Noble Blood - The White Ship on the English Channel

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

William the Conquerer's youngest son, Henry, had to scheme and fight to become King of England. But his dreams of peacefully united England and Normandy would run into rocky waters. Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon — Merch! — Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and pre-order its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong,

dance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Menke. Listener discretion advised. Hey, this is Dana Schwartz, the host of Noble Blood, a few quick announcement before I start. So you probably know that I wrote a book called Anatomy, a Love Story, you know, available now, wherever books are sold. But there's also a sequel coming. Immortality, a Love Story.

The sequel to Anatomy is available for pre-order. There's a link to that in the episode description, and there's also links to our Patreon and our show merch. On our Patreon, I upload episode scripts and monthly bonus episodes, and you also get a sticker once every season as part of our sticker club for patrons only. And merch, we have amazing new merch coming

this fall. Pins, brand new t-shirts, check it all out at DFTBA.com slash Noble Blood, but it's all in the description. Just click there. But as always, the best support is just you listening to the show, so thank you so much. The city of Barfleur sits at the top of the peninsula that juts out from France towards England. Today, a quaint village with fewer than 600 people, it was in the 12th century, a bustling port, one of the most popular points from which to sail in and out of Normandy. It boasts a natural harbor which shelters boats from the wind and waves of the English Channel, and it was in that harbor that Thomas Fitz Stephen approached Henry, King of England and Duke of Normandy, with an offer. It was November 1120, and King Henry was preparing to return to England,

having finally secured his title as Duke of Normandy by defeating his brother Robert Kutos. Now Henry and his entourage, along with his finest soldiers, several of his beloved children, and the who's who of Norman nobility, were all sailing back to England to celebrate the victory

and award prizes to those who had supported the cause. After decades of fighting, a palpable sense of relief and giddiness could be felt. Finally, for what felt like the first, first time since Henry's father, William, known as William the Conqueror, had died in 1087, peace had come to Normandy. Glittering noblemen and noble women flooded Barfleur as they awaited the right conditions to sail back to England. The nobleman awed local observers with their luxurious clothes and appetite for revelry. Amidst the crowds was a man named Thomas Fitz Stephen,

but he wasn't there to party, at least not yet. He had something else in mind, and for his plan to succeed, he needed an audience with the king. Finally attaining one, Fitz Stephen made his case. He was a captain, he said, in possession of a ship, and he hoped to have the honor of sailing the royal party back to England. He wasn't just any captain, he continued, but the son of Stephen Fitzgerid, the man who had captained William the Conqueror's flagship on his invasion of England in 1066, and his boat wasn't just any boat, but a boat befitting royalty. It was built finally from the lightest timber,

so light to be nearly white, and so named Blanche Neff, or the White Ship. In addition to sails, the white ship had 50 oarsmen, meaning that no matter the wind condition, it would travel swiftly across the channel. King Henry was impressed by Fitz Stephen, and even more impressed by the sleek, shining white ship. Though he had already made arrangements for his own ship, he told Fitz Stephen he would give him another honor. The white ship, the king said, could carry William Aethling, his son, the heir to the throne. Additionally, the king entrusted Fitz Stephen with transporting the treasure that he had collected in Normandy. By that evening, the party set to board the white ship had swelled to nearly 300, among them the most glamorous young nobles and gallant soldiers

of the court. The mood was festive, the wine was flowing, and the future looked bright. They were heading home to a kingdom more powerful and more peaceful than it had been in nearly 40 years, but they would not find their journey smooth sailing, no pun intended. And what happened next, as the white ship set out into the darkness of the English Channel would change the course of English history forever. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. To contextualize the story of the white ship, we'll have to go back more than half a century,

to December of 1068 or 1069, when a baby boy was born to William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders. They named the boy Henry, and he was to be their last child. William the Conqueror came from the ruling family of Normandy, a coastal region in present-day France, and he had won the throne of England in 1066 by defeating the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings.

