1100-1129 Henry I and the White Ship

The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Orderic Vitalis. In the year of our Lord 1100, on Thursday, the fourth of the nones [ 20th ] of August, William Rufus was mortally wounded by an arrow in the New Forest, after having possessed the kingdom of England twelve years and nearly ten months. Thereupon Henry hastened to London with Robert earl of Mellent, and the following Sunday [5th August 1100] was placed on the throne in the church of St. Peter the apostle, at Westminster, being anointed by the venerable Maurice, bishop of London. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, was then an exile, as it has been already observed, and Thomas, archbishop of York, being lately dead¹, that metropolitan see was still vacant. Henry was thirty years old when he ascended the throne, and his reign lasted thirty-five years and four months². He ruled the dominions, divinely committed to him, with prudence and success in prosperity and adversity, and was distinguished among the princes of Christendom for his love of peace and justice. In his time the church of God was brilliantly endowed with wealth and honours, and all orders of the religious increased to the glory of the Creator. This is shown by the monks and clergy, who, during his reign, augmented their numbers and their dignity; this is proved in the case of anchorites, who, felling dense woods, and rearing among them the lofty spires of churches and abbeys, exult in their labours, and sing the praises of God with heart-felt peace, where once robbers and outlaws, abandoned to all wickedness, found their retreats.

Note 1. This is incorrect; the archbishop of York survived till the end of the following November. It is not even quite certain that he did not assist at the coronation of Henry I, placing the crown on his head, after the royal unction had been given by the bishop of London. At any rate the archbishop did not die till Sunday, November 28.

Note 2. In the MS. of St. Evroult the figures have been erased, and the six last words, "reigned five years and six months," interlined.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. Philip, King of France, passed away, and his son Louis succeeded him. Louis had six sons and one daughter. Philip¹, who was anointed as king, but suffered a tragic and unheard-of misfortune. One day, while riding through Paris, his horse was startled by a diabolical pig, causing it to fall. Philip was thrown against a stone and crushed, and he died the following night [30th July 1108]. Immediately afterward, his brother Louis was crowned by Pope Innocent at their father's request. The third son, Henry, became a monk at Clairvaux and later Archbishop of Reims. The fourth son, Robert, became Count of Dreux and father of Robert, Count of Perche, as well as the Bishop of Beauvais and the Bishop of Orléans. The fifth son, Philip, became a cleric. The sixth son, Peter, married the daughter of Reginald of Courtenay and inherited his lands.

Philippus, rex Francorum, obiit, cui successit Ludovicus filius ejus, qui genuit sex filios et unam filiam, Philippum, qui fuit inunctus in regem, de quo inauditum contigit infortunium. Cum enim quadam die per Parisius equitaret, obvio porco diabolico offensus equus cecidit, et sessorem suum ad silicem contrivit, et nocte sequenti spiritum exhalavit; et statim Ludovicus, frater ejus, ab Innocentio papa coronatur petitione patris. Tertius filius regis fuit Henricus, monachus Claravalensis, et postea Remensium archiepiscopus. Quartus Robertus comes Drocensium, pater Roberti, comitis de Perche, et episcopi Belvacensis, et episcopi Aurelianensis. Quintus filius fuit Philippus, clericus. Sextus Petrus, qui duxit filiam Reginaldi de Cortenai, cum terra ipsius. Soror istorum regis filia fuit Constantia, qure primo tradita est Eustachio comiti Boloniensi, filio regis Stephani, ac postmodum Raimundo, comiti Sancti Ægidii, quam postea repudiavit.

Note 1. Philip of France, 1116–1131, co-ruled with his father from 1129. Orderic Vitalis, Book 4, 105: "In the year of our Lord, 1129, the seventh indiction, the boy Philip was chosen by his father Philip, and crowned as king at Rheims by Reynold II, archbishop of that see on Easter day; but two years afterwards he was so severely fractured by his horse falling under him, that he died at Paris." Abbot Suger, Life of Louis the Fat, Chapter 31: "Meanwhile there occurred a singular and utterly unheard-of misfortune for the kingdom of France. For the son of King Louis, a blooming and gracious boy, Philip, the hope of the good and the terror of the wicked, one day while riding through a suburb of the city of Paris, his horse, struck by a devilish pig that crossed its path, fell heavily and crushed its rider, that most noble boy, who, thrown upon the pavement, was shattered beneath the weight of the animal. At this calamity the city and all who heard of it were stricken with consternation, for that very day he had summoned the army for an expedition, and they cried aloud, wept, and lamented. They gathered up the tender boy, nearly dead, and carried him to a nearby house; but when night came, alas, he breathed out his spirit. How great and how wondrous the grief and mourning that fell upon his father, his mother, and the nobles of the realm, even Homer himself would not have sufficed to express it. He was buried according to royal custom in the church of blessed Denis, in the royal sepulchre, to the left of the altar of the Holy Trinity, in the presence of many bishops and nobles of the realm. His wise father, after grievous lamentations and bitter complaints of a life left bereft, at last, by the counsel of religious men, allowed himself to be consoled."

Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon 1119. 1119. King Henry, in the fifty-second year after the Normans conquered England, and in the nineteenth year of his reign, fought a great battle with the King of France¹. That king placed the first division of his army under the command of William, the son of Eobert, King Henry's brother, supporting him with the main body of his army* On the other side, King Henry posted his [Norman] vassals in the first line; the second, consisting of his household troops, he led himself on horseback; in the third, he placed his sons, with the main body of infantry. At the outset, the first line of the French unhorsed and quickly dispersed the Norman knights. It afterwards attacked the, division which Henry himself commanded, and was itself routed. The troops imder the command of the two kings now met, and the battle raged fiercely; the lances were shivered, and they fought with swords. At this time, William Crispin² twice struck King Henry on the head, and though his helmet was sword-proof, the violence of the blow forced it a little into the king's fore-head, so that blood gushed forth. The king, however, returned the blow on his assailant with such force, that though his helmet was impenetrable, the horse and its rider were struck to the ground, and the knight was pre sently taken prisoner in the king's presence. Meanwhile, the infantiy, with whom the king's sons were posted, not being yet engaged, but waiting for the signal, levelled their spears, and charged the enemy. Upon which the French were suddenly daunted, and broke their ranks, and fled. King Henry, thus victorious, remained on the field until all file nobles of the defeated araiy were taken prisoners and brought before him. He then retiuned to Eouen, while the bells were ringing, and the clergy were chanting hymns of thanksgiving to the Lord God of hosts. This glorious victory has been thus celebrated in heroic verse:

Where Noyon's tow'rs rise o*er the plain.

And Oise flows onward to the Seine,

Two banner'd hosts in ranks advance:

Here, Lewis leads the powers of France;

Henry of England, there, commands His English and his Norman bands

See his arm the foremost crush.

The island spearmen onward rash;

While the bold chivalry of France

Recoils before the Norman lance;

And mattered oaths reveal their shame,

As they curse the conqueror's name.

So distant ages long shall tell

Of gallant Henry, first to quell

On his own soil the Frenchman's pride,

Where Noyon's field with blood was dyed;

And conq'ring England's mighty son

The spoils and laurell'd trophies won.

Note 1. Henry of Huntingdon omits mentioning in the text of his history where the battle was fought, but the verses which follow supply the name at the place, Noyon. We are indebted to Henry of Huntingdon for a full account of this very important and decisive action, of which the Saxon Gbreniele S'ves only a slight notice. Indeed, from this time, or shortly afterwards, enry of Huntingdon assumes the character of an original historian of events contemporary with the period in which he lived.

Note 2. Count of Evreux.

