CHAPTER III. (Part 2 of 2)
While Fulk was away, Odo II’s followers, led by Landry of Châteaudun, plotted to drive the Angevins from Touraine. Fulk’s lieutenant Sulpice held Amboise, and Fulk returned like a thunderbolt, sacking Châteaudun and raiding deep into Blois territory—a declaration of war. He first secured his northern frontier by allying with new count of Maine Hugh, gaining fierce Cenomannian knights. Fulk had a genius for lieutenants: he chose young Lisoy of Bazogers in Maine as joint commander of Loches and Amboise with Sulpice, who built a great stone tower at Amboise. Lisoy led devastating nocturnal raids on Blois’ border, earning the nickname “Wake-the-dog.”
The crisis came in summer 1016, when Odo gathered all his forces against Montrichard. Fulk and Herbert of Maine positioned their armies so Odo had to fight one or the other, close enough to support each other: Fulk at Pontlevoy in the Bois-Royal, Herbert at Bourré above Montrichard on the Cher. On Friday 6 July 1016, Odo was shocked to find the Angevins drawn up before him. Fulk’s men were overwhelmed, he was thrown and severely stunned, Anjou on the brink—until Herbert charged Odo’s left wing with such force the entire Blois line broke. The chivalry of Blois fled, foot soldiers were cut to pieces, the camp plundered, and the victors returned to Amboise laden with spoils and high-ranking prisoners.
Pontlevoy was the turning-point. Odo did not attack again for nine years. Fulk did not push for immediate conquest because Touraine was a means, not an end: his western border was secure after Conquereux, his eastern border was now secure, and his overlord the duke of Aquitaine was a loyal ally who had gifted him Saintes. Fulk used Saintes to lure Herbert of Maine, seized him, and imprisoned him two years, forcing acknowledgment of Angevin suzerainty over Maine—a claim first staked by Geoffrey Greygown via Hugh Capet’s grant, now made real. This was the first step toward the Angevin conquest of Normandy, the marriage of Geoffrey Plantagenet and the Empress Matilda, and Angevin rule over England. By Herbert’s release, Fulk’s power was unassailable, the foundation of the Angevin Empire laid, and the rivalry with Blois would continue for decades—but Anjou had won the upper hand. The small marchland between Loire and Mayenne had begun its rise to dominate half of western Europe.
CHAPTER III. (Part 2 of 2)
Before Pontlevoy could be fought, the road had been long preparing through the lesser wars of the Angevin border. Fulk’s second pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1014–1015) left the Marchland exposed to the raids of “the wicked Landry,” a marauder who, with the restless count of Blois, swept deep into Anjou. He was held in check only by Sulpice, treasurer of S. Martin’s at Tours, and his brother Archambald of Amboise, trusting in the natural strength of their positions. Archambald fell in 1015 or early 1016; chroniclers place the raising of Sulpice’s stone tower at Amboise—last refuge against the invader, whose grim walls still mark those days. Fulk, returning from the Holy Land, lost no time resuming the offensive. A fresh attack on Sulpice was beaten off; Fulk answered with a daring raid on Châteaudun itself, penetrating Odo’s heart. By summer 1016 the feud between Angevin and Blois blazed into open battle at Pontlevoy.
After the 1016 Battle of Pontlevoy—where Fulk Nerra crushed Odo of Blois and captured Count Herbert of Maine—Angevin dominance in the central Loire was secured, but the Blois rivalry revived. Odo had inherited cousin Stephen’s Champagne, doubling his wealth and might. King Robert of France, egged on by Queen Constance, abandoned Fulk to make peace with Odo in 1025.
Odo raised a host from Touraine, Blois, Chartres, Champagne, and the royal domain, besieging Montboyau—Fulk’s chalk fortress opposite Tours. As Fulk marched to relieve it, word came that Gelduin of Saumur, the “devil of Saumur” Fulk truly feared, had joined Odo. Fulk led a hurried night ride across the Loire and Vienne, reaching Saumur’s gates at dawn. By sunset he was master, though defenders burned it. The monks of S. Florence fled with relics; Fulk called: “Let the fire burn, holy Florence! I will build thee a better dwelling at Angers.” He kept his word: relics reached Trèves on the Saumur border, but the boat stuck on a sandbank—monks declared S. Florence refused to leave. Fulk mocked him as “an impious rustic who would not allow himself to be well treated,” but let monks turn back, depositing relics at S. Hilary’s until the new Angers abbey was ready. Earlier, Fulk had mocked Gelduin by building Treva (“truce”) castle where they met.
Odo gained only loss of his strongest Angevin border fortress. Rather than pursue Blois strongholds, Fulk relieved Montboyau by laying siege to Montbazon—his own Indre castle fallen to Odo. Odo marched to relieve it; Fulk simulated flight up the Vienne to Loches, then toward Amboise, drawing Odo from supply lines. A month later, Odo failed to retake Saumur. Monks mediated peace: Odo ceded Saumur, Fulk razed Montboyau’s keep. Odo’s last 1027 attempt with young King Henry to surprise Amboise failed, ending the rivalry.
For fifteen years Fulk ruled in peace, mediating once more in royal politics—asking Constance why she was “exercising bestial madness against her sons” after Robert’s 1031 death—then joining Henry’s failed Sens campaign against Odo of Champagne. With no enemy left, he turned to building and piety. Fragments of his red flintstone palace overlook the Mayenne; legend has him watching a dove carry earth to fill a hillside crack, marking the spot to build S. Nicolas abbey—a thank-offering for surviving a storm on his second pilgrimage. Eight years later, Hildegard founded a nunnery on an ancient church site; legend claims Fulk crafted a pottery pan, Hildegard mistook his joke for accusation, and she jumped into the Mayenne to prove innocence by ordeal; the rescue site became the abbey, later called Ronceray for a bramble through its choir pavement.
Fulk made four pilgrimages: 1003, 1014–1015, 1034–1035, 1040. On the last, he met Robert of Normandy at Constantinople; only Fulk returned, finding his gates shut by rebel son Geoffrey. The rebellion was crushed: Geoffrey, saddled and bridled like a pack animal, crawled to his father. Fulk kicked him: “Conquered art thou—conquered, conquered!” Geoffrey replied: “Aye, conquered by thee, for thou art my father; but unconquered by all beside!”
Fulk’s final triumph followed Odo of Champagne’s 1037 death at Bar: he took Langeais, persuaded Chinon’s lord to surrender, controlling the Loire from Amboise to the sea. He left Tours’ capture to Geoffrey, then departed on his fourth pilgrimage, youthful terrors returned. His final penance: two oath-bound servants dragged him around Jerusalem before the Turks, one holding him by a halter, the other scourging his naked back, as he cried for mercy as a “perjured and miserable sinner.” He died at Metz (the Gâtinais town on his route home) on June 21, 1040; his embalmed body was carried to Beaulieu for burial, his death anniversary kept 700 years until the Revolution destroyed his tomb, later recovered. Legend credited him with every great Angevin building. He settled whether Anjou or Blois would dominate central Gaul; when he died, Geoffrey Martel had no rival.
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