His impact on English history is nearly unparalleled, and physical traces of the Conqueror can still be seen in London today. For one thing, he built the white tower, the central component of the Tower of London. Henry was the only child of William and Matilda to be born after his child was crowned. But that didn't confer him any special status. As the youngest son, no one expected him to become king. Many expected him to go into the church, and he was educated accordingly,

reaching a level of literacy and learning, unusual even among noble families of the time. Henry had three older brothers, Robert, Richard, and William, all of whom were more than a decade older than him. Robert was the eldest and was known throughout his life as Kurtos, a nickname given to him by his father on account of his short legs, in a typical example of kindly medieval parenting. Richard, the second brother, died in a hunting accident as a teenager. The third son, William, was called Rufus from the Latin word for red, because of his red hair and ruddy complexion. Robert Kutose was brash and arrogant, and frequently, clashed with his father, constantly demanding more power and money. William the conqueror favored

Rufus instead, and as the rule of primogenitor, passing the crown onto the eldest son, was not yet custom in England, he began to groom Rufus, his third son, for the role of king. To pacify Kirtos, his oldest son, William named him co-regent of Normandy, alongside his mother. In this way, William could keep control of his two territories, England and Normandy, within the family, while keeping Robert Curtis out of his way in England. But Kurtos was not satisfied, wanting to rule formally and on his own. In the late 1070s, Kurtos began a series of revolts against William of Normandy, which continued until the queen negotiated a peace between father and son in 1080.

The peace held until her death in 1883. at which point the fighting resumed. Kurtos and William were still at war when William died in September 1087 as a result of a wound he suffered while fighting the French. I want to note here that you'll hear a lot about the Normans and the French in this episode,

which may seem confusing since Normandy is in France. I'll explain. Normandy at the time was a duchy of France, meaning that its rulers were vassals to the king of France. But after William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066, he became the French king's equal as a king in his own right. While he was still a subject of the French king as Duke of Normandy, the growing power of the Normans scared the French king,

who began a series of wars in an effort to weaken the Duchy and take its territory. So that's how William ended up fighting the French in Normandy in early September 1087. While attacking the city of Mont, William's horse abruptly stopped and the pommel of his saddle hit him hard in the stomach, causing it would soon become clear a fatal internal injury. As William lay dying in the priory of Saint Gervais, he debated how to divide the land that he had spent his whole life fighting for. At several points he considered disinheriting the troublesome Kurtos altogether, but his Norman lords persuaded him to keep the eldest Robert Kurtos as Duke, so as to maintain order in the duchy. William gave in, but he stood firm on his

plans to give Rufus, now his second son, the throne of England. Henry, the youngest son, was at his father's side as he grew weaker. He inquired cautiously about what he might hope to inherit. William bestowed upon his youngest son five thousand pounds of silver, but no lands or titles. When William finally died on September 9th, it began a period of uncertainty for the Anglo-Norman realm. Though the throne of England did go to Rufus, as William wished, it would not be a smooth transition. Kurtos, as ever, wanted more, and the two brothers quickly went to war. The youngest son, Henry, meanwhile, used part of his inheritance to buy land in Normandy from Robert Curtis, who was perpetually in debt, and then he sailed to England to petition Rufus for lands that he believed his mother had left him.

Rufus rejected Henry's claims. So the young prince sailed back to Normandy, at which point Robert Kirtos accused him of being a spy sent by Rufus and had him imprisoned for six months until Henry could pay bail. Henry then tried to return to England, but Rufus rebuffed him, thinking he was perhaps a spy for Kirtos, Forced to choose between the lesser of two brothers, Henry reluctantly aligned himself with Kirtos. In 1091, after four years of fighting, Rufus and Kirtos signed a peace treaty, promising not to fight one another and to be one another's successor should they die without a legitimate son, thus keeping England and Normandy under the family rule. Henry was left out of this treaty completely, except for one provision. Kirtos would take the land,

Henry had bought from him in 1088. Henry fought this decision, holing up in the monastery at Mont Saint-Michel until Kurtz and Rufus's troops starved him out in March 1091. Curtis banished Henry from Normandy, and his whereabouts for the next year are unknown, though he is said to have been spotted in Paris.

