County of Blois

The County of Blois was a feudal principality centred on Blois, south of Paris, France. It was created just after king Clovis I conquered Roman Gaul around AD 500. Between the 8th and the 13th centuries, it was amongst the most powerful vassal counties within the Kingdom of France, after having succeeded in surrounding the Capetian dynasty's lands of France since Blois annexed the Champagne.

Since its creation up to 1498, the county was directed by counts, often with various more or less prestigious titles of nobility, or sometimes delegating their task to viscounts. The county existed until its definitive attachment to the Kingdom's lands in 1660, when Gaston, Duke of Orléans and last count of Blois, died.

History

Ancient times

From the 1st to the 5th centuries, Bloisian depended on the Carnutes ''oppidum'' of ''Autrium'' (corresponding to current city of Chartres), in the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis Senonia. At that time, Blois was actually a little growing city around a fortress built by the Romans, named ''Castrum'' ''Blesense'', and administrated by a Roman consul. Therefore, the surrounding region was called ''pagus Blesensi''.

In 410, a Breton chieftain named Ivomadus would have conquered Blois as well as Chartres by overthrowing the consul in place, a man named Odo who may come from Germany. The cheftain would have established an independent State, the Kingdom of Blois, within the Roman Empire itself, when Emperor Flavius Honorius was already weakened because of repetitive raids conducted by Barbarians. This entity is not well known to historians, but it seems to have resisted the invasion of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, but it did not resist to those by the Franks between 481 and 491.

A first Frankish county

The Franks established there a first county named ''Comitatui blesensi'', whose capital city was already in Blois, on the right bank of the Loire river. The counts' names of that time are not known.

When King Chlothar I died, the county was administratively attached to the Kingdom of Orleans then offered to his elder son Guntram until 592, whereas the neighboring cities of Chartres and Tours were gifted to the second son, Charibert I, yet King of Paris.

At the spiritual level, the diocese of Blois would still depend on the bishopric of Chartres, since the first Frankish Kings would have taken this decision in order to keep the clergy of Chartres away from politics and management of the Blois area.

At these times, Blois was governed by one of the 7 mayors of the palace whose mission was to select a Frankish nobleman to raise him as a count. The name of the chosen count did not come down to us, but a civil war did break out in the region. Along with the Carnutes, the Bloisians fought against people from Orléans.

However, the county seems to be governed directly by the Counts of Orléans, of which the oldest known, Adrian (died before 821), would have come from the Vintzgau family. They were by the way close to the Capetians since King Charlemagne married by 771 Hildegard, the Adrian's sister and daughter of Count Gerold of Vintzgau.

Hence, the title would have formally created in 832 when King Louis ''the Pious'' by making Adrian's second son, called William. Then, William gathered with King Pepin I of Aquitaine to help him retake its Kingdom, that King Louis gave to King Charles II. The first-ever known Count of Blois died in 834 during a battle in this war. Because he did not have any child, the county would have been transmitted to his supposed nephew, Robert ''the Strong'', who would later become Count of Orléans, Anjou, Auxerre and Nevers, but also Margrave of Neustria after 861.

King Robert ''the Strong'' died in 866, and bequeathed his titles to his former foe, Count Hugh of Paris, called ''the Abbot'', who then raised Robert's sons. Both would also become Kings of the Franks, Margraves of Neustria, Counts of Paris: first Odo, then Robert I.

In the meantime, the county was several times looted and burned down by the viking chieftain Hastein: in 851, 854, and somewhen between 856 and 857. He came again in 882 and conquered Chartres before becoming a vassal to King Louis III. The new county of Chartres was hence created right at the North of Blois.

Relegation to the status of viscounty

Around 900, Count Robert decided to delegate the administration of a more autonomous Bloisian to a viscount. He would have chosen to replace him a man called ''Garnegaud'' or ''Odo of Chartres'', who is supposed to be a descendant of Count William and who would have inherited the county of Chartres that his brother would have bought from Hastein in 886. Nonetheless, Odo died in 906. Robert forsaked the county until his death in 923. His son Hugh ''the Great'' succeeded him. Blois remained in the Robertian domain until 940, when King Hugh is said to have offered the county as a viscounty to Theobald ''the Elder'', a possible son of the previous viscount, Garnegaud. Theobald had already been made viscount of Tours in 909 to succeed to Count Fulk I of Anjou, who had been transferred to Nantes by order of King Hugh's father. In 941, he did the same as his suzerain by offering the viscounty of Tours to his son Theobald ''the Trickster''. Theobald ''the Elder'' ended his life in Blois by 943, and his son recovered the rights over Bloisian.

A second ''Thibaldian'' county

Like his father, Theobald ''the Trickster'' was politically close to the Robertians and, therefore, to Duke Hugh, who was even ''the Tricksters uncle by marriage for a time, through his maternal aunt Judith of Maine. His reign as viscount was rather quiet until Duke Hugh's death in 956. Since his heir was not Judith's but Hedwige of Saxony's son, Theobald refused to recognize his legitimacy. Hugh Capet was only 15 years old at that time. Thus, Theobald proclaimed his independence from his young suzerain by calling himself "Count of Blois and Tours". Thus he won his epithet.

In 958, Theobald gathered with his brother-in-law Count Fulk II of Anjou, who he is allied with since the last King of Brittany perished in 952. Both went so far as to present themselves as "governors and administrators of the kingdom of Neustria" and "counts by the grace of God", and not by that of any suzerain. From 960 onwards, Theobald got more strongly associated with Carolingian King Lothair II, and asserted his influence by extending his territory to Bourges, Chartres and Tours. However, he did not break with Hugh Capet and continued to frequent the two courts.

By 1019, his grandson Odo II continued ''the Tricksters conquests by adding to the family domain the county of Meaux as well as that of Troyes in 1023. When he died in 1037, the domains he administered were divided, until they were reunited in 1063 by Count Theobald III, Odo II's son. Meanwhile, the county of Tours was definitively lost in 1044 after the Battle of Nouy against the House of Anjou. The counties of Blois and Champagne are united again until 1152, date on which Theobald IV bequeaths Champagne to his elder Henry I and Blois to his younger brother Theobald V.

In 1171, Blois was one of the first cities in Europe to accuse its Jews of ritual crimes following the unexplained disappearance of a Christian child. On the orders of Count Theobald V, 30 to 35 Jews (out of a community of about 130 people) were burned alive on May 26 near the pitchforks.

The county remained in the Thibaldian family, but in the younger branch of Avesnes from 1230 to 1241 with Countess Mary, then in that of Blois-Châtillon until 1397. The latter lost influence, which was felt in the control of the territories included in the county. When Count Guy II gave up his domain to Duke Louis I of Orléans, for lack of direct male descendants and in the middle of the Hundred Years' War, the county was limited to the area between the manors of Vendôme, Beaugency and Valençay.

Incorporation to the Royal domain

The Duke established the Blois Castle as his official residence, since there was no castle in Orléans

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