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Fulk Iii Of Anjou




He was the founder of the Angevin dynasty. He had a violent nature and performed both cruelties and acts of penitence; he made four Pilgrimage s to the Holy Land . In probably his most notorious act, Fulk Nerra had his first wife (and cousin) Élisabeth de Vendôme burned to death at the stake in her wedding dress, after discovering her with a goatherd in December 999 .

Erdoes says of him: "''Fulk of Anjou, plunderer, murderer, robber, and swearer of false oaths, a truly terrifying character of fiendish cruelty, founded not one but two large abbeys. This Fulk was filled with unbridled passion, a temper directed to extremes. Whenever he had the slightest difference with a neighbor he rushed upon his lands, ravaging, pillaging, raping, and killing; nothing could stop him, least of all the commandments of God''."

He fought against the claims of the counts of Rennes, defeating and killing Conan I Of Rennes at the Battle of Conquereuil in 992 . He then extended his power over the County Of Maine and the Touraine . All of his enterprises came up against the no less violent ambition of the Odo II Of Blois , against whom he made an alliance with the Capetians . In 1025, after capturing and burning the city of Saumur , Fulk reportedly cried, ''" Saint Florentius , let yourself be burned. I will build you a better home in Angers ''." But when the transportation of the saint's relics to Angers proved difficult, Fulk declared that Florentius was a rustic lout unfit for the city, and sent the relics back to Saumur.

Fulk also commissioned many buildings. From 987 to 1040 , while he was count of Anjou and fighting against the Bretons and Blois, protecting his territory from Vendôme to Angers and from Angers to Montrichard , he had more than a hundred Castle s, Donjon s, and Abbey s constructed. These numerous pious foundations, however, followed his many acts of violence against the church.

Fulk died in 1040 in Metz .


SOURCES

  • Bachrach, Bernard S. ''Bachrach, Bernard S. Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040: a Political Biography of the Angevin Count''. University of California Press, 1993.

  • Erdoes, Richard. ''AD 1000: Living on the Brink of Apocalypse'', 1988

  • Fichtenau, Henry. ''Living in the Tenth Century'', 1991.