Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne

2025-07-06T05:41:36Z

2601:645:4200:75F0:A0CF:4E44:349C:C96C: Correct citation

{{Short description|Heir apparent of King Stephen of England (died 1153)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Eustace IV
| image = Eust4Boul02.jpg
| caption = Piece of coinage with Eustace IV's effigy
| succession = [[Count of Boulogne]]
| reign = 25 December 1146{{snd}}17 August 1153<ref name="Tanner153">Heather J. Tanner, ''Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady'', ed. B. Wheeler, John C. Parsons, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 153.</ref>
| predecessor = [[Matilda of Boulogne|Matilda I]] and [[Stephen of England|Stephen]]
| pre-type = Predecessors
| successor = [[William I, Count of Boulogne|William I]]
| birth_date = {{circa}} 1130<ref name="Tanner153" />
| death_date = 17 August 1153 (aged c. 23)
| death_place = [[Bury St Edmunds]], [[Suffolk]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Constance of France (1124–1176)|Constance of France]]|1140}}
| house = [[House of Blois|Blois]]
| father = [[Stephen, King of England]]
| mother = [[Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne]]
| burial_place = [[Faversham Abbey]], [[Kent]]
}}
'''Eustace IV''' (c. 1129/1131 {{snd}}17 August 1153) ruled the [[County of Boulogne]] from 1146 until his death. He was the eldest son of King [[Stephen of England]] and Countess [[Matilda I of Boulogne]].<ref name =DNB>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46704/?back=,26365 Edmund King, ''Eustace, count of Boulogne'', Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004]</ref> When his father seized the English throne on [[Henry I of England|Henry I's]] death in 1135, he became [[heir apparent]] to the English throne but predeceased his father.

==Early life==
Eustace was first mentioned in one of his parents' charters dated no later than August 1131.<ref name =DNB/> Stephen ascended the English throne upon the death of his uncle King [[Henry I of England|Henry I]], but Henry's daughter [[Empress Matilda]] claimed the throne as well, leading to the long civil war known as [[the Anarchy]]. As [[heir apparent]] to the English throne in 1137, Eustace did homage for [[Normandy]] to King [[Louis VII of France]]; he was married to Louis's sister [[Constance of France (1124–1176)|Constance]] in 1140 when she was 16 and he was about 10 or 12.<ref>[[Sara McDougall]], ''Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230'', (Oxford University Press, 2017), 202.</ref> Eustace was knighted in 1147, at which date he was probably from sixteen to eighteen years of age.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Eustace|display=Eustace s.v. Eustace IV.|volume=9|pages=956–957}}</ref>

==The Anarchy==
[[File:Eust4Boul01.jpg|thumb|Coins of Eustace IV]]
In 1151, Eustace joined his brother-in-law, Louis VII, in a raid upon Normandy, also contested between Empress Matilda and King Stephen. This was short-lived, however, when Louis accepted the homage of [[Henry Plantagenet]], son of Empress Matilda, for Normandy. The following year, Eustace was in France as part of a wider coalition of Henry's enemies, but Henry's control of the duchy remained unshaken.<ref name="DNB" />

In the later stages of the Anarchy, Stephen was concerned with cementing Eustace as his heir without question. At a council held in London on 6 April 1152, Stephen induced a small number of [[baron]]s to pay homage to Eustace as their future king; but the [[archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Theobald of Bec]], and the other bishops declined to perform the [[coronation]] ceremony on the grounds that the [[Roman curia]] had declined Stephen's request<ref name="EB1911"/> to use the French custom and crown Eustace in his own lifetime, opting rather they stick to English custom, thus denying Eustace his coronation. This infuriated Stephen and Eustace to such a degree that, as recorded by [[Henry of Huntingdon]], they had the prelates confined and attempted by means of 'strong coercion' to force their acquiescence. Theobald himself was said to have escaped across the Thames and eventually into temporary exile in Flanders. While Edmund King casts doubts on this particular account he does not doubt the King's rage.<ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Edmund |title=King Stephen |date=2010 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven and London |pages=370–371}}</ref>

