Thomas FitzStephen (Old French : Thomas fiz Estienne; died 1120) was captain of the ill-fated White Ship (French : la Blanche-Nef), which sank off Barfleur, Normandy, on 25 November 1120.
FitzStephen was the son of Stephen FitzAirard (Old French : Estienne fiz Airard), the captain of the Mora , the ship which brought William the Conqueror over from Normandy during his invasion of England in 1066. [1] FitzStephen owned and captained the White Ship , which at that time was docked at Barfleur harbour. [2] When Thomas FitzStephen presented himself to the king he said:
"Stephen, my father, served yours all his life by sea, and he it was who steered the ship in which your father sailed for the conquest of England. Sire king, I beg you to grant me the same office in fief: I have a vessel called the Blanche-Nef, well equipped and manned with fifty skilful mariners." [3]
Henry had already made other arrangements, but gave permission for his sons William Adelin and Richard, as well as the young nobles in William's entourage, to travel on it instead. [4] According to Orderic Vitalis, the nobles as well as the crew were drinking. [4]
By the time the ship was ready to leave there were about 300 people on board although some had disembarked before the ship sailed due to the excessive drinking. [5] FitzStephen and his crew were challenged by the revelers to overtake the king's ship which had already sailed. [5] The White Ship was fast, of the best construction and had recently been fitted with new materials, which made the captain and crew confident they could reach England first. [2] However, when the ship set off in the dark, its port side struck a submerged rock and the ship quickly capsized and sank. [5] The loss of life was devastating – according to Orderic Vitalis only one survived, by clinging to the rock all night: a butcher from Rouen. [6] Orderic also claims that FitzStephen let himself drown rather than face the wrath of King Henry I, as Henry's son William Adelin had been among those drowned. [lower-alpha 1] [7]
The White Ship was a vessel transporting many nobles, including the heir to the English throne, that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur during a trip from France to England on 25 November 1120. Only one of approximately 300 people aboard, a butcher from Rouen, survived.
Robert FitzRoy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was the half-brother of the Empress Matilda, and her chief military supporter during the civil war known as the Anarchy, in which she vied with Stephen of Blois for the throne of England.
William Ætheling (Middle English:[ˈwiliəmˈaðəliŋɡ], Old English:[ˈæðeliŋɡ]; 5 August 1103 – 25 November 1120), commonly called Adelin was the son of Henry I of England by his wife Matilda of Scotland, and was thus heir apparent to the English throne. His early death without issue caused a succession crisis, known in English history as the Anarchy.
Robert de Bellême, seigneur de Bellême, seigneur de Montgomery, viscount of the Hiémois, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury and Count of Ponthieu, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror. He was a member of the powerful House of Bellême.
Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester was Justiciar of England 1155–1168.
Hugh V was the count of Maine from 1069 until c. 1093.
Matilda of Anjou, also known as Mahaut was married in 1119 to William Adelin, son and heir apparent of Henry I of England.
Emma Fitz-Osborn or Emma de Breteuil, and later Emma de Guader, was a Norman noblewoman, the wife of Ralph de Guader and the daughter of William FitzOsbern, Lord of Breteuil and later first Earl of Hereford of a new creation, who was a cousin and close adviser of William the Conqueror. William's opposition to their marriage led to the unsuccessful Revolt of the Earls.
Ralph de Gaël was the Earl of East Anglia and Lord of Gaël and Montfort. He was the leading figure in the Revolt of the Earls, the last serious revolt against William the Conqueror.
Amaury III de Montfort was a French nobleman, the Seigneur of Montfort-l'Amaury, Épernon, and Houdan in the Île-de-France and Count of Évreux in Normandy.
Helias of Saint Saëns (?–1128), Count of Arques was a Norman magnate of the eleventh and twelfth century, a loyal supporter of Robert Curthose and protector of his son William Clito. His support of the latter eventually brought him into conflict with Henry I of England, ending in his willing exile from Normandy.
Robert de Grantmesnil also known as Robert II, was a Norman nobleman; a member of a prominent Norman family. He first became a monk, then abbot at the Abbey of Saint-Evroul in Normandy and later Bishop of Troina in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily.
Events from the 1120s in England.
Matilda Fitzroy, Countess of Perche, was among several members of the English royal family who died in the wreck of the White Ship off Barfleur.
Mora was the name of William the Conqueror's flagship, the largest and fastest ship in his invasion fleet of 700 or more ships used during the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
Giroie, Lord of Echauffour and Montreuil-l'Argillé, was a knight from Brittany who became a Norman nobleman and the progenitor of a large family in Normandy, England, and Apulia.
William fitz Giroie, Lord of Échauffour and Montreuil-l'Argillé. A Norman nobleman and patriarch of a large and powerful family in Normandy and Apulia.
Juliane (Juliana) de Fontevrault, was a French noble, the illegitimate daughter of King Henry I of England. She is notorious for attempting to murder her father. An account of these events can be found in the Historia Ecclesiastica by Orderic Vitalis.
The White Ship disaster on 25 November 1120 claimed the lives of numerous high-ranking people of Norman England.