 The White Ship sinking
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Name | Blanche-Nef |
| Out of service | 25 November 1120 |
| Fate | Struck a submerged rock off Barfleur, Normandy |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Sailing ship |
| Installed power | Square sails |
| Propulsion | Wind and oars |
The White Ship (French: la Blanche-Nef; Medieval Latin: Candida navis) was a vessel transporting many nobles, including the heir to the English throne, that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur during a trip from France to England on 25 November 1120.[1] Only one of approximately 300 people aboard, a butcher from Rouen, survived.[2]
Those who drowned included William Adelin, the only legitimate son and heir of Henry I of England, his half-siblings Matilda of Perche and Richard of Lincoln, the earl of Chester Richard d'Avranches, and Geoffrey Ridel. With William Adelin's death, the king had no obvious successor, and his own death 15 years later set off a succession crisis and a period of civil war in England known as the Anarchy (1135–1153).
- ^ Spencer, Charles Spencer, Earl (2020). The White Ship: conquest, anarchy and the wrecking of Henry I's dream. London. ISBN 9780008296827.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ There are seven accounts of the disaster: Orderic Vitalis, Historia ecclesiastica 12.26 (ed. and trans. Chibnall, 1978, pp. 294–307); William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum 5.419 (ed. and trans. Mynors, Thomson, and Winterbottom, 1998, pp. 758–763); Simeon of Durham, Historia regum 100.199 (ed. T. Arnold, 1885, vol. 2, pp. 258–259); Eadmer, Historia nouorum in Anglia (ed. M. Rule, 1884, pp. 288–289), Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum 7.32 (ed. and trans. Greenway, 1996, pp. 466–467), Hugh the Chanter, History of the Church at York (ed. and trans. Johnson, 1990, pp. 164–165), Robert of Torigni, Gesta Normannorum ducum (ed. and trans. E. van Houts, 1995, vol. 2, pp. 216–219, 246–251, 274–277), and Wace, Roman de Rou, pt. iii, lines 10173–10262 (ed. A. Holden, 1973, vol. 2, pp. 262–266).