Mother Garsinde du Maine | Name Stephen, of | |
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Children Stephen, King of England, Henry of Blois Parents Gersende of Maine, Theobald III, Count of Blois Grandchildren Theobald V, Count of Blois Similar People Adela of Normandy, Stephen - King of England, William the Conqueror, Henry I of England, Matilda of Flanders | ||
Stephen count of blois
Stephen II Henry (in French, Étienne Henri, in Medieval French, Estienne Henri; c. 1045 – 19 May 1102), Count of Blois and Count of Chartres, was the son of Theobald III, count of Blois, and Garsinde du Maine. He is numbered Stephen II after Stephen I, Count of Troyes.
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In 1089, upon the death of his father, he became the Count of Blois and Chartres, although Theobald had given him the administration of those holdings in 1074. He was the father of Stephen of England.
Count Stephen was one of the leaders of the First Crusade, leading one of the major armies of the Princes and often writing enthusiastic letters to his wife Adela of Normandy about the crusade's progress. Stephen was the head of the army council at the Crusaders' siege of Nicaea in 1097. He returned home in 1098 during the lengthy siege of Antioch, fleeing the battlefield, without having fulfilled his crusading vow to forge a way to Jerusalem. He was pressured by Adela into making a second pilgrimage, and joined the minor crusade of 1101 in the company of others who had also returned home prematurely. In 1102, Stephen was killed at the Second Battle of Ramla at the age of fifty-seven.
Family
Stephen married Adela of Normandy, a daughter of William the Conqueror around 1080 in Chartres. He fathered Adela's children:
- William, Count of Sully
- Theobald II, Count of Champagne
- Odo, who died young
- Stephen, King of England
- Lucia-Mahaut, married Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester. Both drowned on 25 November 1120 in the White Ship disaster.
- Agnes, married Hugh III of Le Puiset
- Eleanor (d. 1147) married Raoul I of Vermandois (d. 1152) and had issue; they were divorced in 1142.
- Alix (c. 1100 – 1145) married Renaud III of Joigni (d. 1134) and had issue
- Adelaide, married Milo II of Montlhéry, Viscount of Troyes (divorced 1115)
- Henry, Bishop of Winchester
- Humbert, died young
A late 14th century source gives him an illegitimate daughter Emma, wife of Herbert of Winchester and mother of William of York, archbishop of York, but recent research suggests a different parentage for her.