It remained a despotism, but from this moment it was a despotism regulated and held in check by the forms of administrative routine.

Heavy as was the taxation under Henry the First, terrible as was the suffering throughout his reign from famine and plague, the peace and order which his government secured through thirty years won a rest for the land in which conqueror and conquered blended into a single people and in which this people slowly moved forward to a new freedom.

But while England thus rested in peace a terrible blow broke the fortunes of her king.

In 1120 his son, William the "AEtheling," with a crowd of nobles accompanied Henry on his return from Normandy; but the White Ship in which he embarked lingered behind the rest of the royal fleet till the guards of the king's treasure pressed its departure.

It had hardly cleared the harbour when the ship's side struck on a rock, and in an instant it sank beneath the waves.