Fulk III, Count of Anjou
Fulk III, Count of Anjou | |
---|---|
Born | Fulk Nerra c. 970 |
Died | Metz | 21 June 1040 (aged 69–70)
Noble family | House of Ingelger |
Spouse(s) | Elisabeth of Vendôme Hildegarde of Sundgau |
Issue | Adele of Vendome-Anjou Geoffrey II, Count of Anjou Ermengarde of Anjou, Duchess of Burgundy |
Father | Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou |
Mother | Adelaide of Vermandois |
Fulk III, the Black (c. 970–1040;
Fulk was a natural horseman and fearsome warrior with a keen sense of military strategy that bested most of his opponents. He was allied with the goals and aims of the
. The two men traded towns, followers and insults throughout their lives.Fulk finished his first castle at Langeais, 104 km east of Angers, on the banks of the Loire.[1] Like many of his constructions, it began as a wooden tower, and was eventually replaced with a stone structure, fortified with exterior walls, and equipped with a thick-walled tower called a donjon in French (source of the English word "dungeon", which, however, implies a cellar rather than a tower). He built it in the territory of Odo I, Count of Blois, and they fought a battle over it in 994. But Odo I died of a sudden illness, and his son and successor, Odo II, did not manage to evict Fulk.
Fulk continued building more towers in a slow encirclement of Tours: Montbazon, Montrésor, Mirebeau, Montrichard, Loches, and even the tower of Montboyau, erected just across the Loire from Tours in 1016. He also fortified the castles at Angers, Amboise, Chateau-Gontier, Chinon, Mayenne and Semblançay, among many others. "The construction of castles for the purpose of extending a ruler's power was part of Fulk Nerra's strategy," wrote Peter Fraser Purton, in A History of Medieval Siege, c. 450–1220.
Fulk was also a devout Christian who built, enlarged or endowed several abbeys and monasteries, such as the Abbey of Beaulieu-lès-Loches, Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, Saint-Aubin, and a convent, Notre Dame de la Charité, at Ronceray in Angers. Although he never learned to write, he endowed a school with revenue to provide poor students with an education. Fulk also undertook four pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
Family
Fulk was the son of Geoffrey I of Anjou, also known as Geoffrey Grisegonelle, and Adele of Meaux,[2] daughter of Robert of Vermandois, Count of Meaux and Troyes, and Adelaide of Burgundy. He had an older sister, Ermengarde-Gerberga of Anjou, who married Conan of Brittany, and a younger brother, Geoffrey.[2] A half-brother, Maurice, was born in 980.[3]
Fulk married Elisabeth of Vendôme (c. 979–999), daughter of Count Bouchard of Vendôme,
Fulk subsequently married Hildegarde of Sundgau, whose family was from Lorraine, around December 1005.[6] They had two children:
- Count of Anjou in 1040.[8]
- Ermengarde-Blanche, born sometime in 1017.[2]
Combat
Fulk Nerra's first victory was in June 992 at the
While Fulk and Odo II fought many skirmishes over territory and alliances, their biggest battle occurred in July 1016 at the
Pilgrimages
Fulk also undertook four pilgrimages to Jerusalem—the first and second as a penitent seeking forgiveness for sins, and the third and fourth to protect pilgrims. In 1003, Fulk traveled to Jerusalem for his first pilgrimage. The voyage crossed the Alps at the Grand Bernard Pass in present-day Switzerland, then overland to Bari in the southern Italian peninsula (a stop in Rome was usually made) and by ship to the Holy Land. The journey took as long as six months, through deeply dangerous territory.[10]
Fulk made a second pilgrimage in 1008, obliged to do so by the king as punishment after Fulk ordered the murder of an enemy. For his third and fourth trips, Fulk had a moral obligation to protect pilgrims in the years following the desecration of Jerusalem by the "Mad Caliph" Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and provided armed security against robbers, murderers and enslavers along the route. In 1035, he embarked upon a third pilgrimage with Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and in 1038, he made his final pilgrimage. He died in Metz in 1040 on his return from that trip, and was buried in the chapel of his monastery at Beaulieu.
Succession
His son Geoffrey II (Geoffrey Martel) succeeded him as Count of Anjou in 1040 and held the title until 1060. Since he had no living male children from either of his two marriages, the title to Anjou passed to his nephews, the two sons of his sister Ermengarde-Blanche (m. Geoffroy V of Château-Landon), upon his death. Geoffroy III Le Barbu (the Bearded) was Count of Anjou from 1060 to 1068; Fulk IV Réchin (the Mouth) was count from 1068 to 1109. Fulk IV's grandson, Geoffrey Plantagenet, married Matilda, heir to the English throne, and began the House of Plantagenet line of English kings.
Notes
- ^ Kennedy 1995, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d Bachrach 1993, p. 262.
- ^ Bachrach 1993, p. 14.
- ^ Bachrach 1993, p. 16.
- ^ Bachrach 1993, p. 76.
- ^ Bachrach 1993, p. 100.
- ^ Bachrach 1993, p. 102–103.
- ^ Bachrach 1993, p. 253.
- ^ Christian Thevenot, Foulque Nerra, Editions Alan Sutton, St. Cyr-sur-Loire, 2009
- ^ Jonathan Sumption, The Age of Pilgrimage, The Medieval Journey to God, Paulist Press, 2003
Sources
- Bachrach, Bernard S. (1993). Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987–1040. University of California Press.
- Kennedy, Hugh (1995). Crusader Castles. Cambridge University Press.