in 1128. In 1135, on the death of his maternal uncle, Henry I., king of England, he was called to Normandy by the barons of the duchy, but soon renounced his claims on learning that his younger brother, Stephen, had just been proclaimed king of England. In 1152 Theobald V. the Good, second son of Theobald IV., became count; he died in 1191 in Syria, at the siege of Acre. His son Louis succeeded in 1191, took part in the fourth crusade, and after the taking of Constantinople was rewarded with the duchy of Nicaea. He was killed at the battle of Adrianople in 1205, in which year he was succeeded by his son, Theobald VI. the Young, who died childless. In 1218 the countship passed to Margaret, eldest daughter of Theobald V., and to Walter (Gautier) of Avesnes, her third husband.
The Châtillon branch of the counts of Blois began in 1230 with Mary of Avesnes, daughter of Margaret of Blois and her husband, Hugh of Châtillon, count of St Pol. In 1241 her brother, John of Châtillon, became count of Blois, and was succeeded in 1279 by his daughter, Joan of Châtillon, who married Peter, count of Alençon, fifth son of Louis IX., king of France. In 1286 Joan sold the countship of Chartres to the king of France. Hugh of Châtillon, her first-cousin, became count of Blois in 1293, and was succeeded by his son, Guy I., in 1307. In 1342 Louis II., eldest son of Guy I., died at the battle of Crécy, and his brother, Charles of Blois, disputed the duchy of Brittany with John of Montfort. Louis III., eldest son of Louis II., became count in 1346, and was succeeded by John II., second son of Louis II., in 1372. In 1381 Guy II., brother of Louis III. and John II., succeeded in 1381, but died childless. Overwhelmed with debt, he had sold the countship of Blois to Louis I., duke of Orleans, brother of King Charles VI., who took possession of it in 1397.
In 1498 the countship of Blois was united with the crown by the accession of King Louis XII., grandson and second successor of Louis I., duke of Orleans.
See Bernier, Histoire de Blois (1682); La Saussaye, Histoire de la ville de Blois (1846). (A. Lo.)
BLOMEFIELD, FRANCIS (1705–1752), English topographer of the county of Norfolk, was born at Fersfield, Norfolk, on the 23rd of July 1705. On leaving Cambridge in 1727 he was ordained, becoming in 1729 rector of Hargham, Norfolk, and immediately afterwards rector of Fersfield, his father’s family
living. In 1733 he mooted the idea of a history of Norfolk, for
which he had begun collecting material at the age of fifteen, and
shortly afterwards, while collecting further information for
his book, discovered some of the famous Paston Letters. By
1736 he was ready to put some of the results of his researches into
type. At the end of 1739 the first volume of the History of Norfolk was completed. It was printed at the author’s own press,
bought specially for the purpose. The second volume was ready
in 1745. There is little doubt that in compiling his book Blomefield
had frequent recourse to the existing historical collections
of Le Neve, Kirkpatrick and Tanner, his own work being to a
large extent one of expansion and addition. To Le Neve in
particular a large share of the credit is due. When half-way
through his third volume, Blomefield, who had come up to London
in connexion with a special piece of research, caught smallpox,
of which he died on the 16th of January 1752. The remainder of
his work was published posthumously, and the whole eleven
volumes were republished in London between 1805 and 1810.
BLOMFIELD, SIR ARTHUR WILLIAM (1829–1899), English
architect, son of Bishop C. J. Blomfield, was born on the 6th of
March 1829, and educated at Rugby and Trinity, Cambridge.
He was then articled as an architect to P. C. Hardwick, and
subsequently obtained a large practice on his own account. He
became president of the Architectural Association in 1861, and a
fellow (1867) and vice-president (1886) of the Royal Institute of
British Architects. In 1887 he became architect to the Bank of
England, and designed the law courts branch in Fleet Street, and
he was associated with A. E. Street in the building of the law
courts. In 1889 he was knighted. He died on the 30th of
October 1899. He was twice married, and brought up two sons,
Charles J. Blomfield and Arthur Conran Blomfield, to his own
profession, of which they became distinguished representatives.