In 1092, Henry returned to Normandy to free the people of the county of Domfronp from their tyrannical lord, Roger St. Belim, and he bided his time as the animosity between his brothers rekindled. By 1095, their truce was over, and Rufus reached out to Henry for aid. Henry began fighting on the side of his middle brother, Rufus, the King of England, against Kirtos in Normandy, a war which eventually concluded when Kirtos answered the Pope's call for the First Crusade in 1096, in part because Kirtos had grown unpopular with his own

people who thought him a poor leader. Rufus agreed to, quote-unquote, rent, the Duchy of Normandy from Kirtos while he traveled to Jerusalem. With Kirtos out of the way, Henry went to England to establish himself in Rufus's court. It was, by all accounts, a debauchrous, decadent court, enriched by the onerous taxes Rufus collected from the church and his subjects. A brief side note to say, if you're confused because you had never heard of a King Rufus of England, he ruled as King William II, but because he was commonly referred to as Rufus and because there's another William in this story, we're going to continue to refer to him as Rufus for clarity. This never-ending wealth made the inner

circle of the Court of England a wonderful place to be, but outside of it, the country was growing increasingly resentful of their spendthrift monarch and his coterie of hangers-on, who stripped the people bear for their own enrichment. Henry, fresh from battle in Normandy, saw this dissatisfaction and, perhaps subconsciously, decided to wait for an opportunity. The opportunity came sooner than he thought. In August of 1099, Rufus was out hunting, a favorite pastime, when a freak accident occurred. How exactly an arrow struck the king is unknown. Many theorized that it ricocheted, but suddenly Rufus, still mounted, looked down to see the shaft of an arrow buried in his chest. He broke the shaft off, then, in shock, fell to the ground, landing chest down, which pushed the arrow in deeper, killing him.

Henry had been out with the hunting party that day and realized that he needed to act quickly. Rufus' body was being taken to Winchester, the city that housed the English treasury, and Henry knew that he had to beat his brother's body there. To control the treasury was to control the throne, and so Henry rode hard for Winchester, arriving breathless before the rest of the party and announcing both the king's death and his intention of taking the crown to the shocked nobles of Winchester Castle. The lords assembled there, after debating amongst themselves,

decided to give Henry the crown, believing that a quick transition of power would be a peaceful one. But becoming king is not as easy as saying you are king, and though Henry would soon be crowned at Westminster Abbey, his fight for the throne was only beginning. As Rufus's body was interred in Winchester and as Henry, now with the support of the nobles, was traveling to Westminster, Robert Kirtos was returning home from the crusade. On the way home, he had married Sibylla of Conversano, a beautiful Norman Italian noblewoman who brought with her a substantial dowry. For once, Kirtos had money.

What's more, he came home wreathed in glory. He had done well for himself in the East, establishing a reputation as a fearsome fighter and a brave leader. By the time he got back to Normandy, only weeks after Henry's coronation, he was no longer the embattled Duke of 1096. The Kirtos of 1099 was a wealthy war hero. Only one thing soured his triumphant return, the news that his younger brother had, in his absence, taken the throne of England.

Kurtos quickly made clear his intention to fight for the throne, and just as quickly, the lords who had supported Henry began to peel away, swearing allegiance to Curtis instead. Fortunately, Henry maintained the support of Anselaum, Archbishop of Canterbury, a highly influential, figure whose endorsement was crucial. Nevertheless, by 1101, an invasion of England by Kurtos and the Normans seemed imminent, and in July he landed with an army in Portchester. But before any fighting took place, noblemen on both sides of the conflict intervened. They realized that war would be costly, bloody, and devastating, and they encouraged their leaders to look towards peace instead. On August 2nd, and Kurtos signed the Treaty of Alton. Kurtos renounced his claim to the throne of England

in exchange for full control of Normandy and a payout. Henry renounced most of his land in Normandy. Both men, as Kurtos and Rufus had done before them, swore to be each other's heirs if they died without legitimate issue. Legitimate issue was a matter of concern for Henry. Passing on the crown was necessary to secure his legacy as Kim, and at the time of his coronation, he wasn't even married. He was, however, a father, with at least 12 illegitimate children by this point.

