The Battle at Noit
Geoffrey took Lisoy’s advice. While Lisoy returned to Amboise, Geoffrey made prayers and vows to S.…
Capture of Theobald of Blois
The men of Amboise, hottest in pursuit, drove Theobald with some five or six hundred knights into a wood called Braye, from which horsemen could not extricate themselves.…
The Ransom of Tours and Touraine
With very little bloodshed the Angevins gained over a thousand prisoners, the most valuable of whom was warded at Loches.…
The Second Stage of the House of Anjou
The acquisition of Tours closes the second stage in the career of the house of Anjou. Although in one sense only preliminary, this period was the most important of all, for on it…
KAPITEL IV. below.
Chapter IV collects three supplementary notes attached to a larger historical study concerning Fulk Nerra and the early Angevin counts. The first note, “The Siege of Melun,” weighs conflicting accounts of a late-tenth-century military engagement, focusing especially on the dispu…
The Siege of Melun
Note A examines the Siege of Melun, an affair in which Odo seized the castle of Melun—valued both as a Seine crossing and because it had once belonged to his grandfather—and was b…
The Parents of Queen Constance
Note B addresses the parentage of Queen Constance, wife of Robert of France and mother of Hugh Magnus, who is variously described as a niece or cousin of Fulk Nerra.…
The Pilgrimages of Fulk Nerra
Note C tackles the number and dating of Fulk Nerra’s pilgrimages to Jerusalem, which have been variously reported as two, three, or four by different chroniclers and modern schola…
KAPITEL IV. below.
This chapter presents scholarly analysis of two intertwined historical problems: the chronology of Fulk Nerra’s pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the contested marriage of his son Geoffrey Martel to Agnes of Burgundy.…
The Third Journey
The question of a “Third Journey” arises from the Gesta Consulum, which claims Fulk traveled to Jerusalem in company with Robert the Devil.…
Hilduin’s Consecration and Fulk’s Charter
Corroborating evidence for an intermediate pilgrimage comes from a charter in the Epitome S. Nicolai, recording Fulk’s application to Abbot Walter of S.…
William of Malmesbury’s Account
The major obstacle to this chronology is William of Malmesbury, whose account of Geoffrey’s rebellion and Fulk’s last pilgrimage is fuller, self-consistent, and more graphic than…
Summary of the Four Pilgrimages
Based on the weight of evidence, the four pilgrimages are dated as follows: 1. in 1003; 2. in 1014–1015; 3. in 1034–1035; 4. in 1040.
Geoffrey Martel and Poitou
Geoffrey Martel’s career in Poitou—his wars and his marriage—is treated in a Note because the sources contradict each other so extensively.…
The War in Poitou
The War in Poitou centers on Geoffrey’s campaign against William of Aquitaine, culminating in the battle of September 1033, William’s three-year captivity, and his death upon rele…
Date of Geoffrey and Agnes’s Marriage
On the question of when Geoffrey and Agnes married, three witnesses date the marriage to 1 January 1032 (the Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Serg., and the Chron. S. Michael. in Per.…
Witnesses to the Marriage
Five writers directly mention the marriage. The three in support of a 1032 date are nearly contemporary Angevin chroniclers, though the S.…
Charter Evidence on the Marriage
Multiple charters of 1036 show Agnes already acting as Geoffrey’s wife, proving the marriage was no later than 1036. The *Gesta Cons.…
The Crime of the Marriage and Canon Law
Angevin chroniclers are uniquely horrified by the marriage, using the unusual word “incestuous,” while the two Williams merely note Geoffrey’s “impudence” in marrying a woman of s…
Pedigree of Herbert of Vermandois
The pedigree of Herbert of Vermandois is presented in genealogical form: Herbert had Liutgard, who married Theobald the Trickster (producing Emma, who married William Fierabras of…
Spiritual Affinity
A further possibility of spiritual affinity exists: Agnes’s younger son bore the dual names Guy and Geoffrey, raising the speculation that he may have been baptized “Geoffrey” and…
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