Chronicle of William of Malmesbury Book V. [25th November 1120] Nevertheless, the calm of this brilliant, and carefully concerted peace, this anxious, universal hope, was destroyed in an instant by the vicissitudes of human estate. For, giving orders for returning to England, the king set sail from Barfleur just before twilight on the seventh before the kalends of December [25th November]; and the breeze which filled his sails conducted him safely to his kingdom and extensive fortunes. But the young man, who was now somewhat more than seventeen years of age, and, by his father's indulgence, possessed everything but the name of king, commanded another vessel to be prepared for himself; almost all the young nobility flocking around him, from similarity of youthful pursuits. The sailors, too, immoderately filled with wine, with that seaman's hilarity which their cups excited, exclaimed, that those who were now a-head must soon be left astern; for the ship was of the best construction, and recently fitted with new materials. When, therefore, it was now dark night, these imprudent youths, overwhelmed with liquor, launched the vessel from the shore. She flies swifter than the winged arrow, sweeping the rippling surface of the deep: but the carelessness of the intoxicated crew drove her on a rock, which rose above the waves not far from shore. In the greatest consternation, they immediately ran on deck, and with loud outcry got ready their boat-hooks, endeavouring, for a considerable time, to force the vessel off: but fortune resisted and frustrated every exertion. The oars, too, dashing, horribly crashed against the rock,¹ and her battered prow hung immoveably fixed. Now, too, the water washed some of the crew overboard, and, entering the chinks, drowned others; when the boat having been launched, the young prince was received into it, and might certainly have been saved by reaching the shore, had not his illegitimate sister, the countess of Perche, now struggling with death in the larger vessel, implored her brother's assistance; shrieking out that he should not abandon her so barbarously. Touched with pity, he ordered the boat to return to the ship, that he might rescue his sister; and thus the unhappy youth met his death through excess of affection: for the skiff, overcharged by the multitudes who leaped into her, sank, and buried all indiscriminately in the deep. One rustic² alone escaped; who, floating all night upon the mast, related in the morning, the dismal catastrophe of this tragedy. No ship was ever productive of so much misery to England; none ever so widely celebrated throughout the world. Here also perished with William, Richard, another of the king's sons, whom a woman of no rank had borne him, before his accession; a youth of intrepidity, and dear to his father from his obedience: Richard earl of Chester, and his brother Otuell, the tutor and preceptor of the king's son: the countess of Perche, the king's daughter, and his niece the countess of Chester, sister to Theobald: and indeed almost every person of consequence about court, whether knight, or chaplain, or young nobleman, training up to arms. For, as I have said, they eagerly hastened from all quarters, expecting no small addition to their reputation, if they could either amuse, or show their devotion to the young prince. The calamity was augmented by the difficulty of finding the bodies, which could not be discovered by the various persons who sought them along the shore; but delicate as they were, they became food for the monsters of the deep. The death of this youth being known, produced a wonderful change in existing circumstances. His father renounced the celibacy he had cherished since Matilda's death, anxious for future heirs by a new consort: his father-in-law, returning home from Jerusalem, faithfully espoused the party of William, the son of Robert earl of Normandy, giving him his other daughter³ in marriage, and the county of Maine; his indignation being excited against the king, by his daughter's dowry being detained in England after the death of the prince.

Note 1. Virgil Æneid. v. 206.

Note 2. He is called a butcher by Orderic Vitalis, p. 867, who has many particulars of this event.

Note 3. "The marriage of William, son of the duke of Normandy, with Sibilla, in 1123, was dissolved, at the instance of king Henry, in the following year, by the pope's legate."—Hardy.

Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. 1120. A collision with a rock caused the wreck of a ship near Barfleur, in which nearly the entire lineage of the Norman nobility perished. Among the dead were William, the son of King Henry, along with another of his illegitimate sons, two daughters of the king, one of his nieces, and many others, nearly three hundred people. This disaster occurred on the seventh day before the Kalends of December [25th November 1120], and none of their bodies were ever found.

MCXX. Rupis allisio maris unam demersit navem apud Barbefleot, in qua pene tota propago omnium nobilium Normannorum, una cum Willelmo filio regis Henrici et quodam alio notho, cum duabus filiabus regis, et una ejus nepe aliique quamplures fere trecenti homines perierunt, septimo kalendas Decembris, nec eorum corpora inventa sunt.

Note 1. Florence of Worcester: "Henry, king of England, having successfully accomplished all his designs, returned from Normandy to England. His son William, hastening to follow him, embarked in company with a great number of nobles, knights, women, and boys. Having left the harbour and put out to sea, encouraged by the extraordinary calmness of the weather, shortly afterwards the ship in which they were sailing struck on a rock and was wrecked, and all on board were swallowed up by the waves, except one churl, who, as it is reported, was not worthy of being named, but by the wonderful mercy of God, escaped alive. Of those who perished, those of highest rank were, William, the king's son, Richard, earl of Chester, Othiel, his brother, William Bigod, Geoffrey Riddel, Walter d'Evereux, Geoffrey, archdeacon of Hereford, the king's daughter, the countess of Perche, the king's niece, the countess of Chester, and many more who are omitted for brevity's sake. This disaster horrified and distressed the mind of the king, who reached England after a safe voyage, and of all who heard of it, and struck them with awe at the mysterious decrees of a just God."

Orderic Vitalis: "They even drove away with contempt, amidst shouts of laughter, the priests who came to bless them, with the other ministers who carried the holy water; but they were speedily punished for their mockery. Besides the king's treasure and some casks of wine, there was no cargo in Thomas's ship, which was full of passengers; and they urged him to use his utmost endeavours to overtake the royal fleet which was already ploughing the waves. In his drunken folly, Thomas, confident in his seamanship and the skill of his crew, rashly boasted that he would soon leave behind him all the ships that had started before them. At last, he gave the signal for departure; the sailors seized the oars without a moment's delay, and, unconscious of the fate which was imminently impending, joyously handled the ropes and sails, and made the ship rush through the water at great rate. But as the drunken rowers exerted themselves to the utmost in pulling the oars, and the luckless pilot steered at random and got the ship out of its due course, the starboard bow of the Blanche-Nef struck violently on a huge rock, which is left dry, every day, when the tide is out, and covered by the waves at igh water. Two planks having been shattered by the crash, the ship, alas! filled and went down. At this fearful moment, the passengers and crew raised cries of distress, but their mouths were soon stopped by the swelling waves, and all perished together, except two who seized hold of the yard from which the sail was set. They hung on to it the greater part of the night, in earnest hope that they would receive aid in some shape or other. One of these men was a butcher of Rouen, of the name of Berold; the other, a young man of gentle birth whose name was Geoffrey, the son of Gilbert de I'Aigle. The moon was at this time in her nineteenth day in the constellation of the Bull, and gave light to the world for nine hours, so that all objects on the surface of the sea were clearly visible to the sailors. Thomas, the master of this vessel, after his first plunge into the sea, gained fresh energy, and, recovering his senses, raised his head above the water, and perceiving the two men clinging to the yard-arm, cried out: 'What has become of the king's son?' The shipwrecked men replied that he and all who were with him had perished. 'Then,' said he, 'it is misery for me to live any longer.' Having said this, he abandoned himselt to his fate in utter despair, preferring to meet it at once, rather than face the rage of the king in his indignation for the loss of his children, or drag out his existence and expiate his crime in a dungeon. Meanwhile, Berold and Geoffrey, hanging by the yard-arm over the waters, called upon God to save them, and encouraging one another, waited in fearful anxiety for the end to which it should please him to bring their misery."

William of Malmesbury: "But the young man, who was now somewhat more than seventeen years of age, and, by his father's indulgence, possessed everything but the name of king, commanded another vessel to be prepared for himself; almost all the young nobility flocking around him, from similarity of youthful pursuits. The sailors, too, immoderately filled with wine, with that seaman's hilarity which their cups excited, exclaimed, that those who were now a-head must soon be left astern; for the ship was of the best construction, and recently fitted with new materials. When, therefore, it was now dark night, these imprudent youths, overwhelmed with liquor, launched the vessel from the shore. She flies swifter than the winged arrow, sweeping the rippling surface of the deep: but the carelessness of the intoxicated crew drove her on a rock, which rose above the waves not far from shore. In the greatest consternation, they immediately ran on deck, and with loud outcry got ready their boat-hooks, endeavouring, for a considerable time, to force the vessel off: but fortune resisted and frustrated every exertion. The oars, too, dashing, horribly crashed against the rock, and her battered prow hung immoveably fixed. Now, too, the water washed some of the crew overboard, and, entering the chinks, drowned others; when the boat having been launched, the young prince was received into it, and might certainly have been saved by reaching the shore, had not his illegitimate sister, the countess of Perche, now struggling with death in the larger vessel, implored her brother's assistance; shrieking out that he should not abandon her so barbarously. Touched with pity, he ordered the boat to return to the ship, that he might rescue his sister; and thus the unhappy youth met his death through excess of affection: for the skiff, overcharged by the multitudes who leaped into her, sank, and buried all indiscriminately in the deep. One rustic alone escaped; who, floating all night upon the mast, related in the morning, the dismal catastrophe of this tragedy. No ship was ever productive of so much misery to England; none ever so widely celebrated throughout the world."

Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon 1120. [25th November 1120] In the year of our Lord 1120, all his enemies being subdued, and peace restored in France, King Henry came over to England. But in the passage, the .king's two sons, William and Kichard, and his daughter and niece, with the Earl of Chester, and many nobles, were shipwrecked, besides the king's butlers, stewards, and bakers, all or most of whom were said to have been tainted with the sin of sodomy. Behold the terrible vengeance of God! Sudden death swallowed them up unshriven, though there was no wind and the sea was calm. Of whom the poet thus wrote:

"When England's chiefs, with joyous boasts.

Exulting sought her sea-girt coasts.

The French chastis'd, the Normans quelled;

Homeward their prosperous course they held,

And o'er the tranquil straits they steer'd,

While yet no adverse sign appear'd;

Th' horizon lowering suddenly.

By the Almighty's stem decree.

The bark which bore a royal freight

Was tempest torn; and, woful fate!

Henry's brave sons and daughter fair.

With England's chiefest, perish'd there,

(Where now was mirth and revelry?)

Engulph'd beneath the raging sea."