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Birth:          ABT 1095 of Blois, France
Death:          25 Oct 1154 St Martin's Priory, Dover, England
Burial:         Faversham Abbey, Faversham, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen,_King_of_England
Stephen (c.?1092/6 – 25 October 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois (in 
French, he was known as Étienne de Blois, then Étienne d'Angleterre), was a 
grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, 
and also the Count of Boulogne in right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the 
Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda. He was succeeded 
by Matilda's son, Henry II, the first of the Angevin kings.

Stephen was born in the County of Blois in middle France; his father, Count Stephen-
Henry, died while Stephen was still young, and he was brought up by his mother, 
Adela. Placed into the court of his uncle, Henry I of England, Stephen rose in 
prominence and was granted extensive lands. He married Matilda of Boulogne, 
inheriting additional estates in Kent and Boulogne that made the couple one of the 
wealthiest in England. Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry I's son, William 
Adelin, in the sinking of the White Ship in 1120; William's death left the succession of 
the English throne open to challenge. When Henry I died in 1135, Stephen quickly 
crossed the English Channel and with the help of his brother Henry of Blois, a 
powerful ecclesiastic, took the throne, arguing that the preservation of order across 
the kingdom took priority over his earlier oaths to support the claim of Henry I's 
daughter, the Empress Matilda.

The early years of Stephen's reign were largely successful, despite a series of attacks 
on his possessions in England and Normandy by David I of Scotland, Welsh rebels, 
and the Empress Matilda's husband, Geoffrey of Anjou. In 1138 the Empress's half-
brother Robert of Gloucester rebelled against Stephen, threatening civil war. Together 
with his close advisor, Waleran de Beaumont, Stephen took firm steps to defend his 
rule, including arresting a powerful family of bishops. When the Empress and Robert 
invaded in 1139, however, Stephen was unable to crush the revolt rapidly, and it took 
hold in the south-west of England. Captured at the battle of Lincoln in 1141, Stephen 
was abandoned by many of his followers and lost control of Normandy. Stephen was 
freed only after his wife and William of Ypres, one of his military commanders, 
captured Robert at the Rout of Winchester, but the war dragged on for many years 
with neither side able to win an advantage.

Stephen became increasingly concerned with ensuring that his son Eustace would 
inherit his throne. The King tried to convince the Church to agree to crown Eustace to 
reinforce his claim; Pope Eugene III refused, and Stephen found himself in a 
sequence of increasingly bitter arguments with his senior clergy. In 1153 the 
Empress's son, Henry FitzEmpress, invaded England and built an alliance of powerful 
regional barons to support his claim for the throne. The two armies met at Wallingford, 
but neither side's barons were keen to fight another pitched battle. Stephen began to 
examine a negotiated peace, a process hastened by the sudden death of Eustace. 
Later in the year Stephen and Henry agreed to the Treaty of Winchester, in which 
Stephen recognised Henry as his heir in exchange for peace, passing over William, 
Stephen's second son. Stephen died the following year. Modern historians have 
extensively debated the extent to which Stephen's personality, external events, or the 
weaknesses in the Norman state contributed to this prolonged period of civil war.
Early life (1096–1135)[edit]

Childhood[edit]

Stephen was born in Blois in France, in either 1092 or 1096.[1][nb 1] His father was 
Stephen-Henry, Count of Blois and Chartres, an important French nobleman, and an 
active crusader, who played only a brief part in Stephen's early life.[2] During the First 
Crusade Stephen-Henry had acquired a reputation for cowardice, and he returned to 
the Levant again in 1101 to rebuild his reputation; there he was killed at the battle of 
Ramlah.[3] Stephen's mother, Adela, was the daughter of William the Conqueror and 
Matilda of Flanders, famous amongst her contemporaries for her piety, wealth and 
political talent.[1] She had a strong matriarchal influence on Stephen during his early 
years.[4][nb 2]

France in the 12th century was a loose collection of counties and smaller polities, 
under the minimal control of the king of France. The king's power was linked to his 
control of the rich province of Île-de-France, just to the east of Stephen's home 
county of Blois.[6] In the west lay the three counties of Maine, Anjou and Touraine, 
and to the north of Blois was the Duchy of Normandy, from which William the 
Conqueror had conquered England in 1066. William's children were still fighting over 
the collective Anglo-Norman inheritance.[7] The rulers across this region spoke a 
similar language, albeit with regional dialects, followed the same religion, and were 
closely interrelated; they were also highly competitive and frequently in conflict with 
one another for valuable territory and the castles that controlled them.[8]

