Stephen, Count of Blois

Stephen Henry of Blois ( Etienne Henri, * 1045, † May 19, 1102 after the Battle of Ramla ) was since 1089 a Count of Blois, Chartres, Châteaudun, Sancerre and Meaux. He was the eldest son of Count Theobald III. / I. of Blois -Champagne, and his second wife Gundrade ( Gondrée ).

Usually it is called in dynastic continuity Stephen II, in distinction to his uncle, Count Stephen I of Champagne.

Life

Stephan is first mentioned in 1061 in fighting against the Count of Anjou, in 1074 his father gave him the regency in Blois and Chartres. Stephen married in 1081 in Chartres, Adela of Normandy, a daughter of William the Conqueror with the house Blois shared a hostility to King Philip I of France. 1088 Stephan fell after a failed uprising against the king in imprisonment. After his release, he was a faithful vassal of King Philip and fought for this successful uprising of Count Burchard II of Corbeil.

Crusades

Count Stephan took the cross in 1096 and was one of the leaders of the First Crusade in the quota of his brother Robert shorts. He wrote enthusiastic letters to his wife about the progress of the company. During the protracted siege of Antioch and privation he left the Crusader army on June 2, 1098, two days before the fall of the city, and returned to their homeland. There he was confronted with allegations and rejected as he had stored vows to rid the Jerusalem not met.

His wife Adela urged him to make a second armed pilgrimage to fulfill his vow. So he joined the crusade of 1101 - along with others who were suspended after their premature return to the same pressure. In the battle of Raymond of Toulouse Mersivan he saved the life, which he then helped in the capture of Tartus. At Easter 1102 Stephan finally reached Jerusalem.

On May 17, 1102, he participated in the Battle of Ramla and fell on the following day at the Tower of Ramla 57- year fighting the Egyptian Fatimids.

Marriage and issue

Stephen's marriage to Adela of Normandy († March 8, 1138 ) should be momentous. After the Erbsohn her brother Henry Beauclerc drowned in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120, he appointed his only legitimate daughter Matilda heiress of England and Normandy. Since this, however, was married to the Count of Anjou, a sworn enemy of the Normans, as well as of Blois, the barons rejected the succession regime and preferred the sons Stephen and Adele in the succession (see English Civil War 1135-1154 ).

The children of the couple were:

  • Wilhelm ( * 1090/1093, † 1150 ), Count of Chartres, presumably excluded from the site because of mental retardation, the progenitor of the Lords of Sully
  • Theobald IV the Great ( * 1090/1095; † January 10, 1152 ), Count of Blois and Champagne since 1125
  • Odo ( † after 1107 )
  • Mathilde († November 25, 1120 in front of Barfleur ), drowned with her ​​husband on the " white ship " ∞ since 1115 with Richard d' Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester ( † November 25, 1120 )
  • ∞ since about 1120, Count Rudolf I of Vermandois, the marriage was divorced in 1142

In addition, the pair of three more daughters without secure tradition be attributed to:

  • Agnes ∞ with Hugo III. Le Puiset († 1132 in Palestine ) ( House Le Puiset )
  • ∞ 1112 with Milon II of Montlhery († 1118), the marriage was divorced in 1113
  • ∞ with Count Renaud III. of Joigny († 1150 )

Itemization

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