Stephen, Count of Blois
| Stephen II of Blois | |
|---|---|
Seal of Stephen II
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| Spouse(s) | Adela of Normandy |
| Noble family | House of Blois |
| Father | Theobald III, Count of Blois |
| Mother | Garsinde du Maine |
| Born | c. 1045 |
| Died | 19 May 1102 Ramallah Palestine |
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.
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.
Stephen married Adela of Normandy, a daughter of William the Conqueror around 1080 in Chartres. He fathered Adela's children:
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