Charles Spencer - The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream

Charles Spencer was a reporter on NBCs Today show from 1986 until 1995, and is the author of seven books, including two Sunday Times bestsellers Blenheim: Battle for Europe (shortlisted for History Book of the Year, National Book Awards) and Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I and To Catch a King: Charles IIs Great Escape.

Althorp: The Story of an English House

The Spencer Family

Blenheim: Battle for Europe

Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier

Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I

To Catch a King: Charles IIs Great Escape

Known to contemporaries as William the Bastard, and later as the Conqueror, the most famous Norman of all inherited the warrior spirit of his Viking ancestors.

The Mora the flagship of Williams 1066 invasion fleet was built in Barfleur as a gift for Duke William from his devoted wife, Matilda of Flanders.

To the twelfth-century European mind, the sea was an impenetrable place of dark menace, its perils being both real and imagined.

Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, surrounded by leading churchmen and laymen. Here, in November 1095, he announced the First Crusade.

Anselm was a reluctant archbishop of Canterbury, whose eagerness to implement Church reform led to bitter clashes with William Rufus and Henry I.

Some contemporaries saw Gods hand in William Rufuss sudden death on the hunting field, when he had no time to repent his many sins.

Henry I being crowned in Westminster Abbey, on 5 August 1100. In his Coronation Charter Henry made profound commitments to his people.

Henry I and Queen Matilda with their daughter Matilda and son William theling. Although Henry would father 22 others, these were his only two whose birth, and claim to the throne, would be legitimate.

The Battle of Tinchebray, in 1106, saw Henry challenge his brother Robert Curthose for control of Normandy.

The tomb of Robert Curthose. Curthose shone as a warrior during the First Crusade, but he found the question of ruling Normandy altogether more taxing.

Henrys uncompromising attitude to criminals led a contemporary to claim that a young girl, laden with gold, could travel unharmed through the kingdom of England.

The four men who ruled England between 1066 and 1154: William the Conqueror (top left), William Rufus (top right), Henry I (bottom left) and Stephen (bottom right).

The Battle of Brmule, in 1119, saw Henry I defeat Louis VI so decisively that the French king was forced to recognise William theling as duke of Normandy.

William Clito, eldest legitimate grandson of the Conqueror, and charismatic son of Robert Curthose, was the lightning rod for those disaffected with Henry I and his ambitions.

Louis VI of France. Louis the Fat was Henry Is most enduring enemy. Both men lost their male heirs in accidents.

An early fourteenth-century depiction of the sinking of the White Ship. The enormity of the disaster has resonated down the centuries.

A nineteenth-century depiction of the shipwreck, painted by Princess Louise, the sixth child of Queen Victoria.

Henry I mourning the loss of William theling and his other children, after learning of the fate of the White Ship.

Adeliza of Louvain, who as a teenager wed the fifty-three-year-old Henry I weeks after the loss of the kings only male heir. The marriage was childless.

The wedding feast of Matilda and Emperor Henry V, following a ceremony so magnificent that nobody present could remember witnessing or hearing of anything to rival it.