without warning. Everyone cried out at once in their great peril, but the water pouring into the boat soon drowned their cries and all alike perished.
The scene must have been horrific. Hundreds of people had been thrown into the water, and very few of them would know how to swim. Although the waters were reportedly calm, it would have been a very dark night (the moon was less than a quarter full on that date). People on the shore and even in Henry’s own boat could hear the sounds of people screaming, but they did not where it was coming from.
According to one report William the Atheling was able to climb aboard a small boat and almost got away, but when he heard his half-sister Matilda crying out for help he ordered the ship to go back. As the desperate people clambered to get on board, the small ship was swamped and sank.
As the dying screams subsided, there was two people left hanging onto the mast of the White Ship – a young noble named Geoffrey of Laigle and a butcher from Rouen named Berold. Thomas, the ship’s captain, came to the surface, and said to the pair, “The king’s son – what has become of him?” When they told the captain of the prince’s fate, Thomas replied, “It is vain for me to go on living” before slipping back into the sea.”
During the night the young Geoffrey could not hang on any longer. He went into the water, leaving only Berold alive. In the morning rescue arrived when local fishermen came onto the scene. For years afterwards the butcher would tell the story of how he was the only survivor of the White Ship disaster.
Over the next few days a few bodies found there way ashore, but William the Atheling was never found. Back in England, rumours spread of the disaster, but no one wanted to tell the King. Finally, a young boy was sent to Henry and revealed what had happened. The King was overcome and wept for his children and followers who had died.
Many chroniclers would explain the sinking of the White Ship was an accident, caused by the drunkenness of the passengers and crew – it was just God’s will for the sinful behaviour of those aboard. However, one scholar has a different theory. Victoria Chandler, who taught at Georgia College until her death in 1999, wrote the article “The Wreck of the White Ship: A Mass Murder Revealed?” in which she suggests that it was possible that someone deliberately steered the boat into the rocks outside of Harfleur. She examines who had the motive for committing the act and finds some interesting evidence.
One obvious suspect would be Stephen of Blois, partly because he left the ship just before it launched, and partly because eventually he would be the one to get the most benefit from the tragedy. King Henry I would have no future legitimate male heir. When he died in 1135 his daughter Matilda was supposed to become the next ruler, but Stephen managed to get the support from the Anglo-Norman nobles and become King. However, Chandler dismisses this motive, as even with the death of William the Atheling it would have been very unlikely that Stephen would have a claim to the throne, and that King Henry, who was a prolific father, had still many years to have more children.
Instead, Chandler finds that another man stood to make great gains from the disaster: Ranulf Meschin. He was a nephew of Richard, the Earl of Chester, one of the most important nobles in the Anglo-Norman realm. Earl Richard was aboard the White Ship, as well as several other family members. If they would all die, Ranulf Meschin would be able to claim this inheritance.
Ranulf was on board King Henry’s ship when it left Harfluer. Chandler writes:
Ranulf would have needed a co-conspirator on the shore and he had a good one. Among those who, like Stephen [of Blois], disembarked before the ship sailed, was William of Roumare, son of Roger fitz Gerald and Lucy of Bolingbroke. After his father died during William’s childhood, his mother had married as her third husband – Ranulf Meschin. Perhaps William and his stepfather saw which passengers were boarding which ships that November day and realized they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a chance to acquire the earldom of Chester and, as a bonus, to confuse the royal succession, creating a situation for the future in which the holder of such a massive lordship could be a kingmaker.
However, a third person was needed – “an agent on board who could have arranged for the rowers to be drunk and easily misdirected. The identity of this accomplice is provided, with extreme subtlety, by the chronicler Orderic Vitalis. Among those on his list of victims was William of Pirou [a royal steward], who was in fact alive until at least 1123. How could have Orderic have made such a mistake? Or was it a mistake? Could he have been trying to draw his readers’ attention to Pirou? Was Pirou on board the ship when it set sail and found a way to leave it without direction?”
We know that William of Pirou was alive because he appeared as a royal witness to a document on January 7, 1121, a document also signed by Ranulf Meschin. Two years later, Pirou is noted as leaving Portsmouth for Normandy – his name disappears from history afterwards.
