The White Ship (French: la Blanche-Nef) was a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived.[1][2] Those who drowned included William Adelin, the only surviving legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England. William Adelin's death led to a succession crisis and a period of civil war in England known as The Anarchy.
William of Malmesbury wrote:
"Here also perished with William, Richard, another of the King's sons, whom a woman without rank had borne him, before his accession, a brave youth, and dear to his father from his obedience; Richard d'Avranches, second Earl of Chester, and his brother Otheur; Geoffrey Ridel; Walter of Everci; Geoffrey, archdeacon of Hereford; the Countess of Chester; the king's niece Lucia-Mahaut of Blois; and many others ... No ship ever brought so much misery to England."
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The White Ship was a new vessel 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 of England use it to return to England from Barfleur in north-western France. Henry had already made travelling arrangements, but suggested that his son William Adelin 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 known 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 cause of the shipwreck remains uncertain. 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 to 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 English Channel is a notoriously treacherous stretch of water.
William of Nangis wrote that the White Ship sank because all the men aboard were sodomites,[3] which reflects the medieval belief that sin caused pestilence and disaster.[4]
A direct result of William of Adelin's death was the period known as the Anarchy, enabling Stephen of Blois to usurp the English throne. The White Ship disaster had left Henry I with only one legitimate child, a daughter named Matilda. Although Henry I had forced his barons to swear an oath to support Matilda as his heir on several occasions, a woman had never ruled in England in her own right. Matilda was also unpopular because she was married to Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, a traditional enemy of England's Norman nobles. Upon Henry's death in 1135, the English barons were reluctant to accept Matilda as queen Regnant.
One of Henry I's male relatives, Stephen of Blois, the king's nephew by his sister Adela, usurped Matilda as well as his older brothers William and Theobald to become king. Stephen had allegedly planned to travel on the ship but had disembarked just before it sailed. Orderic Vitalis attributes this to a sudden bout of diarrhea. After Henry I's death, Matilda and her husband Geoffrey of Anjou, the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, launched a long and devastating war against Stephen and his allies for control of the English throne.
Robert Lacey has observed that "The White Ship was the Titanic of the Middle Ages, a much-vaunted high-tech vessel on its maiden voyage, wrecked against a foreseeable natural obstacle in the reckless pursuit of speed."[5]
The sinking of the White Ship is the opening to the prologue of Ken Follett's novel The Pillars of the Earth (1989). The ship's sinking sets the stage for the entire background of the story, which is based on the subsequent civil war between Matilda (referenced as Maud in the novel) and Stephen. In Follett's novel, it is implied that the ship may have been sabotaged and in the TV adaptation this is directly confirmed even going so far as to reveal that William Adelin was assassinated whilst on a lifeboat.
It is also described in detail by Sharon Kay Penman in the historical novel When Christ and His Saints Slept (1994).
The sinking of the White Ship is briefly referenced in Glenn Cooper's novel The Tenth Chamber (2010).
The "White Ship" also sets the stage for the novel Hiobs Brüder (The Brothers of Job) by the German author Rebecca Gablé, which details the rise of Henry II of England, son of Empress Matilda.