Person:Foulques d'Anjou (2)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Fulk III, the Black ( 970–1040; ), 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 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 Capetians against the dissipated Carolingians of his era. With his county seat at Angers, Fulk's bitter enemy was Odo II of Blois, his neighbor 128 km east along the Loire river, at Tours. 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. 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 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 him.

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 strategy," wrote Peter Fraser Purton, in A History of Medieval Siege, c. 450–1220.

Fulk was 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.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 FOULQUES d'Anjou, son of GEOFFROY I "Grisegonelle" Comte d'Anjou & his first wife Adela de Meaux [Vermandois-Carolingian] ([970]-Metz 21 Jun 1040, bur Beaulieu-lez-Loche, Abbaye de Saint-Pierre), in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Fulk III, Count of Anjou, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
3.   Fulco III d'Anjou, 5th Comte d'Anjou, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.
4. ↑ Foulques (Fulk, Fulco) III "Nerra", in Baldwin, Stewart, and Todd Farmerie. The Henry Project (King Henry II ): Ancestors of King Henry II.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4} Biographie en Wikipédia FR, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   [[1]], trouvée 2016.

   Foulques III1,2, dit Foulques Nerra, le Noir, en raison de son teint sombre, né vers 965/970, mort à Metz le 21 juin 1040, fut comte d'Anjou de 987 à 1040. Il a marqué l'histoire de son temps par sa violence et les actions entreprises pour se racheter de ses crimes.
   Il était de la famille des Ingelgeriens et fils de Geoffroy Ier Grisegonelle, comte d'Anjou, et d'Adélaïde de Vermandois.