Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Book Club podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor for The Spectator, and this week I'm joined by Charles Spencer, the author of a book called The White Ship, Conquest Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I

First Dream, which is out in paperback this month. Charles, welcome. Now this is a book that

it's a, it's a centers on the white ship disaster, which we'll get to, but it really kind of

covers everything from the conquest to the coronation of Henry the second. And I want to start if I could, but asking you to sort of paint a bit of a picture of the world

we're in. Because, you know, Henry I, you know, Henry I, you know,

substantially the, the, the center of the story, you know, he wasn't necessarily going to be king

at all. It was quite odd that he was, wasn't it?

Yes, I think this is part of the sort of backstory of this book is Henry I first's opportunism. So he was the fourth and youngest son of William the Conqueror. And we think possibly

because he was literate, unlike his brothers or father,

that he was destined for the church. But one elder brother, who I hadn't heard of called Richard,

died in a hunting accident. Then we know, of course, William Rufus dies in a hunting accident.

And when that happens in the summer of 1100, Henry I seizes the throne. And he's a very

impressive man, but he was much

underestimated at the time. I don't think anyone really paid much attention to him that the sort

of more highfaluting nobleman of the time saw him as slightly embarrassing, really. He was this

young man who liked to hang out with his own pack of hounds and play in the forest and who could

read. This is all thought very odd. So the fact that he became king was was a huge surprise,

but you ask about the sort of tone of this time. I'd say it's, without sounding too commercial,

it is very game of thronesish. Whoever could grab the throne convincingly first tended to get it rather than primogenity

are really coming into it. So a brutal time, and that's why Henry I fitted in, because under

this sort of vaguely intelligent exterior was a very hard-nosed man. I mean, the cruelty of it

is sort of astonishing, because one you know, one thinks of Henry I, in as much as one thinks of him at all, as this rather kind of competent, serious king who, you know, founds the modern administrative state and does all these extraordinary things. But, you know, you have him sort of chopping the feet off peasants who are picking up firewood in his forests, and he blinds his own granddaughters.

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