In the past, the issue of legitimacy had been less important. William the Conqueror himself had been born out of wedlock, but as the church became more central to English life, so too did the concept of the sanctity of marriage. Though Henry was close to his illegitimate children, including them in public life and securing them Adventant, Hage's marriages, he now needed a wife and a legitimate heir. He moved quickly, selecting a daughter of the Scottish king Malcolm. She had been born Edith, but as Queen would be known as Matilda,

a very popular royal name at the time. The couple was married in late 1,100 at Westminster Abbey, and had their first child, a daughter, also named Matilda, in 1102. Before you get too confused, Yes, William the Conqueror was also married to a Matilda. The same year of Henry's marriage, Kurtos and Sibela welcomed a son, who they named William. He would be most commonly known as William Clito, Clito being the Norman term for the son who would inherit his father's titles. At the time of his birth, William Clito stood to inherit both England and Normandy

under the terms of the Treaty of Alton, but his claim only lasted a year. In the summer or fall of 1103, Queen Matilda gave birth to a son, who she and Henry also named William. And just to keep things even more confusing, this William was known as William Aethling. Aethling, meaning the same thing in Old English that Clito does in Norman. For several years there was peace between brothers. But as time passed and the shine of Kirtos' crusading days began to dim, the Normans found that their Duke was still the poor ruler he had been before he left. Kirtos spent extravagantly, neglected his responsibilities,

and did little to engender the love or loyalty of his people. Soon enough, certain Norman nobles were reaching out to King Henry in England, asking if he would consider a quick invasion just to straighten things out. He didn't need much persuading, and in 1105, he stormed Normandy, along with an English and Normandy. Coalition. For the third time, Kirtos found himself at war with a family member over the right to rule Normandy. This time, however, the battle did not last long. In September 1106, Henry captured Kirtos outside Tinchabray and imprisoned his brother, though he set his young nephew, William

Clito, free. With Henry, now Duke of Normandy, England, and Normandy shared the same ruler for the first time since William the Conqueror's death 30 years earlier. Now that Henry had settled the Norman question, he was working on cementing his legacy as king. He built a network of spies that stretched across Europe. He reformed the English tax system, strengthened the judiciary, and arranged for his daughter, Matilda,

to marry Henry, the Holy Roman Emperor. He also spent considerable time ensuring that William Aethling was raised to rule. From a young age, the Crown Prince accompanied his father on official occasions, attended military training, and received a thorough education. In February 1113, William Aethling was betrothed to Matilda of Anjou. Yes, another Matilda. This one, the daughter of the powerful Count Fouk V of of Anjou. It was, unsurprisingly, a strategic marriage. Matilda's parents controlled the counties

of Anjou and Maine, which bordered Normandy. These lands were a especially important to Henry because, despite his victory over his brother, Robert Kurtos, his Norman holdings still faced a powerful enemy, Louis VI, the King of France. Between 1111 and 1113, Normandy was at war with France and her allies, Flanders, Angus, and Maine. This group rallied under the banner of William Clito, Curtis's son, who was now asserting his claim to the Dukedom. With the engagement of William Aethlehem, to Matilda Vangu, Anjou and Maine switched sides, and now Louis was forced to make peace with Henry. The peace lasted several years, a period in which William Aethling's role as heir became even more formalized.

