Finished: The White Ship (Spencer) Historical non-fiction telling of the tragic sinking of the White Ship, the ship in King Henry I's royal fleet that was carrying his only legitimate son and heir to the throne, seventeen year old William, when it crashed into a rock soon after setting sail from Normandy heading back home to England, killing everyone aboard except a butcher. The story begins with William's grandfather, William the Conqueror and his successful conquest of the English crown. Having four sons among his children, Henry was the fourth son with little chance of becoming king. We read the complicated history of all the sons and the deaths and wars that finally lead to Henry's chance to grab the throne and become King Henry I. King Henry has one daughter and one son with his wife (and at least twenty illegitimate children). After suffering the trials of being one of four brothers battling for the same lands and crown all his life, he decides one legitimate son and heir is plenty, and does not press his wife to have more children. Henry prepares his son to become the king and has already announced William as the heir to the throne when the tragedy strikes. After a successful campaign in Normandy, Henry and all his noblemen and knights, along with much of the younger generation of those nobleman, peers of William's, prepare to set sail back home to England. King Henry goes ahead on the first ship, while many of his faithful noblemen and almost all of that younger generation, board a different ship, the White Ship, a few hours later in the dark. The crash is harrowing, and as told by the the surviving butcher, William was spirited off in a lifeboat by his guards, and was headed to shore when he insisted they turn back for one of his step-sisters who was screaming for his help. When the boat turned back, it was quickly overtaken by panicking people trying to climb aboard and capsized with all aboard perishing. King Henry goes into a terrible grief, but also realizes the precarious situation the future of his crown is in. Henry's wife, Matilda of Scotland, had died two years prior, so Henry marries as quickly as possible to try and produce another male heir. His attempts prove to be futile. In the last years of his life he takes oaths from all his trusted nobleman that they will support his next choice for the throne, his daughter, also called Matilda. When King Henry finally does die, the years following his death 1135-1153 become known as the Anarchy, as Matilda goes to war with Henry's nephew, Stephen of Blois, for the thrown. After years of bloody war, Stephen's unimpressive turn as king, and Matilda's various unsuccessful rallies for the thrown, a peace pact is finally reached between Stephen and Matilda assuring that Matilda's son, Henry, will become Stephen's official heir to the thrown, his own son having already died. So, with the crowning of King Henry II, the book comes to a close as the House of the Plantagenets is ushered into England. It's a very well told story if you like the historical telling of England's royal history by the piecing together of accounts from many witnesses and historians from the time. :-)