D'ANJOU, Foulques

  General Notes:

Foulques (Foulques III) "Comte d'Anjou, Nerra, the Black, Fulk" d'Anjou

  Research Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Anjou-69
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Biography

FULK THE BLACK, French FOULQUES LE NOIR, count of Anjou (987-1040), the most powerful of the early rulers of the Angevin dynasty.

Exposed at first to the attacks of the counts of Brittany, Fulk had to fight for a long time to defend his frontiers, finally driving the Bretons back beyond the frontiers of Anjou. Having made himself master in the west, he turned his attention to the east and came into conflict with the count of Blois, Eudes II, over the territory of Saumur and a considerable part of Touraine. He defeated Eudes at Pontlevoy in 1016 and surprised and took Saumur jten years later.

A ruthless warrior who burned and pillaged the monasteries in his path, Fulk nevertheless felt the need for penance, making three pilgrimages to the Holy Land and founding or restoring several abbeys, including those in or near Angers, Loches, and Saumur. He also built strongly fortified castles of stone (instead of wood) along the border of his territory. For this reason, he was called le Grand Bâtisseur ("the Great Builder"). He died on his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, having reigned 53 years. Copyright c 1994-2001 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.[1]

Note: ref: Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) (20 Apr 10) -

Fulk III (972 - 21 June 1040), called Nerra (that is, le Noir, "the Black") after his death, was Count of Anjou from 21 July 987 to his death. He was the son of Geoffrey Greymantle and Adelaide of Vermandois.

Fulk III was the founder of Angevin power. He was only fifteen when he succeeded his father, and had a violent but also pious temperament, was partial to acts of extreme cruelty as well as penitence. In his most notorious act, he had his first wife (and cousin) Elisabeth of Vendôme burned at the stake in her wedding dress after he discovered her in adultery with a goatherder in December 999. On the other hand, he made four pilgrimages to the Holy Land in 1002, 1008, and 1038 and, in 1007, built the great abbey at Beaulieu-lès-Loches.

Fulk died in Metz while returning from his last pilgrimage. He is buried in the chapel of his monastery at Beaulieu. By his first wife, Elisabeth, he left one daughter, Adela. By his second wife (1001), Hildegard of Sundgau, he had two children, Geoffrey Martel, his successor, and Ermengarde, through whom he was an ancestor of Geoffrey Plantagenet and the Plantagenet kings of England.
Sources

? Entered by Richard Ragland.

Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. V page 485
Wikipedia page
MedLands: Fulk III.
Henry Project: Fulk III "Nerra".

Foulques married Elisabeth VENDÔME. (Elisabeth VENDÔME was born about 979 in Vendôme, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France and died about 999 in Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France.)

Foulques next married Hildegarde METZ in 1000 in Unknown. (Hildegarde METZ was born in 980 in Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, France and died on 1 Apr 1040 in Jerusalem.)