Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne Eustace IV (c. 1127–1135 – 17 August 1153), Count of Boulogne, was the eldest son of King Stephen of England and Countess Matilda I of Boulogne. When his father seized the English throne on Henry I's death in 1135, he became heir apparent to the English throne. Upon his mother's death in 1152 he inherited the county of Boulogne and other estates. Eustace was first mentioned in one of his parents' charters dated no later than August 1131. As heir to the English throne in 1137, he did homage for Normandy to Louis VII of
David, Prince of the Cumbrians the greatest warriors of the age, and applauded if they ended in conquest – nor should it be any surprise that he soon sought to express them upon Henry’s death. That he should seek to place those ambitions upon a solid basis of propriety would have been even less remarkable, had a suitable excuse to attack not been conveniently at hand. When Henry I died in 1135, David had already sat upon the throne of Scotland for nearly eleven years. He had also, in his capacity as a great English nobleman, been the first to swear obedience to Henry’s daughter,