A crusader count and a Tudor queen

May 19, 1102 was the day that Stephen, the Count of Blois, was slain at the battle of Ramleh. Stephen appears briefly in the prologue of Saints, as he tries to explain to his five year old son and namesake that his wife, the Countess Adela, daughter of the Conqueror, is insisting he return to the Holy Land to regain the honor she thinks he lost by abandoning the siege of Antioch. I found myself sympathizing with Stephen’s plight, both for being unfairly accused of cowardice and for being wed to Adela. She prevailed, as she usually did, and her husband redeemed his “lost honor” by his death at Ramleh. Here is a touching and very personal letter that Stephen wrote to his wife before the siege of Antioch.
http://mw.mcmaster.ca/scriptorium/ste...
I seem unable to keep the Tudors from crashing the party this month, for I have to mention that on May 19th, 1536, Anne Boleyn was murdered in the Tower of London by her husband, who went riding off to court Jane Seymour as soon as the canons sounded to assure him that his unwanted wife was no longer a hindrance to his plans for a third marriage.