In 1115, the Norman lords swore allegiance to the young prince, and a year later, the English barons did the same. The only party who refused to recognize William Aethling as heir was King Louis, who continued, to support William Clito's claim, a position which led the two kings back to war in late spring 1116. As Henry battled in Normandy throughout 1117 and 1118, his son William Aethling stayed in England, serving as regent after the death of his mother, Queen Matilda, in the spring of 1118. The next year, William Aethling traveled to Normandy to complete two important rites of passage, marriage and military service. In June 1119, William Aethling and Matilda of Anjou were married

in order to strengthen the Norman-Anjavon ties. The groom at this point was 16, the bride only nine or ten. Two months later, William Aethling fought alongside his father and half-brothers at the Battle of Bremu, a decisive victory for the Normans, which struck the final blow to William Clito's claim on the Norman duchy. However, William Clito's ally, King Louis, had one more trick up his sleeve. He appealed to the Pope, saying that Henry had committed numerous crimes by invading Normandy. Henry and William Aethling traveled to appear in person to Pope Calictus II, who came down on their side, declaring that Henry was the rightful ruler of Normandy, and William Aethling

was the recognized heir. After 20 years as King of England, Henry had finally achieved complete dominance in England and Normandy. He had built impressive systems of governance in both realms, established a reputation as a skilled fighter and quick thinker,

and married his children into many of the most important noble houses of Europe. Best of all, he had trained up William Aethling to continue what he had begun, while Henry had had to battle his brothers, leading to decades of strife for the realm, William Aethling's right to rule was now uncontested. A long, prosperous future seemed to stretch before the king and his heir,

before all of England and Normandy, and it was this future that the court planned to celebrate as they gathered in Barfleur in November 1120, on ships bound for England. The party had to wait several days for the right conditions to cross the channel. On the night of November 25th, the wind finally began to blow in the right direction. Henry's ship boarded first. Traveling alongside the king were a group of knights and William Aethling's wife, Matilda of Anjou,

who, at only nine or ten at this point, seemed too young to travel with the Crown Prince's rowdier crew. The king's ship pushed off in the early evening, rowing past the rocks that littered the harbor's edge and turned into the open ocean. William Aethling watched his father disappear over the horizon and then turned smiling to his friends. It was time for the real party to begin. The crown prince sent for a huge quantity of wine and he encouraged both his noble friends

and the ship's crew alike to partake. As the drinks flowed, things quickly became chaotic. Crew members ran about the white ship's deck, sitting in the seats normally reserved for nobility, while the tipsy young men of the court began to bet on just how fast this marvelous ship could go. The party got so raucous that the group even neglected traditional seafaring rituals. When several clergymen offered a blessing for safe passage,

the boisterous group laughed it off. The disrespect rubbed some passengers the wrong way and several departed the ship, feeling, as the medieval. chronicler or Derek Vitalis wrote that the crossing could not go well with quote too great a crowd of wild and headstrong young men on board end quote Stephen of Blua the king's nephew also disembarked before departure but for a more prosaic reason he was suffering from a bad bout of diarrhea amidst the crowd disembarking the ship one man headed the opposite direction boarding the

ship. He was uninvited. This was Berold, a local butcher, and he had a mission. He had been supplying the royal party with meat, and they had not yet paid his bill. He was determined to collect, even if it meant crossing the channel to do so. Of all the comings and goings on the white ship that night, Berold and Stevens' movements would be the most important, but for very different reasons. Around midnight, momentum gathered to finally depart. Thomas Fitz Stephen, the owner and captain of the white ship who had convinced King Henry to let him join the fleet, gave the order to cast off. Members of the crowd on the shore recounted that Fitz Stephen had shouted that he planned to overtake the king's ship. A wild roar went up from ship and shore alike, and everyone urged the oarsmen to row faster, faster.

the streamlined boat skimmed swiftly across the harbor, dropping its sails to further increase the speed. Unfortunately, in his drunken haste, egged on by the cheers of his passengers, Fitz Stephen chose speed over steering. By the time the white ship reached the edge of the harbor, one nautical mile from shore, it was practically flying.

