He has/had a relationship with Adela Moriton.
Child(ren):
Crusader - About 1081 he married Adela of Normandy, the formidable daught er of William The Conqueror, and by her fathered seven children. When Ste phen's father died in 1090 he became Count of Blois and Chartres.In 109 5 Adela became Regent when her husband took part in the first crusade. H e had no enthusiasm for this duty but Adela considered that he ought to g o, so he went. There was never any nonsense in their household about wh o made the decisions---she did. Stephen de Blois went together with Adela 's brother, Robert, Duke of Normandy.Having marched south through Italy, Stephen and his brother-in-law decid ed to spend the winter comfortably in southern Italy before continuing o n their way. When at last these two leaders decided to embark their men a t Brindisi, disaster struck them. It was a very mediaeval kind of disaste r: the first ship to leave port capsized and sank with the loss of all ha nds together with many pack-animals, stores, and chests of money. Most o f their armies allowed themselves to be shipped and, after a rough and un pleasant crossing, they reached Constantinople in May 1096. Stephen de Bl ois was impressed by the city but reserved his greatest admiration for th e Emperor Alexius. 'Your father, my beloved,' he wrote to Adela, 'made ma ny gifts, but he was almost nothing compared with this man'. One cannot h elp but wonder how the formidable Adela reacted to this remark about he r father, William the Conqueror; however, since her husband was the bette r part of two thousand miles away, perhaps for once he himself did not mu ch mind how she reacted.Godfrey of Bouillon had attacked the city of Nicaea and was joined, in e arly June 1096, by Stephen de Blois, Robert of Normandy and Raymond of To ulouse. They celebrated their assault by cutting off the heads of as man y Turks as they could find and catapulting them over the city walls int o the streets. Others were set up on spikes in front of the gates in ful l view of the depressed defenders. A Byzantine force took control of th e city and deprived the crusaders of another massacre by allowing the Tur ks to escape.Stephen wrote to his wife in high spirits: 'In five weeks' time we shal l be in Jerusalem, unless we are held up at Antioch'. After the joint cru sader-force defeated another Turkish army, the retreating Turks laid wast e to the country, burning the crops and destroying or befouling the wells . The weather was still painfully hot and it was not long before hunger a nd thirst began to take their toll. Stephen wrote to Adela to say that i t was a great mistake to imagine that the sun always shone in Syria, fo r 'throughout this winter we have endured intense cold and incessant rain '.Later Stephen marched his men to Alexandretta as he saw no point in havi ng them massacred by the Atabeg of Mosul. Afterwards he was to be rebuke d bitterly for this 'cowardice' by the formidable Adela. He returned to F rance in 1099 but was forced by Adela to return to the East, there to red eem his tarnished reputation which he did by being killed in the Battle o f Ramleh. 3
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Stephen De Blois Count of Blois | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Adela Moriton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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