The Duchy of Anjou was a French province straddling the lower Loire. Its capital was Angers, and its area was roughly co-extensive with the diocese of Angers. Anjou was bordered by Brittany to the west, Maine to the north, Touraine to the east and Poitou to the south. The adjectival form is Angevin, and inhabitants of Anjou are known as Angevins. In 1482, the duchy became part of the Kingdom of France and then remained a province of the Kingdom under the name of the Duchy of Anjou. After the decree dividing France into departments in 1791, the province was disestablished and split into six new départements: Deux-Sèvres, Indre-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Sarthe and Vienne.
Geoffrey V, called the Handsome, the Fair or Plantagenet, was the Count of Anjou, Touraine and Maine by inheritance from 1129, and also Duke of Normandy by his marriage claim, and conquest, from 1144.
The Château d'Amboise is a château in Amboise, located in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. Confiscated by the monarchy in the 15th century, it became a favoured royal residence and was extensively rebuilt. King Charles VIII died at the château in 1498 after hitting his head on a door lintel. The château fell into decline from the second half of the 16th century and the majority of the interior buildings were later demolished, but some survived and have been restored, along with the outer defensive circuit of towers and walls. It has been recognised as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1840.
Fulk IV, better known as Fulk le Réchin, was the count of Anjou from around 1068 until his death. He was noted to be "a man with many reprehensible, even scandalous, habits" by Orderic Vitalis, who particularly objected to his many women and his influential footwear, claiming he popularized the pigaches that eventually became the poulaine, the medieval long-toed shoe.
Ingelger, also called Ingelgarius, was a Frankish nobleman, who was the founder of the County of Anjou and of the original House of Anjou. Later generations of his family believed that he was the son of Tertullus (Tertulle) and Petronilla.
Fulk I of Anjou — Foulques le Roux — held the county of Anjou first as viscount, then count, until his death.
Fulk II of Anjou, called le Bon was Count of Anjou from 942 to his death.
Geoffrey I of Anjou, known as Grisegonelle, was count of Anjou from 960 to 987.
Geoffrey IV, called Martel, was Count of Anjou from 1103 until his early death, either co-ruling with his father, Fulk IV, or in opposition to him. He was popular with the Church and grew a reputation for curbing tyranny and opposing his violent father, who, according to Orderic Vitalis, enjoyed pillaging and terrorising his subjects.
Ermengarde of Anjou, known as Blanche, was a Duchess consort of Burgundy. She was the daughter of Count Fulk III of Anjou and Hildegarde of Sundgau. She was sometimes known as Ermengarde-Blanche.
Theobald I, called the Trickster, was Count of Blois, Tours, Chartres and Châteaudun, as well as Lord of Vierzon and Provins. He was a loyal and potent vassal of Hugh the Great, duke of the Franks.
Elias II was the younger son of Fulk V of Anjou and his first wife, Eremburga, daughter of Count Elias I of Maine. There is debate as to whether he was ever count of Maine or whether he merely made a claim to it.
Ermengarde of Anjou was the Countess of Rennes, Regent of Brittany (992–994) and also Countess of Angoulême.
The County of Anjou was a French county that was the predecessor to the Duchy of Anjou. Its capital was Angers, and its area was roughly co-extensive with the diocese of Angers. Anjou was bordered by Brittany to the west, Maine to the north, Touraine to the east and Poitou to the south. Its 12th century Count Geoffrey created the nucleus of what became the Angevin Empire. The adjectival form is Angevin, and inhabitants of Anjou are known as Angevins. In 1360, the county was raised into the Duchy of Anjou within the Kingdom of France. This duchy was later absorbed into the French royal domain in 1482 and remained a province of the kingdom until 1790.
Hildegarde of Burgundy was a French noble, Duchess consort of Gascony and Aquitaine by marriage to William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine.
René Poupardin was a French medievalist and paleographer whose most important works were on Burgundy, Provence and the south Italian principalities. He was an alumnus of the École nationale des chartes and a member of the École française de Rome from 1899 to 1902. He was studies director at the École pratique des hautes études and later a professor at the École des chartes. He also worked as a librarian at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Born at Le Havre and died at Fontainebleau, most of his life was spent in Paris and Rome.
Adelais of Amboise, came from an influential Frankish family in the Loire Valley. Through her mother, whose name is unknown, she was the niece of Adelard, Archbishop of Tours, and Raino, Bishop of Angers. In 865, her uncles arranged a marriage for her to a Frankish man named Ingelger, described as a miles optimus, whose devotion to Charles the Bald had been rewarded with land and military commands. Adelais’ dowry included Buzençais, Châtillon-sur-Indre, and the fortress of Amboise, which ultimately grew to be the royal residence known as the Château d'Amboise. Adelais and Ingelger, who has been identified as either a viscount or the first count of Anjou, were the parents of Fulk the Red, who became the first hereditary count of Anjou. According to the Gesta consulum Andegavorum, “after the death of her husband, Adelais was unjustly accused of adultery by a group of nobles led by ‘Guntrannus parens Ingelgerii’ but later exonerated.”
The Annals of Vendôme are a set of medieval annals covering events from 678 to 1347. They survive in a single manuscript copy, the exemplar of which came from the Abbey of the Holy Trinity at Vendôme.
The Liber de compositione castri Ambaziae et ipsius dominorum gesta is an anonymous 12th-century Latin chronicle of the early history of the lords and castle of Amboise. It begins with an account of Touraine and its historical narrative proceeds from Julius Caesar down to Louis VII.