And then it hit a rock. I want to note here, that everything we know about what happened to those on board the white ship comes from one source, a survivor who told his story directly to contemporary chroniclers. Since we don't have other sources, it's important to take the details of what happened out at sea with a grain of salt, so to say.

Though the broader narrative, the rowdy atmosphere on board, the ship crashing, comes from multiple sources, and so that's more trustworthy. Back to the channel, where the white ship had just collided with a large rock jutting out from the water, impaling itself on the stone. Water immediately rushed in through a large hole on the port side. The crew quickly moved to free the boat, but many were washed away by the waves. The efforts of those who clung on only resulted in a larger hole.

More water flooded in, and a strong wind pulled at the sails, causing the ship to tip sideways, screaming passengers slid into the front. freezing water. Most died quickly from the shock of suddenly entering the 32 degree Fahrenheit water. Those still on shore heard loud sounds from the water, but they assumed they were just cheers from the party on board. The night was too dark for them to see the massive tragedy that was occurring just one nautical mile away. Within a half an hour of the ships tipping over, nearly everyone on board was dead. Two men, though, had managed to cling onto a piece of the ship's mast, and they used it to pull themselves out of the water.

Think rose on a door in Titanic. The first man was Geoffrey Lajil, a knight renowned for his courage. The second was Barolte, the butcher. From their vantage point on the mast, they surveyed the scene before them, trying to absorb the horror. But the worst was still yet to come. the ship had first been struck, William Aethling's bodyguards had quickly pulled the crown prince into the sole lifeboat, rowing him back toward the shore. But as they traveled quickly away from the wreck, William heard someone calling for him. It was his half-sister, Matilda, not the

Matilda who was married to the Holy Roman Emperor, but an illegitimate sister, who was married to the Count of Perche. Matilda begged her brother not to abandon her. As Berold watched, the Prince ordered his bodyguards to turn the lifeboat around and rescue his sister. But as the boat moved toward Matilda, other drowning passengers began to grasp at it, desperately pulling it under the waves, swamping it in a tangle of hands and arms and water, William Aethling and his bodyguards were brought down into the channel, doomed to drown along with the rest. After this, the only other living soul that Berold and Jeffrey Laugil saw was Thomas Fitzsieven, the ship's captain. He shouted to the two men on the mast, asking if the crown prince had survived.

Berolt regretfully reported that the prince was dead. Fitz Stephen knew that the death of William Aethling would hang on his head. And so, looking up at the men, he called out, It is vain for me to go on living, and he allowed himself to slip beneath the waves. only Jeffrey and Berald were left. For once, the poorer man had the advantage. While Jeffrey's clothes made of luxurious fabric were little protection from the cold water, Berold's rough cloak, made of wool and animal skin, was keeping him warmer. As the night wore on, Jeffrey grew colder and weaker, until at last murmuring a blessing to Berald, he fell from the mast and drowned.

Thus, Berold, the butcher who had boarded the ship uninvited only to collect his payment was the only survivor of the white ship. He clung to the mast, floating closer to shore until he was pulled from the water by fishermen in the early morning. Half frozen, Beryl explained what had happened. As years passed, he continued to tell his story, a miraculous eyewitness to one of the English royal family's worst tragedy. Though some bodies washed up on the shores around Normandy, most were never found, including the body of William Athling. It was a shocking end. As Henry of Huntingdon, a contemporary chronicler put it, quote, The head which should have worn a crown of gold was suddenly dashed against the rocks.

Instead of wearing embroidered robes, he floated naked in the waves. And instead of ascending a lofty throne, he found his grace. in the bellies of fishes at the bottom of the sea." The news took some time to reach the English court. King Henry and his ship had arrived safely at Southampton before they traveled to the Royal Hunting Lodge at Clarendon. When his son's party did not arrive soon after, people began to wonder if the ship had gotten lost.

