Stephen, Count of Blois (b. 1045)
Stephen 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 Gersent of Le Mans.Little is known of Stephen's early years, he is first mentioned as approaching William the Conqueror to ask for and receive the hand of his daughter Adela of Normandy. In 1089, upon the death of his father, Stephen became the Count of Blois and Chartres, although Theobald had given him the administration of those holdings in 1074. According to Guibert of Nogent, he reigned over as many castles as the year has days.
Stephen was one of the leaders of the First Crusade, leading one of the major armies of the crusade and often writing enthusiastic letters to his wife about the crusade's progress. Present at the Siege of Nicaea, he asserts, in his letter, the surrender of the city to fear of siege towers. At some point either before or at the begin of the Siege of Antioch in October 1098, he was chosen as 'leader' of the army, a function that seems to not gone much beyond presiding over the assemblies of the leaders as well as provisioning and housekeeping duties for the armies.
Stephen retreated from the siege on 2 June 1098, the day before the capture of the city, leaving his comrades behind in a difficult situation as a superior Turkish army under Kherboga was approaching. Critically, on the way back to the West he met the Byzantine Emperor Alexios who was marching with an army to assist the crusaders and persuaded him of the futility of his expedition. Alexios consequent decision to turn around contributed to the ongoing suspicion of the crusaders that the Byzantines were not to be trusted and the later conflicts between crusaders and Byzantium.
Having returned without having fulfilled his vows and abandoned his comrades, Stephen returned in disgrace. He was pressured by Adela into making a second pilgrimage, and joined the subsequent Crusade of 1101 in the company of others who had also returned home prematurely. He participated in the failed campaign in Anatolia to free Bohemond from prison which ended in disaster and then sailed from Constantinople to St. Simeon from where he went to Jerusalem, finally fulfilling his vows. In 1102, already on his way back home, he was persuaded by the king of Jerusalem, Baldwin, to fight in the Second Battle of Ramla against the Fatimids. He was taken prisoner and executed, probably in Ascalon on 19 May, at the age of fifty-seven.