Related Research Articles
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.
The Château de Langeais is a 15th-century Flamboyant Gothic castle in Indre-et-Loire, France, built on a promontory created by the small valley of the Roumer River at the opening to the Loire Valley. Founded in 992 by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, the castle was soon attacked by Odo I, Count of Blois. After the unsuccessful attack, the now-ruined stone keep was built; it is one of the earliest datable stone examples of a keep. Between 994 and 996, the castle was besieged unsuccessfully twice more. During the conflict between the counts of Anjou and Blois, the castle changed hands several times, and in 1038 Fulk captured the castle again.
Fulk III, the Black, was an early count of Anjou celebrated as one of the first great builders of medieval castles. It is estimated Fulk constructed approximately 100 castles, along with abbeys throughout the Loire Valley in what is now France. He fought successive wars with neighbors in Brittany, Blois, Poitou and Aquitaine and made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the course of his life. He had two wives and three children.
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.
Conan I, nicknamed Le Tort, was the Duke of Brittany from 990 to his death.
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.
Odo I, Count of Blois, Chartres, Reims, Provins, Châteaudun, and Omois, was the son of Theobald I of Blois and Luitgard, daughter of Herbert II of Vermandois. He received the title of count palatine, which was traditional in his family, from King Lothair of West Francia.
Theobald I (913–975), called the Trickster, was Viscount of Blois and Viscount of Tours, and then from 956, Count of Blois, Chartres and Châteaudun, as well as Count of Tours.
Adela of Vermandois was a French noblewoman. She was Countess of Chalon and later Countess of Anjou.
Herbert I, called Wakedog, was the count of Maine from 1017 until his death. He had a turbulent career with an early victory that may have contributed to his later decline.
Avesgaud was a French nobleman, a member of the powerful House of Bellême and was the Bishop of Le Mans from 997 until his death. His episcopate was overshadowed by his ongoing wars with Herbert I, Count of Maine.
Ermengarde of Anjou,, was the Countess of Rennes, Regent of Brittany (992–994) and also Countess of Angoulême.
Bernard Stanley Bachrach was an American historian. He taught history at the University of Minnesota from 1967 until his retirement in 2020. He specialized in the Early Middle Ages, mainly on the topics of medieval warfare, medieval Jewry, and early Angevin history.
The County of Anjou was a small French county that was the predecessor to the better-known 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. 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.
William Taillefer, numbered William II or William IV, was the Count of Angoulême from 987. He was the son of Count Arnald II Manzer and grandson of Count William Taillefer I. He stood at the head of the family which controlled not only the Angoumois, but also the Agenais and part of Saintonge. By the time of his death he was "the leading magnate in [the west] of Aquitaine[, but his] eminence ... proved temporary and illusory," evaporating on his death in succession squabbles, revolts and the predations of his erstwhile allies. The principal sources for William's career are Ademar of Chabannes and the anonymous Historia pontificum et comitum Engolismensium.
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 County of Châteaudun was held in the 9th century by counts who also held the County of Blois. Theobald I created the first viscount of Châteaudun with the appointment of Geoffrey I, founder of the House of Châteaudun. The viscounts were entrusted with the government of the county of Châteaudun, records of whom are continuous from the mid-10th century. The actual rule of Châteaudun between the late 9th and the mid-10th centuries, and the relationships between the count and viscounts, is uncertain. The county was revived in 1439 when the region was recreated as the County of Dunois and granted to Jean Levieux Valois des Orléans, the illegitimate son of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, son of Charles V of France.
Geoffrey II of Thouars, was the son of Savary III. He was the viscount of Thouars from 1015 to 1043.
The Chronica de gestis consulum Andegavorum, or simply Gesta consulum Andegavorum, is a Latin history of the Ingelgerian dynasty of the county of Anjou written in the early 12th century, probably between 1106 and 1109, during the second reign of Count Fulk IV.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Bachrach, Bernard S. (1993). Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987–1040: A Political Biography of the Angevin Count. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 4–5. ISBN 0-520-07996-5.
- ↑ Geary, Patrick J. (2006). Women at the Beginning: Origin Myths from the Amazons to the Virgin Mary. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 88.
- ↑ Collins, Paul (2013). The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century. Perseus Books Group. p. 33.