Theobald held Auxerre, Maligny, Ervy, Troyes and Châteauvillain as fiefs from Odo II, Duke of Burgundy.

Theobald accompanied his mother throughout their domain on hundreds of occasions and, after her retirement to Marcigney in 1125, he administered the family properties with great skill.

[2] King Louis VII of France became involved in a war with Theobald by permitting Count Raoul I of Vermandois, seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor, sister of Theobald and of King Stephan, in order to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, sister of Louis VII's own wife, Eleanor.

The war, which lasted two years (1142–1144), was marked by the occupation of Champagne by the royal army and the capture of Vitry-le-François, where 1500 people perished in the deliberate burning of the church by Louis.

[3] The scholastic Pierre Abélard, famous for his love affair with and subsequent marriage to his student Héloïse d'Argenteuil, sought asylum in Champagne during Theobald II's reign.