Earl Spencer on monarchy and murder- in the 12th century

Click above to watch a video report by ITV News Anglia's Graham Stothard

As well as running a famous estate in Northampton, Earl Spencer has another string to his bow- a passion for history and he's been telling ITV News Anglia about his latest project.

He's written a book which looks into the sinking of The White Ship off France with the King's son on board.

"I have written seven history books and I've always loved history. I always try and pick a flashpoint and turn it into a dramatic book that happens to be true, and with The White Ship, I like to see it as a meeting of Game of Thrones and Titanic.

"It was this extraordinary moment 900 years ago when Britain was turned on its head by one accident at sea which put an the end of the Norman Dynasty and brought in the Plantagenets.

"So it's an extraordinary thing where one accident, on a winter's night, can change the course of history forever."

The sinking happened in 1120. King Henry I's son was on board. He drowned alongside nearly everyone else. There was only one survivor. Legend has it the King never smiled again.

As well as retelling the stories, the Earl has even been on a dive to try and find the remains of the wreckage.

"So far we've done one dive with the team from Oxford University and an international digital research group and I feel very lucky actually because we found very quickly, we had worked out roughly at had to be, a 3-m stretch of a shipwreck that does look like it was built in the 1100s, and we're going back soon to dive on it again."

Of course day-to-day, a lot of his time is taken up with running the Althorp Estate in Northampton, which has belonged to the same family the Spencer's for more than 500 years.

"I'm in my late 50s now and I still have this energy to do all this stuff but there will come a point when actually I think 'I'm 70, I don't need this,' and I'll pass it down the line. But for now it's my pleasure."