This clearly had not been Stephen's first attempt at crowning Eustace as [[John of Salisbury]] reports that [[Celestine II]] had written to Archbishop Theobald as early as 1143 forbidding him 'to allow any change to be made in the English kingdom in the matter of the crown', a policy that was maintained by Celestine's immediate successors.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Chibnall |editor1-first=Marjorie |title=The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury |date=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages=85–86}}</ref> Eustace's mother, [[Matilda I, Countess of Boulogne|Matilda of Boulogne]], died on 3 May 1152, making him the [[count of Boulogne]].{{cn|date=January 2023}}

After the second siege of Wallingford in July 1153, after Henry had invaded England and attracted widespread support, Stephen was persuaded to agree to terms. The agreement, known as the [[Treaty of Winchester]], established Henry as Stephen's heir. Eustace withdrew from the court as a result of this, "greatly vexed and angry, because the war, in his opinion, had not reached a proper conclusion".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gesta Stephani|last1=Potter|first1=K. R.|last2=Davies|first2=R. H. C.|publisher=Clarendon press|year=1976|isbn=978-0198222347|pages=238–239}}</ref>

==Death and aftermath==
Eustace died suddenly that same year, in mid-August 1153, struck down (so it was said) by the wrath of God while plundering church lands near [[Bury St Edmunds]]. Others believed that Eustace died simply of a broken heart.<ref name="DNB" /> The death of Eustace was hailed with general satisfaction as opening the possibility of a peaceful settlement between Stephen and his rival, the young Henry Plantagenet.<ref name="EB1911"/> According to [[William of Newburgh]], Stephen was "grieved beyond measure by the death of the son whom he hoped would succeed him; he pursued warlike preparations less vigorously, and listened more patiently than usual to the voices of those urging peace."{{fact|date=December 2021}}

The reputation Eustace left behind was mixed. On the one hand, the ''[[Peterborough Chronicle]]'', not content with voicing this sentiment, gives Eustace a bad character. "He was an evil man and did more harm than good wherever he went; he spoiled the lands and laid thereon heavy taxes."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Peterborough chronicle|last=Clark|first=Cecily|publisher=Clarendon press|year=1970|isbn=978-0198111368|location=Oxford|pages=53}}</ref> Eustace raided church lands near Peterborough, possibly inciting this hatred from the ''Chronicle''. He had used threats against the recalcitrant bishops, and in the war against the [[House of Plantagenet|Angevin]] party had demanded contributions from religious houses.<ref name="EB1911"/> However, the ''[[Gesta Stephani]]'' describes his courtly manner as a true heir to Stephen able to "meet men on a footing of equality or superiority as the occasion acquired".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gesta stephani|last1=Potter|first1=K. R.|last2=Davies|first2=R. H. C.|publisher=Clarendon press|year=1976|isbn=978-0198222347|pages=208–9}}</ref>

Eustace was buried in [[Faversham Abbey]] in [[Kent]], which was founded by his parents. They too were buried in Faversham Abbey; all three tombs are now lost, as a consequence of the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]].{{fact|date=December 2021}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/C_Peck_Eustace_2018.pdf Eustace, Son of King Stephen: The Model Prince in Twelfth-Century England]

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-hou|[[Count of Blois|House of Blois]]|?|c. 1130|17 August|1153}}
{{S-reg}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Matilda of Boulogne|Matilda I]]
| before2 = [[Stephen of England|Stephen]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Count of Boulogne]]
| years = 1151–1153
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[William I, Count of Boulogne|William I]]
}}
{{S-end}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eustace Iv Of Boulogne}}
[[Category:Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne| ]]
[[Category:1130s births]]
[[Category:1153 deaths]]
[[Category:English heirs apparent who never acceded]]
[[Category:Counts of Boulogne]]
[[Category:Counts of Mortain]]
[[Category:House of Blois]]
[[Category:People of The Anarchy]]
[[Category:Children of Stephen, King of England]]
[[Category:Burials at Faversham Abbey]]
[[Category:Anglo-Normans]]
[[Category:Sons of kings]]

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Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne