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Death of William the Aetheling in the White Ship
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LeopoldPhilippe View Drop Down
Baron
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Posts: 405 		  Quote LeopoldPhilippe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Death of William the Aetheling in the White Ship
    Posted: 14-Jul-2015 at 20:31
William Aetheling, the son and heir of King Henry I of England, drowned in the wreck of the White Ship.     
This occurred on the night of November 25, 1120.       
The disaster led to a crisis over the succession.
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Posts: 690 		  Quote Sidney Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Jul-2015 at 16:03
Not only the heir, William, but also two illegitimate children, Matilda (Countess of Perche) and Richard. He also lost a niece, Lucia-Mahaut, and her husband Richard d'Avranches (as well as this Richard's brother and brother-in-law).
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Posts: 405 		  Quote LeopoldPhilippe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Jul-2015 at 20:27
King Henry I's courtiers did not dare tell him for two days that Prince William had drowned.    
When they did, Henry fainted from shock.
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Posts: 405 		  Quote LeopoldPhilippe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Jul-2015 at 20:18
The White Ship was owned by Thomas FitzStephen.    
His father Stephen had been sea captain for William the Conqueror when he invaded England in 1066.             
When, in 1120, Henry I was about to leave Barfleur for England, Thomas offered him the use of his vessel.       
The King had already made other arrangements.      
He suggested that his son William Aetheling might like to return in the White Ship.
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Posts: 690 		  Quote Sidney Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Jul-2015 at 17:24
Stephen of Blois had originally boarded the White Ship but had disembarked pleading illness. After the White Ship disaster left England heirless, Stephen usurped the throne after Henry I's death, leading to civil war.

Wiliam Aetheling's young wife Matilda of Anjou (whom he had married in June 1119) had been aboard another ship and survived her husband until she died, as Abbess of Fontevraud Abbey, in 1154. If she had proved pregnant by William then history would have been quite different.

William Aetheling's body was never discovered.
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Posts: 105 		  Quote Windemere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Jul-2015 at 18:03
Through his mother, Queen Matilda (Edith), William the Aetheling carried the blood of the old Anglo-Saxon royal family, the House of Cerdic (Wessex). His sister Matilda also carried this bloodline, as did her son, King Henry II Plantagenet.
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Posts: 7392 		  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Jul-2015 at 15:09
Was the White Ship disaster mass murder?

http://www.medievalists.net/2013/05/21/was-the-white-ship-disaster-mass-murder/
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

S. T. Friedman


Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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