Stephen I de Blois King of England 
Stephen I de Blois King of was born about 1097 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France. Stephen I de Blois King of's father was Stephen "Le Sage" Count of Champagne & Blois and his mother was Adela of Normandy , Princess of England. His paternal grandparents were Theobald III Comte de Blois and Alix de Crepi; his maternal grandparents were William I "The Conqueror" King of England and Matilda (Maud) of Flanders. He had two brothers and a sister, named William "Simple" de, Theobald IV Count of Champagne & and Maud de. He was the youngest of the four children. He had a half-sister named Emma of. He died on October 25th, 1154 in Dover, Kent, England. He was buried in Count of Blois.General Notes
[Source: Who's Who in the Middle Ages, John Fines, Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1995]
Stephen, future king of England, was born about the year 1096. His mother was Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, and heir to all his strength of will and temper. His father was Stephen Count of Blois and Chartres, a boastful character who had made himself the laughing stock of Europe by running away from the siege of Antioch after having been made commander-in-chief there.
Adela's two favored sons, Stephen and Henry, were both to find their fortunes in England. Henry, a Cluniac monk, quickly accumulated Glastonbury, the richest abbey, and Winchester, the second richest diocese in England, and set out on his career of financial wizardry and ecclesiastical statesmanship. A man of rare power, vision and tact, he was infinitely more attuned to great responsibilities than his brother.
Stephen had a ready charm, and his gay and seemingly open nature made him a great success at court. His uncle Henry I loaded favours on him: he was given estates in England of some half a million acres, and made a favourable marriage to the rich heiress of the Count of Boulogne. Matilda was to be both a loyal and an able wife.
In 1136 Henry died, and though he had made all his barons swear fealty to his daughter Matilda before his death, Stephen now moved speedily to get himself accepted as King in England. His brother swayed the Church to his side, the Londoners were bought with a substantial grant of privileges, and the Norman barons were persuaded that a woman ruler of well-known arrogance and intractability, married to the leader of the Normans' traditional enemies, the Angevins, would be no good prospect for England.
Stephen's dash and promises carried him through for a while, but quickly enough people discovered his faults: he was tricky, changeable, often stupidly weak; he simply could not be relied upon, nor could he trust others. In 1139 Matilda landed, and her bastard brother Robert of Gloucester opened the West to her. During the next eight years she was to win defectors from Stephen's bad government.
In 1141, at Lincoln, Stephen's barons deserted him in battle, and he fell prisoner to Matilda. But she proved as unhappy a mistress as Stephen had been master, and many people were glad when Robert of Gloucester was captured by Stephen's Queen at the rout of Winchester, and Matilda was forced to release Stephen to get him back.
Many barons favoured this dual situation in which they could bargain for their services, and live as war-lords. Castles sprung up all over the land, and in many parts a dreadful anarchy reigned, so that many people openly declared that Christ and his Saints were asleep, and the Devil ruled.
Matilda's son Henry had twice invaded and been repulsed in 1147 and 1149, but when he came again in 1153 he was backed by a tremendous accumulation of continental power. The death of Stephen's son Eustace prompted him to negotiate with the young Duke, and he was encouraged in this by the urgings of the Church and of the Norman barons who wished to regain their continental estates now under Henry's control. So Matilda's son was made heir, and for a further year Stephen ruled, in peace at last, until his death in October 1154. He was buried in his abbey of Faversham.
