The White Ship disaster on 25 November 1120 (called 7 kalends of December by Farrer [1] ) claimed the lives of numerous high-ranking people of Norman England.
Approximately 250, including servants and marines. Of these, 140 were knights or noblemen and 18 were noblewomen. [2]
A number of other nobility of England were on board, although very little is known about them.
Year 1120 (MCXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
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.
Hugh d'Avranches, nicknamed le Gros or Lupus, was from 1071 the second Norman Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England.
Hugh de Grandmesnil, , is one of the proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Subsequently, he became a great landowner in England.
Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick or Henry de Newburgh was a Norman nobleman who rose to great prominence in the Kingdom of England.
William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey was the son of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife Gundred. He was more often referred to as Earl Warenne or Earl of Warenne than as Earl of Surrey.
Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester was the son of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester, and his wife, Ermentrude of Clermont.
The House of Normandy designates the noble family which originates from the Duchy of Normandy and whose members were dukes of Normandy, counts of Rouen, as well as kings of England following the Norman conquest of England. It lasted until Stephen of the French House of Blois seized the Duchy of Normandy in 1135. The house emerged from the union between the Viking Rollo and Poppa of Bayeux, a West Frankish noblewoman. William the Conqueror and his heirs down through 1135 were members of this dynasty.
Events from the 1120s in England.
Events from the 1100s in England.
Fitz was a patronymic indicator used in Anglo-Norman England to help distinguish individuals by identifying their immediate predecessors. Meaning "son of", it would precede the father's forename, or less commonly a title held by the father. In rare cases, it formed part of a matronymic to associate the bearer with a more prominent mother. Convention among modern historians is to represent the word as fitz, but in the original Norman French documentation, it appears as fiz, filz, or similar forms, deriving from the Old French noun filz, fiz, meaning "son of", and ultimately from Latin filius (son). Its use during the period of English surname adoption led to its incorporation into patronymic surnames, and at later periods this form was adopted by English kings for the surnames given some of their recognized illegitimate children, and by Irish families when anglicizing their Gaelic patronymic surnames.
Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester (1070–1129) was a Norman magnate based in northern and central England. Originating in Bessin in Normandy, Ranulf made his career in England thanks to his kinship with Hugh d'Avranches - the Earl of Chester, the patronage of kings William II Rufus and Henry I Beauclerc, and his marriage to Lucy, heiress of the Bolingbroke-Spalding estates in Lincolnshire.
Matilda of Chester, Countess of Huntingdon was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman, sometimes known as Maud and sometimes known with the surname de Kevelioc. She was a daughter of Hugh de Kevelioc, 5th Earl of Chester, and the wife of David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon.
Ranulf de Briquessart was an 11th-century Norman magnate and viscount.
Maud of Gloucester, Countess of Chester, also known as Matilda, was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman and the daughter of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England, and Mabel, daughter and heiress of Robert Fitzhamon. Her husband was Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester.
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.
William Meschin was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and baron. The brother of the earl of Chester, Meschin participated in the First Crusade. After returning to England, he acquired lands both from King Henry I of England and by his marriage to an heiress.
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.
Richard of Lincoln was the illegitimate son of Henry I of England.
The Constable of Chester was a mediaeval hereditary office held by the Barons of Halton. The functions of the Constable are unclear, possibly they related to the custody of Chester Castle, as was the main function of most mediaeval constables, but Sanders (1960) says the office-holder was constable for the entire County Palatine.