Battle of Chef-Boutonne (1061)
While Saintes was being besieged by the new Duke William VII of Aquitaine, who claimed Saintonge by the 1036 cession terms, a strong Angevin party in the city appealed to Geoffrey…
Loss of Saintonge
Saintes opened its gates to the Angevin victor, but the gain was only temporary. The following year the duke of Aquitaine blockaded the city until sword and famine compelled the g…
CAPÍTULO IV.
Chapter IV traces the shifting balance of power among Anjou, Normandy, and Maine after the death of Geoffrey Martel. It follows Maine’s revolt, Herbert II’s commendation to William, the Treaty of Alençon, the decline and civil war of Anjou under Fulk Rechin, the revolt of Maine…
Maine’s Revolt After Geoffrey Martel’s Death
Maine flung off the Angevin yoke almost immediately after Geoffrey Martel’s death and called upon the son of her late count Hugh to reclaim the county.…
Herbert II’s Commendation to William
Bertha of Blois recognized that her son’s only hope of preserving his patrimony from subjection to Anjou lay in commending himself to William of Normandy.…
Herbert’s Death and the Reversion of Maine
In 1064 Herbert II died without children or wife, so that by the terms of the commendation his county was to revert to William.…
The Treaty of Alençon
Geoffrey the Bearded at length asserted Angevin rights to the overlordship of Maine, and William acknowledged the claim through a treaty negotiated at Alençon.…
The Decline of Angevin Power
The rapid decline of the Angevin power after Geoffrey Martel’s death stemmed in part from the natural reaction that follows a sudden rise and in part from the exceptional greatnes…
Fulk Rechin and the Angevin Succession Dispute
From the moment of Geoffrey Martel’s death, Fulk Rechin disputed his elder brother Geoffrey the Bearded’s inheritance, complaining that he had been left without provision while Ge…
Fulk Rechin’s Character
Fulk Rechin is a deeply unadmirable figure. He was pre-eminently the Quarreller in a quarrelsome family, possessing the craft, subtlety, and serpent-like cleverness of his race bu…
Geoffrey the Bearded’s Ruin and Imprisonment
Geoffrey the Bearded was undone by an act of violent injustice toward the abbey of Marmoutier that brought him under the Church’s ban, while his brother’s intrigues sowed treason…
Fulk Rechin’s Rule over Anjou
Fulk Rechin ruled Anjou in his brother’s stead during a period of shame and misery unknown in the Marchland’s history.…
The Revolt of Maine and the Commune of Le Mans
In 1073, while William was occupied with his English conquest, the patriots of Maine revolted and received Hugh of Este as count under the guardianship of his mother Gersendis and…
The Siege of La Flèche
After William appeared in Maine with a great army, won back the land, and returned in triumph to Normandy, Fulk ventured to attack La Flèche, a castle on the Loir held by John, hu…
The Treaty of Blanchelande
William marched to relieve La Flèche not directly but by crossing the Loir higher up and sweeping southward through Angevin territory, putting the river between himself and his en…
Robert of Normandy and the Angevin Overlordship
After William’s death in 1087 the Angevin overlordship granted by the treaties of Alençon and Blanchelande at last became effective, since Robert came into actual possession of th…
Fulk Rechin’s Marriages
Fulk Rechin’s domestic life was as shameless as his public career. He had abandoned Hermengard of Bourbon, the mother of his heir, in 1075 without even the formality of a divorce,…
Bertrada’s Elopement with King Philip
Bertrada used Fulk merely as a stepping-stone to higher advancement and on Whitsun-Eve 1093 eloped with King Philip of France, an act that brought Fulk further punishment at the h…
CAPÍTULO IV.
CHAPTER IV. traces the intertwined histories of Maine, Anjou, and the early Capetian monarchy from the renewed revolt of the Cenomannians under Elias of La Flèche through the Battle of Tinchebray and the eventual union of Anjou with Maine via the marriage of Aremburg and young F…
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