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Foulque III of Anjou (French: ''Foulques''; British: "Fulk"), called Foulque Nerra ("the black"), was an early medieval Count of Anjou, and was one of the first great builders of castles. He lived from 970 to 1040, constructed an estimated 100 castles and abbeys across the Loire Valley in today’s France, fought successive wars with neighbors in Brittany, Blois, Poitou and Aquitaine and traveled four times to Jerusalem on pilgrimage during the course of his life. He had two wives and three children. He was a natural horseman and a fearsome warrior, with a keen sense of military strategy that saw him get the better of 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, Foulque’s bitter enemy was Eudes 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. Foulque built his first castle at Langeais, 104 km east of Angers, on the banks of the Loire, in 992. 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 Eudes I, Count of Blois, and they fought a battle over it in 994. But Eudes I died of a sudden illness, and his son and successor, Eudes II, did not manage to evict him. Foulque 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’s strategy,” wrote Peter Fraser Purton, in ''A History of Medieval Siege, c. 450-1220''. Foulque was also a devout Christian, and built, enlarged or endowed several abbeys and monasteries, such as the Abbey of Beaulieu-les-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. Foulque also undertook four pilgrimages to Jerusalem. == Family == He was the son of Geoffrey I of Anjou, also known as Geoffrey Grisegonelle, and Adélaide of Vermandois. He had an older sister: Hermengarde (b. 960), who married Conan of Brittany and a younger brother Geoffrey. A half-brother, Maurice, was born in 980. Foulque married Elisabeth de Vendôme (~979-999), daughter of Count Bouchard of Vendome, and they had a daughter: * Adèle., married Bodon, son of Landry, count of Nevers. Their eldest son, Bouchard, inherited Vendôme. Elisabeth’s death was recounted in the ''Chronicles of Saint-Florent'': Elisabeth occupied the citadel at Anger with some supporter and while under siege from Foulque, she suffered a fall from a great height, and then was burnt at the stake for adultery. Foulque married Hildegarde de Sundgau, whose family was from Lorraine, around December 1005. They had two children: *Geoffroy, in 1006, who became known as Geoffroy Martel, succeeded Foulque as count of Anjou in 1040. *Ermengarde-Blanche, around 1018. Geoffroy, who became known as Geoffroy Martel, succeeded Foulque as count of Anjou in 1040. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fulk III, Count of Anjou」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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