Soon, they learned from across the channel, it was far worse. At first, the news was kept from the king. His temper was legendary and no one wanted to be the messenger. This decision had a strange side effect. Many in court had also lost loved ones on the white ship, but they could not publicly mourn lest the king catch on. Finally, with the king's concern rising, those closest to him knew that they had to break the news. Theobald of Bleu Eschartre, a nephew of the king, was chosen to deliver the blow, but too frightened of the king and too caught up in his own grief, for his sister had been on the ship. He passed the responsibility onto a young boy. The boy broke into tears,

threw himself at the king's feet, and spilled the story as quickly as he could. Instead of the anger, many had expected, Henry was overwhelmed with grief. He threw himself to the ground, screaming, and had to be held up. He then fell into a state of denial. Perhaps because, as the historian Charles Spencer notes, quote, it seemed both absurd and cruel that these men who had survived the dangers of so many battlefields and seizures should end their lives in something as commonplace as an accident at sea, and quote. But eventually, the king could not deny the truth. He took to his bed for days, unable to eat.

The whole realm seemed to be in mourning. Besides the crown prince, the shipwreck had taken a life. large portion of the ruling class of England and Normandy, and many feared the power vacuum soon to come. King Henry knew that he needed to act quickly now to secure an heir. Less than two months after William Eighthling's death, the widowed king remarried a woman named Adelisa of Levant, but the two had no children. He would need to look elsewhere for an heir. Eventually, he settled on his daughter, Matilda, who had been widowed by the Holy Roman Emperor and had remarried to Geoffrey of Anjou, the younger brother of William Aethling's bride, Matilda. Joffrey liked to wear a sprig of broomblossom

in his hat, and from the Latin name Planta Janista, he had been given a nickname. Jafri Plantagenet, Henry made his lord's swear an oath to support Matilda as his heir. But after Henry's death in 1135, the transition of power to Matilda was not smooth. Some noblemen balked at the idea of being subservient to a woman, while others disliked Joffrey's connection to Anjou, which had historically opposed Norman interests. Matilda's most formidable opponent was Stephen of Blua, who, you may remember, narrowly avoided death on the white ship

because of his bad stomach. The war between Matilda and Stephen officially began in 1138, and it would last until 1153. It was an enormously violent, dangerous, and difficult time, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records, quote, there was nothing but disturbance and wickedness and robbery, end quote. The country would eventually return to a tenuous peace under the rule of the Plantagenet dynasty, but the years of chaos during the civil war between Matilda and Stephen were hard to recover from. After all of Henry's battles, schemes, and accomplishments, his hopes for the peaceful future of England had disappeared, lost under the waves with the

White Ship and his son, William Aethling. That's the story of William Aethling and the White Ship, but continue listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about one of the stories were ironic twists. What's up, everyone? I'm Ingram. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. which is really sweet. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar. of, you know, the cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The white ship disaster had myriad consequences, some more obvious than others. One lesser-known consequence has a strange irony to it.

Routreau, Count of Persh, was devastated by the death of his wife, Matilda, in the... the shipwreck. This Matilda, as you might remember, was the half-sister of William Aethling, who had begged her brother to save her, which led to his death. To honor his wife Matilda's memory, Retro built a chapel in 1122, and then in adjoining monastery several years later. The monastery was called La Trope. 500 years later, in 1664, the abbot of La Trope, who felt that the monastic order had lost its way, introduced a series of reform. This new order became known as the Trappists after their home abbey, and the movement eventually spread around the world.

Most Trappist monasteries produce goods to support themselves, ranging from cheese to coffins, but to this day they are most famous for their beer. Trappist beers are renowned for their rich flavor and are highly sought after by beer enthusiasts. So, in a strange twist of fate, a historic disaster caused, caused by overconsumption of alcohol, led to the creation of one of the most famous alcohol

traditions in Europe. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is produced by Rima Il-Kaali, with supervising producer Josh Thain, and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio,

visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change.

We have to be willing to live. with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions, you can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.