Chandler concludes: “How wonderfully convenient it is that the twelfth century has provided us with the very model of the modern murder mystery, even down to the final conclusion that the butler did it. Actually it was the steward, but there is no need to quibble. Probably the most intriguing aspect of the study is that, with the exception of a couple of points of conjecture and interpretation, the whole story is true.”
The Impact of the White Ship
There can be no doubt that the sinking of the White ship had a colossal impact on English history and was a decisive point in the legacy of the Norman kings.
Most chroniclers agree that the catastrophe of 1120 was devastating, with William of Malmesbury commenting ‘no ship that ever sailed brought England such disaster, none was so well known the wide world over’. One of the most obvious impacts of the disaster was the death of King Henry’s son, William Æthling, the only legitimate male heir to the throne. William’s death resulted in the succession crisis starting in 1120 and ultimately ending in 1153-54 with King Stephen and the future King Henry II agreeing that on Stephen’s death he would take the throne.
Although this is one of the most recognizable effects of the White ship disaster, it has been studied extensively, leaving other impacts from the tragedy in the background. William’s death had many consequences but there were other results from the disaster, as the ship was carrying around three hundred people it is unlikely, that although the most well-known death was William’s, that no one else’s had any impact on history. It could be argued that England suffered the most from the White ship disaster, however the ramifications stretched far and caused more problems further afield.
One area of the White ship disaster that has been neglected is the death of Richard, Earl of Chester, who inherited his title from his father Hugh d’Avranches who had led the Normans to great victories over the Welsh in Gwynedd, Powys and later Deheubarth near the Chester border. The county was a key component for the Norman conquest of Wales and had been made an important political boundary on the Welsh border by King William I as it granted the Normans a route into northern Wales. This use of supremacy over the Welsh continued into Henry’s reign as Davies says ‘Henry’s influence in Wales was greatly enhanced by the exercise of his powers as feudal overlord of the Norman barons’.
Richard was a great ally of Henry’s, not only did he gain his title of earl in 1101, but he was also a committed royalist who had been raised in Henry’s court after his father’s death and later given an advantageous marriage to Matilda of Blois. Orderic Vitalis praises him saying ‘Richard, a most handsome boy… was universally beloved. He married Matilda… and sad to relate the two perished together in the shipwreck of the White ship’.
Richard’s role as earl of Chester was to ultimately keep the northern Welsh kings under Henry’s rule and to make sure the border was secure. Richard, like his father, led several successful campaigns against the Welsh, most significant were his with King Alexander I of Scotland. Richard’s death presented the Welsh with an opportunity to abolish the Norman’s entrance into northern Wales and secure it for themselves, and in 1121 the Welsh marched on Chester and took advantage of the earl’s death. The Symeonis Dunelmensis Opera et Collectarea reads ‘The sons of the Welsh king heard about the drowning of Richard Earl of Chester and set fire to two castles, killing many. Some places of the county were heavily plundered’.
The attack was led by Maredudd ap Bleddyn with three of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn’s sons. Although rebellions by the Welsh were not uncommon, they were usually dealt with swiftly by the respective earls but as Richard’s death was the catalyst, Henry may have felt the need to make an example of this rebellion. Henry led a substantial army into north Wales in June 1121, and although the king’s army was attacked by a group of archers with Henry himself being hit, it could have been a bloody battle but Henry demanded his army settled and arranged a meeting with Maredudd. The negotiations ended with Henry leaving Wales with gifts and hostages paid by the Welsh prince, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says ‘they came to terms with him according to the kings wishes’ and Hollister comments that the king’s discussions with the Welsh would often end in Henry’s favour and after the rebellion of 1121 Henry never needed to return to Wales.
However, this was not the only impact the White ship disaster would have on the Normans hold of Wales. As Henry was able to keep the Welsh relatively under control even gaining the upper hand in negotiations, when he died in 1135 the Welsh saw the void of the succession crisis as another opportunity to rebel, Lloyd says ‘everywhere the foreign yoke was cast off, the power of the new settlers was dauntlessly challenged, and a new spirit of daring and independence seemed to have seized the whole Welsh race’. The civil war in England, a direct consequence of the White ship disaster, led to other areas of the kingdom being neglected.
