House of Blois chose a wife from the House of Champagne (Adela of Champagne) as a counterpoise to Angevin power. The senior line of the House of Blois became extinct with the death of Joan I of Navarre, wife of Philip IV of France, in 1305. Champagne and Navarre passed to the Capetian dynasty. King Stephen I of England, 1135–1154, was both a member of the House of Blois and the last Anglo-Norman King, being the grandson of William the Conqueror through his daughter Adela of Normandy. A branch of the family was established in Sancerre by Stephen I of Sancerre, a younger
Château de Blois King Henry III lived at Blois and held the Estates-General convention there in 1576 and 1588. During the December 1588 convention the king had his arch-enemy, Henry I, Duke of Guise assassinated. The following day, the Duke's brother, Louis II, Cardinal of Guise was also assassinated. After this, the castle was occupied by Henry IV, the first Bourbon monarch. On Henry's death in 1610, it became the place of exile for his widow, Marie de' Medici, when she was expelled from her son's court, Louis XIII. In 1626, King Louis XIII gave the Château of Blois to his brother and