• Born: 1066/7, Normandy, France
• Married: After 1081, Chartes Cathedral, France
• Died: 8 Mar 1134/5, Marsilly, Charente-Maritime, France
• Buried: Abbey Of Holy Trinity, Caen, Normandy

  Research Notes:

Orderic Vitalis names “Adelizam et Constantiam, Ceciliam et Adalam” as the daughters of “Willermus Normanniæ dux” and his wife “Mathildem Balduini ducis Flandrensium filiam, neptem...ex sorore Henrici regis Francorum”. In another passage, the same source names the daughters “Agatham et Constantiam, Adelizam, Adelam et Ceciliam”, and in a third place “Agathen ac Adelizam, Constantiam, Adalam et Ceciliam”. She is named third in his list of the daughters of King William I by Matthew Paris, but this appears unlikely in view of Adela's child-bearing until her husband's death in 1102. Her birth date is estimated bearing in mind that marriage frequently took place in early adolescence at the time, and also because Adela clearly continued to bear children until her husband's death. Orderic Vitalis records the betrothal “apud Bretolium” of “Stephanus Blesensis palatinus comes” and “Guillelmo rege...Adelam eius filiam” and their marriage “apud Carnotum”, dated to 1081. Orderic Vitalis records that she encouraged her husband to join the First Crusade and did not hide her shame when he deserted from Antioch in 1098.

Regent of Blois 1102-1107, after the death of her husband. She became a nun at the Cluniac priory of Marigney-sur-Loire in [1122].

The necrology of Chartres cathedral records the death "VIII Id Mar" of "Adela comitissa", and in another manuscript the death "VIII Id Mar" of "Adela nobilis Blesensium comitissa regis Anglorum Willelmi filia". ¹