If William Æthling had succeeded to the throne as planned, it is unlikely the Welsh would have had the opportunity or resources to gain land and increase raids on surrounding areas. Moore argues that Madog, son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn and his dynasty took full advantage of the disruption in England caused by the civil war to ‘extend his dominions as far as the Fyrnwy, and to strengthen his control over an area which stretched from Arwystli to near Chester, making raids against Caus in 1137, Bromfield in 1140 and Oswestry in 1149’ and Iorwerth Goch, his brother, also regularly raided English towns and was potentially responsible for looting Chester.
Within just one month a war had broken out in south Wales, with much land being taken back from the Normans at a rapid rate. Carr agrees with Moore and continues that the civil war meant that Welsh rulers were able to recover their lands without much trouble as the English nobility were distracted by the initial crisis in succession and in just under a year after Henry’s death the majority of Deheubarth was recaptured by the Welsh. It could be considered fortunate for the Normans that Madog was content with consolidating land and not willing to push his boundaries further, otherwise England could have been faced with a Welsh invasion.
Although Carr does state that they used the political struggle to their advantage, he also debates that they were also very skilled and planned in their attacks, with him complimenting the Welsh on their ‘particularly fortunate’ chose of leaders throughout the era. This could potentially indicate that even without the disaster, the Welsh would have become more aggressive with their attacks but it seems highly unlikely they would have been as successful. It is clear that both Richard and William’s deaths gave the leaders of the Welsh the ability to gain back territory and attack parts of England, causing much damage to the surrounding areas. Although the battles with the Welsh were far from over for the next couple of centuries and the English would eventually take back control over most of Wales, this period of time was one of victory for the people of Wales and would have severely damaged the Normans plans. This impact of the White ship disaster is often overlooked, however it is evident that Norman England suffered a direct blow from the Welsh with the possible threat of an attempted conquest and this would not have happened if the White ship had returned safely.
Once Henry was aware of William perishing at sea, he immediately knew he needed to find a new successor. As his first wife, Matilda, had died two years previously, he was quick to find a new spouse and hopeful to produce a new heir. William of Malmesbury tells us that the only reason Henry considered a new wife was due to the problem of succession saying King Henry ‘abandoned the celibate life on which he had been intent since Matilda’s death, looking impatiently for fresh heirs from a new wife’. Political alliances were always useful to a monarch, however after the White ship disaster Henry needed to repair the damage by securing his line and throne with treaties from forces that could jeopardise that.
Henry acted quickly and just two months after William’s death he married Adela, the daughter of the Duke of Louvain. The attraction of Henry to Adela was apparently due to her beauty as Henry of Huntington says it was ‘on account of her beauty’ and although Henry was desperate for a new heir he knew the White ship disaster meant his newly acquired lands in France were at risk. The marriage to Adela, according to Bartlett was far more politically orientated, he argues that Henry was more interested in being allies with Adela’s father who held the title of Duke of Lower Lotharingia and was an ally of King Henry’s son-in-law, emperor Henry V. This gave Henry an advantage over several strong enemies, the Count of Flanders, Fulk V of Anjou and the King of France, Louis VII. The relationship between Henry and France had been a turbulent one, with times of uneasy peace and the constant threat of battle. Henry marrying Adela gave both England and Normandy an ally against the French king and his allies. The danger for Henry, after William Æthling was killed in the White ship disaster, was that without an heir the nobility would change sides to William Clito, his biggest rival. The connection with the Duke of Louvain strengthened Henry’s rule after a devastating blow from the tragedy.
Another reason Henry’s marriage to Adela was so important is due to friction between him and Count Fulk V, of Anjou. William married Fulk’s daughter in 1119 which they hoped would have created a lasting peace in the form of a future king of England that was descended from both families. This is significant as both the king and count had spent many years fighting over who was entitled to the county of Maine and in 1113, while both William and Matilda were in their infancy, the negotiation of marriage was made as William of Malmesbury says ‘he was betrothed to a daughter of Fulk count of Anjou, when she was scarcely of marriageable age, and he yet a boy, and had her to wife’. Henry was taking a risk offering his only legitimate male heir as a husband to his enemy’s daughter but it shows how desperate he was for the disputes to end. Green says it ‘is an indication of the importance of detaching Fulk from his alliance with Louis… it was a price worth paying, as it opened up the possibility of recovering Maine’.
Maine had been at the root of many of the clashes between king and count, and with the threat of an alliance between the French king and Fulk it, to an extent, secured not only Henry’s lands in France but also England as a whole. When William and Matilda finally married the conditions of the betrothal were considerable for both sides but never the less beneficial, William received the lordship of Maine as part of Matilda’s dowry and while Fulk was away in Jerusalem, he entrusted Anjou to his new son-in-law.
