His holdings were the smallest among the brothers (although William, the youngest, received no land and entered the church instead).
[1] In 1169, a delegation led by Archbishop Frederick de la Roche arrived in France to seek a husband for Sibylla, the daughter of King Amalric of Jerusalem.
Stephen built a six-towered castle on the local hill and strengthened the fortifications of the town of Sancerre itself.
He was the de facto leader of a group of powerful baronial rebels against King Philip II between 1181 and 1185.
In 1184, Stephen and a band of Brabançon mercenaries were defeated by the Philip and his Confrères de la Paix, an organisation of warriors formed in 1182 in Le Puy dedicated to curbing feudal warfare.