So, in 1120 Prince William "Adelin" of England, the only son of King Henry, perished in a disaster that saw the death of many other important Anglo-Norman nobles. It resulted in the twenty year Anarchy, a long period of civil strife and division during which Henry's sororal nephew Stephen of Blois and Henry's daughter Matilda contested the throne, and the power of barons on both sides of the Channel increased as they offered support in exchange for power and wealth, and for the common people "Christ and his angels slept" and did little to prevent the slaughter and devastation.
I did a quick search and there've been a few thread about the White Ship disaster before, but none focus on some big questions:
With the succession of Henry II "FitzEmpress", also Duke of Anjou and Normandy, to the throne, it's as though the cultural evolution of English royalty to Englishness was "reset" in a way. Henry II had been raised in France, and he and his sons couldn't have written a paragraph in English between them. In addition his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine made him de facto "soft" overlord over half of France, subsequently lost to the French crown through the actions of Richard II, the expense leading to the Magna Carta. Yet English royalty in the body of Edward III remembered their power in France, and used French royal ineptitude and a weak argument to battle for the French throne--the Hundred Years War which would see the evolution of English society and revolutionize French royal power.
So the question is: What far ranging effects do you see with William Adelin's survival. England does hold Normandy at the time, and given luck may not even lose it. How interested and successful would England be in expanding their strength in France. It is their homeland, but England had far more potential and was sovereign. Normandy was nominally subject to France and vulnerable to invasion. Without the Anarchy, Richard II's expensive and foolish involvement in the Crusades, and the expensive wars with and loss of land to France, could England have come into the Late Medieval/Early Modern (1500s) era as a nation more similar socially to France or Spain, with a weak burgher/merchant class, vast and wealthy but weak landowning aristocracy, and vastly rural and serflike peasantry/servant class? Is England fated to industrialize early and successfully due to large coal deposits, likely interest in shipping and thus edge in naval technology and trade, and ideal ground for sheep (textile industry)? With probably less conflict with France, will the textile industry even move to England from Flanders? If it does not, this will further decrease the size, wealth, and influence of cities.
I know it's a lot to ask but what are your thoughts for the far ranging effects.