However, as a consequence of the White ship wreckage the alliance broke down and friction between the two sides was perhaps worse than before. Fulk requested not only his daughter return to Anjou but that Henry would give the county of Maine back. The king was not prepared to relinquish Maine back to Fulk and refused with Malmesbury saying the ‘dowry put an edge on his resentment against the king, for after his son’s death the king kept it in England’. Fulk not only planned to wage war on Henry but he re-joined King Louis VI in his campaign for William Clito to become king of England by giving his other daughter, Sybil, in marriage to Clito. This is a considerable impact of the disaster, the marriage between Sybil and William Clito caused much disruption to Henry and posed a serious threat as Fulk granted Clito the county of Maine with Arid arguing that this caused a portion of the Norman barons to defy Henry and follow William Clito’s campaign for the English throne. This was a serious problem for Henry, one he would not have had to face if it had not been for the death of William Æthling.
Although most attention of the aftermath of the White ship disaster is dedicated to the political crises, there were other more subtle, impacts which affected England. As William was Henry’s son he was naturally extremely distraught on the news of his death. However, one could say that it is often forgotten that Henry, not only lost one son but also another ‘son Richard, born to him before his accession by a woman of the country, a high spirited youth, whose devotion had earned his father’s love… the king’s daughter the countess of Perche, and his niece, Theobald’s sister, the countess of Chester’ and as previously mentioned the earl of Chester, who Henry had brought up since a young age. The king would have had to grieve, not only for the loss of an heir but many family members including some of his children. A more positive impact of the disaster is that Henry, through his grief, heavily restored the great abbey of Reading. Only a year after the accident and according to Hollister it seems Henry was very involved in the running of the abbey.
Reading Abbey was extremely well regarded for its religious practices. Henry endowed the abbey with many honours, Green says ‘every privilege which the king could give, including that of a mint and a moneyer at Reading’ this indicates that Henry took great care of the abbey and went to every extreme he could. Hollister suggests this was because Henry regarded the abbey as a monument to not only his predecessors but William Æthling and lost love ones. Although the White ship wreck was a disaster, it would appear that through that Henry created a historical abbey known for its beauty and admired for its religious practices.
Although the consequences of 1120 were crippling for the line of succession it could be argued that other than the reign of William Æthling the dynasty carried on, to an extent, without disruption. As the marriage alliance between William and Matilda was broken without any children to continue the line due to the abrupt end there was no heir to continue what would have been the start of a new dynasty connecting England and Anjou. However, as Empress Matilda, King Henry’s eldest legitimate daughter, would eventually marry another offspring of Count Fulk’s, Geoffrey Plantagenet and together they would have Henry II.
It could be argued that, regardless of the succession crisis the Angevin Empire would have begun anyway and that the most popular impact of the White ship disaster was short lived and indeed a ‘blip’ in English history. It was Henry’s wish for his line to continue and for his heir, even though it ended up being Matilda instead of William, to create ties with Anjou and future direct descendants from him to become king, which did happen in 1154 with the start of Henry II’s reign. Although the impact of the Anarchy cannot be downplayed and we cannot speculate if William and Matilda would have had children and if they had, if they would have even been fitting rulers, there is an argument that the intentional order was restored with King Henry II being crowned and starting the Angevin empire.
In conclusion, the White ship disaster was a catalyst for many devastating events which would shape the twelfth century and beyond. It is clear that the impacts not only affected England and the succession but also caused detrimental issues in Wales, Maine and Anjou. Although the White ship is not as famous as the events that followed it, it was a pivotal and defining moment in the history of not only England but Europe. However, without the disaster the Angevin dynasty, therefore the medieval period and beyond, would have been incredibly different. The White ship disasters impacts on the history of this era is immeasurable.
Resources:
- Chandler, Victoria, “The Wreck of the White Ship: A Mass Murder Revealed?”, The Final argument. The imprint of violence on society in medieval and early modern Europe, eds. Kagay, Donald J., and Villalon, L. J. Andrew (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1998)
- Green, Judith A., Henry I: King of England and Duke of Normandy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
- Vitalis, Orderic, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. Chibnall, M. (Oxford, 1969-80)
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