Theobald was the son of Count
Stephen II of Blois and his wife
Adela of Normandy (daughter of
William the Conqueror), and he was the elder brother of King
Stephen of England. Although he was the second son, Theobald was appointed above his older brother
William. Theobald accompanied his mother throughout their domain on hundreds of occasions and, after her retirement to Marcigney in 1125, he administered the family properties with great skill. Adela died in her beloved convent on 8 March 1137, the year after her son Stephen was crowned king of England. King
Louis VII of France became involved in a war with Theobald by permitting Count
Raoul I of Vermandois,
seneschal of
France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor, sister of Theobald and of
King Stephen, in order to marry
Petronilla of Aquitaine, sister of Louis VII's own wife,
Eleanor. The war, which lasted two years (1142–1144), was marked by the occupation of
Champagne by the royal army and the capture of
Vitry-le-François, where 1500 people perished in the deliberate burning of the church by Louis. The
scholastic Pierre Abélard, famous for his love affair with and subsequent marriage to his student
Héloïse d'Argenteuil, sought asylum in Champagne during Theobald II's reign. Abelard died at Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, a monastery supported by the Thebaudians for many centuries. ==Marriage and issue==