Episode Details

A historic song of the White Ship Disaster made by a descendant of their half-brother Robert Fitzroy Earl of Gloucester and their father King Henry I to the prince and their sister. As retold by author Rachel Lawson

White Ship

Main article: White Ship

The White Ship Disaster

In the wreck of the White Ship, the evening of 25 November 1120, William of Malmesbury noted the fate of the countess:

"the water having washed some of the crew overboard and entering the chinks drowned others, the boat was launched, and the young prince getting into it 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 multitude who leaped into it, sank, and buried all indiscriminately in the deep." Thus William Adelin perished trying to save his sister Maud." Quote from wikipedia.

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