Stephen had at least four brothers and one sister, along with two probable half-
sisters.[4] Stephen's eldest brother was William, who under normal circumstances 
would have ruled the county.[3] William was probably intellectually disabled, and 
Adela instead had the title passed over him to her second son, Theobald, who went 
on later to acquire the county of Champagne as well as Blois and Chartres.[3][nb 3] 
Stephen's remaining older brother, Odo, died young, probably in his early teens.[4] His 
younger brother, Henry of Blois, was probably born four years after him.[4] The 
brothers formed a close-knit family group, and Adela encouraged Stephen to take up 
the role of a feudal knight, whilst steering Henry towards a career in the church, 
possibly so that their personal career interests would not overlap.[10] Unusually, 
Stephen was raised in his mother's household rather than being sent to a close 
relative; he was taught Latin and riding, and was educated in recent history and 
Biblical stories by his tutor, William the Norman.[11]
Death[edit]

Stephen's decision to recognise Henry as his heir was, at the time, not necessarily a 
final solution to the civil war.[220] Despite the issuing of new currency and 
administrative reforms, Stephen might potentially have lived for many more years, 
whilst Henry's position on the continent was far from secure.[220] Although Stephen's 
son William was young and unprepared to challenge Henry for the throne in 1153, the 
situation could well have shifted in subsequent years—there were widespread rumours 
during 1154 that William planned to assassinate Henry, for example.[221] Historian 
Graham White describes the treaty of Winchester as a "precarious peace", in line with 
the judgement of most modern historians that the situation in late 1153 was still 
uncertain and unpredictable.[222]

Certainly many problems remained to be resolved, including re-establishing royal 
authority over the provinces and resolving the complex issue of which barons should 
control the contested lands and estates after the long civil war.[223] Stephen burst 
into activity in early 1154, travelling around the kingdom extensively.[224] He began 
issuing royal writs for the south-west of England once again and travelled to York 
where he held a major court in an attempt to impress upon the northern barons that 
royal authority was being reasserted.[221] After a busy summer in 1154, however, 
Stephen travelled to Dover to meet the Count of Flanders; some historians believe that 
the King was already ill and preparing to settle his family affairs.[225] Stephen fell ill 
with a stomach disorder and died on 25 October at the local priory, being buried at 
Faversham Abbey with his wife Matilda and son Eustace.[225]
Popular representations[edit]

Main article: Cultural depictions of Stephen of England

Stephen and his reign have been occasionally used in historical fiction. Stephen and 
his supporters appear in Ellis Peters' historical detective series Brother Cadfael, set 
between 1137 and 1145.[247] Peters' depiction of Stephen's reign is an essentially 
local narrative, focused on the town of Shrewsbury and its environs.[247] Peters 
paints Stephen as a tolerant man and a reasonable ruler, despite his execution of the 
Shrewsbury defenders after the taking of the city in 1138.[248] In contrast, Stephen is 
depicted unsympathetically in both Ken Follett's historical novel The Pillars of the 
Earth and the TV mini-series adapted from it.[249]

Issue[edit]

Stephen of Blois married Matilda of Boulogne in 1125. They had the following issue:
1.Eustace (c. 1130 – 1153), who succeeded his parents as Count Eustace IV of 
Boulogne
2.Matilda (died before 1141), married Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester
3.Marie (1133–1182), who succeeded as Countess Marie I of Boulogne
4.Baldwin (died before 1135)
5.Adela (died before 1146)
6.William (c. 1137 – 1159), who succeeded as Count William I of Boulogne

King Stephen's illegitimate children by a certain Damette were:
1.Gervase, Abbot of Westminster
2.Ralph
3.Americ

Parents
OF BLOIS Stephen [chg from Henry] (Etienne Henri) III "Le Sage" (ABT 1045 - 27 May 1102)
OF NORMANDY Adele (Alice) (ABT 1062 - 8 Mar 1137)

Siblings
DE CHAMPAGNE William ("the Simple") (ABT 1080 - ABT 1150)
OF BLOIS Theobald (Thibaud) IV (II) "the Great" (1090 - 8 Jan 1152)
OF BLOIS Stephen (ABT 1095 - 25 Oct 1154)

Marriage To OF BOULOGNE Matilda I (ABT 1105 - 3 May 1152)
    m. 1125 

Notes

Parents
____ Eustace (Eustache) III (ABT 1059 - ABT 1125)
OF SCOTLAND Mary (1082 - 31 May 1116)

Children by OF BOULOGNE Matilda I ABT 1105 - 3 May 1152
OF BLOIS Marie (Mary) (1136 - 25 Jul 1182)

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