Site Officiel du Château de Blois
The Counts of Blois
A fief more vast than the royal domain
Residence for the Counts, who initially were designated by the Carolingian emperor before their status became hereditary, the Château of Blois became the seat of power for the powerful counts of the House of Blois-Champagne from the 10th to the 13th century, later passing on through succession to the lords of Chatillon sur Seine.

Denier of count Eudes of Blois
Initially designated by the Carolingian rulers Louis the Pious and his successors, the Counts acquired growing autonomy and hereditary status in the course of the 9th century. At the beginning of the 10th century, Thibaut the Elder was both Viscount of Tours and Count of Blois. His successor, Thibaut I (died 975), nicknamed the Cheat by his enemies’ chroniclers, enlarged his domain with the counties of Blois and Dunois and attempted to conqueur Anjou. He reinforced his possessions with fortresses and built a « grand keep » in Blois. He was in opposition with his powerful neighbors : Hugues the Great, Duke of France ; Herbert II, his suzerain and the Count of Vermandois ; the Duke of Normandy ; and the Count of Brittany.

Eudes I (died 996) was in opposition with the King Hugues Capet and his ally Foulques Nerra, Count of Anjou, who succeeded in retaining Langeais and controlling Touraine. Eudes II (died 1037) continued the war begun by his father and was defeated by the Angevins at the great battle of Pontlevoy in 1016. Weakened on the west, he purchased Champagne in 1023, thus encircling the royal domain of the Capetians. His cousin, Stephen-Henri (1047-1102) married Adele of England, eldest daughter of William the Conqueror, in 1081. He was one of the leaders of the First Crusade and participated in the defeat of Nicaea followed by Antioch in 1097. He died in 1102 in a combat against the Egyptian army. Thibaut II and Thibaut III inherited the counties of Blois and Chartres. Thibaut IV the Great (1093-1151) reunited Champagne and Blois in 1125 and became the second figure in the kingdom of France. His brothers Henri and Stephen became respectively the Bishop of Winchester and the King of England.

Denier of count Eudes of BloisLouis of Blois (1191-1205 allied with Richard Coeur de Lion (or "Lion Heart") against the King of France, Philip Augustus. He was one of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade and participated in the fall of Constantinople in 1204. He died in the Holy Land at the battle of Adrianople on April 14, 1205. His son Thibaut VI (1205-1218) was the last Count of Blois from the House of Champagne. He built the great hall (actual Hall of the Estates General) at the château in 1214. At his death, the county passed on through its female inheritors to the House of Chatillon- sur-Seine. This important Burgundian family did not have the same political clout as the former House of Champagne and the county lost its former influence in the Kingdom of France.

The Count of Blois John I (1248-1280) inherited the seigneuries of Aesnes, Condé, Guise, and Landrecies. With his wife Alix of Brittany, he founded several new religious establishments in Blois : the Franciscan convent in 1256, the abby of La Guiche in Chouzy in 1271, and the Dominican convent in 1273. His daughter, the Countess Jeanne (1280-1292), married a son of Saint Louis, Peter of Alençon. When she became a widow, Jeanne sold the County of Chartres to the King of France, Philip the Fair, and granted the seigneury of Avesnes to her cousin, Hugues of Chatillon. He later inherited the counties of Blois and Dunois.

The last Count of Blois from the House of Chatillon was Guy II (1381-1397). After the death of his son and only heir Louis of Chatillon, he sold the County of Blois to Louis of France, Duke of Touraine and founder of the ducal House of Orléans.