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Ancestor Pedigree Chart
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*There are earlier generations for the ancestor(s) indicated. See their page(s) for details (click name)
- b.~ 0908 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France d.16 JAN 977/78
- b.~ 0950 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France d.12 MAR 995/96
- b.~ 0920 in Vermandois, Normandy, France d.9 FEB 978/79
- b.0990 in Chartre, France d.15 Nov 1037
- b.0924 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France d.19 Oct 0993
- b.~ 0964 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France d.> 1010 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France
- b.~ 0943 in Laon, Aisne, Picardy, France d.26 Nov 0991
- b.~ 1015 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France d.1089
- b.~ 0935 in Auvergne, France d.1016 in Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dome, Auvergne, France
- b.~ 0965 in Auvergne, France d.1032
- b.~ 0940 in France
- b.~ 0994 in Auvergne, France d.10 MAR 1039/40 in France
- b.0950 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France d.0994 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France
- b.~ 0976 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France d.0994
- b.~ 0953 in Comminges, Haute Garonne, Midi Pyrenees, France d.< 0984
- b.~ 1046 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France d.27 May 1102 in Ramlah, Palestine (on Crusade of 1101)
- b.0919 in Vexin, Seine Inferieure, Normandy, France d.BET 991 AND 998
- b.0944 in Vexin, Seine Inferieure, Normandy, France d.1027 in Castle at Crespy, Valois now Oise, Picardy, France
- b.~ 0920 in Anjou, France
- b.~ 0985 in Vexin, Seine Inferieure, Normandy, France d.1030
- b.0919 in Somme, France d.> 0965 in Senlis, Oise, Picardy, France
- b.~ 0954 in Isle de France, France
- b.~ 1020 in Vexin, Seine Inferieure, Normandy, France
- b.~ 0940 in Ponthieu, Somme, Picardy, France d.~ 0981
- b.0970 in Breteuil, Eure, Normandy, France
- b.0946 in Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, France
- b.0992 in Breteuil, Eure, Normandy, France
- b.0948 in Chartres, Eure-et-Loire, Normandy, France
- b.0974 in Chartres, Eure-et-Loire, Normandy, France
- b.~ 1097 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Orleanais/Centre, France d.25 Oct 1154 in Dover, Kent, England
- b.28 Aug 0933 in Rouen, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France d.20 Nov 0996 in Fecamp, Seine-Inferieure, France
- b.~ 0959 in Rouen, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France d.28 Aug 1026 in Fecamp, Seine-Inferieure, France
- b.~ 0942 in Arque, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France d.1031 in France
- b.~ 0999 in Rouen, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France d.02 Jul 1035 in Nicaea, Bithynia, Turkey (on pilgrimage to Jerusalem)
- b.~ 0950 in Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France d.29 Jun 0992 in killed
- b.~ 0982 in Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France d.16 Jun 1017 in Normandy, France
- b.~ 0952 in Anjou, France d.27 Jun 0992
- b.14 Oct 1027 in Falais, Calvados, France d.09 Sep 1087 in Hermenbraville, Seine-Maritime, France
- b.0978 in Falaise, Clavados, France
- b.~ 1003 in Falaise, Calvados, France d.1050
- b.0980 in France
- b.~ 1062 in Rouen, Seine-Inferieure, Normandy, France d.8 MAR 1136/37
- b.Dec 0961 in Flanders, France d.30 Mar 0987 in Chapel de St Laurent, France
- b.~ 0980 in Flanders now Belgium d.30 May 1036 in Flanders now Belgium
- b.~ 0962 in Luxembourg d.26 JAN 1002/03
- b.1012 in Flanders, France d.01 Sep 1067 in Lille, Nord, France
- b.~ 0965 in Moselgau, France d.06 Oct 1019
- b.~ 0995 in Luxemburg d.21 FEB 1029/30 in Flanders, France
- b.~ 0965 in Gleiberg, Germany
- b.1032 in Flanders, France d.03 Nov 1083 in Caen, Calvados, France
- b.ABT JAN 940/41 in Paris, Seine, France d.14 Oct 0996 in Les Juifs, Chartres, France
- b.27 Mar 0972 in Orleans, France d.20 Jul 1031 in Meulan, Yvelines, Ile-de-France, France
- b.~ 0945 in Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou, France d.~ 1004
- b.1009 in France d.8 JAN 1078/79 in Monastere de L'O, Messines, France
- b.0950 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France d.0994 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France
- b.~ 0986 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrenees, France d.25 Jul 1032 in Meulan, Yvelines, Ile-de-France, France
- b.~ 0942 in Anjou, France d.1026 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France
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