Page 13 - Illustrated Reditch History

The Prince Is Drowned

Matilda had a brother, William, who was one year younger and it was expected that
he would be king. However, there was a terrible tragedy. Because Henry I was king
of both England and a large part of France, he had palaces in both places, and people
often travelled to and fro across the English Channel. One November evening in 1120,
her brother and many of his friends boarded The White Ship to come to England.
There were three hundred passengers and the merrymaking lasted for so long that
it was dark before they set off. Many of the sailors, including the captain, had had too
much to drink. A short way off from the harbour the ship struck a rock and nearly
everyone aboard was drowned.
Both the English and the French palaces were filled with grief. But perhaps the person
who suffered most was the King. He and his ancestors had fought long and hard to
capture his land and now, when he died, there was no-one in the family to take it
over.
He decided that The Empress should be queen and run the country. He called all his
nobles and all his relatives to court and made them promise to support the Empress
when she was queen.
Her father decided she should remarry and looked round for a husband. It was not
easy for him to find a husband for a wife who could not have children. He settled on
Count Geoffrey of Anjou. Matilda was horrified. He was only a boy of 15 and she was
now aged 25. To make matters worse, he was only a Count and she had been married
to an Emperor. They were married in 1128. At first she would have nothing to do with
him but after being told off by her father, she agreed to live with him. To everyone’s
surprise and delight, she became
pregnant and, even better,
when the baby was born in
1133, it was a boy. They
named him Henry after his
grandfather. Here was a
future king. The next
year the Empress had
another little boy
named Geoffrey after
his father.

Two years later she
had her third little
boy, named William.
King Henry would
have been so proud
of her but sadly, he
died before the
baby was born so
that he never saw
his last grandson.

Drawing by Pat Hughes

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