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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1997-07 > 0867861249


From: "Paul J. Gans" <>
Subject: Re: Died at sea in 1120 ?
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 16:34:09 GMT


D DeFrank () wrote:
: Kathy McIntosh <> wrote:
:
: >What I want to know, is why did it sink?
: >Ken Follet, in his novel "Pillars of the Earth", uses the deliberate
: >sinking theory, but is this based on fact? Can anyone tell me what
: >really happened. Please.
: >--
:
: "History" has it that the Blanche Nef sank because its captain (and
: owner) Stephen FitzThomas allowed himself and his crew to become drunk
: on wine William the Atheling and his companions liberated from his
: father's wine stores. The sole evidence for this is based on the word
: of the "rustic", a butcher "Berold" who supposedly clung to the mast
: and survived (attributed to his fleece garment.)
:
: As a retired navy officer, I cannot believe that FitzThomas would have
: been so careless.
:
: Think on this. Stephen FitzThomas built the Blanche Nef to be the
: king's ship. He had the heritage of his father (who had piloted the
: Moira), and when he went to Henry and asked him to have as his "fief"
: to be the "king's ship", was told that Henry had chosen his ship
: already for that passage, but that Henry would entrust to him the
: safe passage of his only legitimate male heir, his treasure, and his
: wine stores. Did Thomas FitzStephen allow his men to get drunk? I
: don't think so.
:
: Consider also, that the Blanche Nef could carry 300. There were fifty
: oarsmen, a marine force, and a throng of young nobles, their squires,
: their wives, and at least 18 women who were kin to kings, dukes, and
: emperors. Given that those people surely had their waiting women and
: attendants with them...that Ralth the Red, Gilbert of Exmes, the Earl
: of Chester and his wife, the nephew of the German emperos, and Henry's
: own stewards and scribes were on board....I can't think that one so
: lowly as a butcher was on that ship. It's the equivalent of saying
: that a bag lady was the sole survivor of the Concorde's maiden flight
: crash, or that a homeless wino survived the crash of Air Force One.
:
: Consider also, that Henry had recently 'made peace' (i.e. defeated)
: after years of war with the king of france (Louis the Fat) and with
: the rebellious lords of Normandy, wringing huge concessions. It's not
: so much a taskto think _who_ might have had a motive to sink the
: ship, as to think who might _not_ have. Henry himself might have been
: on that ship, if events had been only slightly different. The earl of
: Chester died, as did the claimant to Rhuddlan. Ralph the Red died,
: who had frustrated the attempts of most of the rebellious barons in
: Normandy. Interesting that Henry's son had just married the daughter
: of Fulk of Anjou (after Henry had fought Fulk to a standstill) but
: that William's young wife (admittedly prepubescent) didn't accompany
: her new husband to England.
:
: To me, this has always been as large a mystery as the princes in the
: tower, but more so...because of the possibly spurious survivor. Think
: of it. Give a butcher a few hundred pounds worth of gold coin, and
: he'll probably say he's seen martians.
:
: I'm not quite so sure as Ken Follett who *caused* the sinking. But I'm
: certain in my heart that the ship's pilot and owner did NOT run
: aground because he and his oarsmen were drunk.

In my opinion you've made a good argument. Yet the presence
of one butcher boy isn't really all that difficult to explain.
See how Sharon Newman does it in her novel _When Christ and
his Angels Slept_.

As far as the sinking being deliberate, I can't agree. In
the days before explosives it would be hard for any single
person to secretly do enough damage to sink a ship.

The Channel has always been treacherous. Even in the great
days of wooden ships and iron men, the Channel claimed its
share of ships. A moment's inattention and a sudden gust
of wind could do it. The Channel is very shallow. It doesn't
take much to raise some rather monster waves. And if the
White Ship, heavily laden, found herself broadside to a 20-footer
that would be all she wrote. It had happened before and
happened many times since.

I agree that the cause remains a mystery. The enormity of
the disaster has faded for us, but it was one of those things,
like the death of Harold at Hastings, that changed history.
Not only did it eventually cause the civil war between
Stephen of Blois and Maude, Henry's surviving child, but
in the end the Angevins took the English throne.

----- Paul J. Gans []

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