PETER OF BLOIS [PETRUS BLESENSIS] (C. 1135—C. 1205), French writer, the son of noble Breton parents, was born at Blois. In 1167 he went to Sicily, where he became tutor to the young king William II., and keeper of the royal seal. He made many enemies and soon asked permission to leave the country, return ing to France about 1170. Peter entered the employ of Henry II. of England about 1173. He became archdeacon of Bath and soon afterwards chancellor, or secretary, to Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, and to Richard's successor, Baldwin, being sent on two occasions to Italy to plead the cause of these prelates before the pope. After the death of Henry II. in 1189, he was for a time secretary to his widow, Eleanor, in Normandy; he obtained the posts of dean of Wolverhampton and archdeacon of London. He died some time of ter March 1204.
Peter's writings fall into four classes, letters, treatises, sermons and poems. His Epistolae, collected at the request of Henry II., are an important source for the history of the time ; they are addressed to Henry II., and to various prelates and scholars, including Thomas
Becket and John of Salisbury. His treatises include De lerosolymitana peregrinatione acceleranda, an exhortation to take part in the third crusade, and Dialogus inter regem Henricum II. et abbatem Bonae vallensem; his extant sermons number 65 and his poems are unim portant. Peter's works have been printed in several collections, including the Patrologia of J. P. Migne and the Historiae francorum scriptores of A. Duchesne. Of separate editions the best are those by Pierre de Goussainville (Paris, 1667) and J. A. Giles (Oxford, 1846 1847).
See the Histoire litteraire de la France, Tome xv.; W. Stubbs, Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History (Oxford, 1886) ; Sir T. D. Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain and C. L. Kingsford in vol. xlv. of the Diet. Nat. Biog.