Adela from Blois

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Adela of Blois or Adela of Normandy (* around 1062 , † March 8, 1138 ) was Countess of Blois , Chartres and Meaux through her marriage . She was a daughter of William the Conqueror and the mother of five sons, including Stephen of Blois , King of England , Henry of Blois , Bishop of Winchester and Theobald the Great (Theobald II of Champagne and Theobald IV of Blois).

Adela from Blois

Life

Adela von Blois' year of birth is believed to be between 1060 and 1064, but there is also evidence that she was born after her father ascended the throne in 1066. One of the scenes on the Bayeux Tapestry shows her engagement to Harald von Kent , who later gave up the engagement. She married sometime between 1080 and 1084 Stephen II of Blois , 1089 heir to the counties of Blois, Chartres and Meaux.

Adela was regent for her husband while he was absent as one of the leaders of the First Crusade (1095-1098). It is not least due to them that he returned to the east in order to still fulfill his crusade vow to see Jerusalem , which he had broken with his departure from the siege of Antioch . Therefore, she was regent again from 1101 when he joined the crusade of 1101 . Since he fell in the Second Battle of Ramla in 1102 , she continued the reign for her underage children.

Adela was in active correspondence with Anselm of Canterbury . She spent the last years of her life as a nun in the Marcigny monastery .

Her children with Stephan were among others:

  • Wilhelm († 1150), insane and disinherited, Herr von Sully
  • Theobald IV.
  • Mathilda; ⚭ 1115 Richard of Avranches, Earl of Chester
  • Adela; ⚭ 1112 Milo II of Monthlery, Viscount de Troyes
  • Stephen of Blois , King of England
  • Heinrich († 1171), Bishop of Winchester 1121, later a monk in Cluny

literature

  • Kimberly LoPrete: The Anglo-Norman Card of Adela of Blois. In: Albion. Volume 22, 1990
  • Kimberly LoPrete: Adela of Blois and Ivo of Chartres: Piety, Politics, and the Peace in the Diocese of Chartres. In: Anglo-Norman Studies. Volume 19