Among the numerous churches which Sir Arthur Blomfield
designed, his work at St Saviour’s, Southwark, is a notable
example of his use of revived Gothic, and he was highly regarded
as a restorer.
BLOMFIELD, CHARLES JAMES (1786–1857), English divine,
was born on the 29th of May 1786 at Bury St Edmunds. He was
educated at the local grammar school and at Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he gained the Browne medals for Latin and
Greek odes, and carried off the Craven scholarship. In 1808 he
graduated as third wrangler and first medallist, and in the
following year was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College.
The first-fruits of his scholarship was an edition of the Prometheus
of Aeschylus in 1810; this was followed by editions of the Septem contra Thebas, Persae, Choephorae, and Agamemnon, of Callimachus,
and of the fragments of Sappho, Sophron and Alcaeus.
Blomfield, however, soon ceased to devote himself entirely to
scholarship. He had been ordained in 1810, and held in quick
succession the livings of Chesterford, Quarrington, Dunton, Great
and Little Chesterford, and Tuddenham. In 1817 he was
appointed private chaplain to Wm. Howley, bishop of London.
In 1819 he was nominated to the rich living of St Botolph’s,
Bishopsgate, and in 1822 he became archdeacon of Colchester.
Two years later he was raised to the bishopric of Chester where he
carried through many much-needed reforms. In 1828 he was
translated to the bishopric of London, which he held for twenty-eight
years. During this period his energy and zeal did much to
extend the influence of the church. He was one of the best
debaters in the House of Lords, took a leading position in the
action for church reform which culminated in the ecclesiastical
commission, and did much for the extension of the colonial
episcopate; and his genial and kindly nature made him an
invaluable mediator in the controversies arising out of the
tractarian movement. His health at last gave way, and in 1856
he was permitted to resign his bishopric, retaining Fulham
Palace as his residence, with a pension of £6000 per annum. He
died on the 5th of August 1857. His published works, exclusive
of those above mentioned, consist of charges, sermons, lectures
and pamphlets, and of a Manual of Private and Family Prayers.
He was a frequent contributor to the quarterly reviews, chiefly
on classical subjects.
See Memoirs of Charles James Blomfield, D.D., Bishop of London, with Selections from his Correspondence, edited by his son, Alfred Blomfield (1863); G. E. Biber, Bishop Blomfield and his Times (1857).
BLOMFIELD, EDWARD VALENTINE (1788–1816), English
classical scholar, brother of Bishop C. J. Blomfield, was born at
Bury St Edmunds on the 14th of February 1788. Going to
Caius College, Cambridge, he was thirteenth wrangler in 1811,
obtained several of the classical prizes of the university, and
became a fellow and lecturer at Emmanuel College. In 1813 he
travelled in Germany and made the acquaintance of some of
the great scholars of Germany. On his return, he published in
the Museum Criticum (No. ii.) an interesting paper on “The
Present State of Classical Literature in Germany.” Blomfield is
chiefly known by his translation of Matthiae’s Greek Grammar
(1819), which was prepared for the press by his brother. He died
on the 9th of October 1816, his early death depriving Cambridge
of one who seemed destined to take a high place amongst her
most brilliant classical scholars.
See “Memoir of Edward Valentine Blomfield,” by Bishop Monk, in Museum Criticum, No. vii.
BLONDEL, DAVID (1591–1655), French Protestant clergyman,
was born at Châlons-sur-Marne in 1591, and died on the 6th of
April 1655. In 1650 he succeeded G. J. Vossius in the professorship
of history at Amsterdam. His works were very numerous;
in some of them he showed a remarkable critical faculty, as in his
dissertation on Pope Joan (1647, 1657), in which he came to the
conclusion, now universally accepted, that the whole story is a
mere myth. Considerable Protestant indignation was excited
against him on account of this book.
BLONDEL, JACQUES FRANÇOIS (1705–1774), French architect, began life as an architectural engraver, but developed into an architect of considerable distinction, if of no great
