General Notes

Acceded 21 JUL 987 Succeeded his father as Count of Anjou
Note:
FULK NERRA (c. 970-1040), count of Anjou, eldest son of Count Geoffrey I, Grisegonelle ("Gray Tunic), and Adela of Vermandois, was born about 970 and succeeded his father in the countship of Anjou on July 21, 987. He was successful in repelling the attacks of the count of Rennes and laying the foundations of the conquest of Touraine. In this connection, he built a great number of strong castles, which has led in modern times to his being called "the great builder." He also founded several religious houses, among them the abbeys of Beaulieu, near Loches (c. 1097), of St. Nicholas at Angers (1020) and of Ronceray at Angers (1028), and, in order to expiate his crimes of violence, made three pilgrimages to the Holy Land (in 1002-03, c. 1008, and in 1039).
On his return from the third of these journeys Fulk died at Metz in Lorraine on June 21, 1040. By his first marriage, with Elizabeth, daughter of Bouchard le VÈnÈrable, count of VendÙme, he had a daughter, Adela, who married Boon of Nevers and transmitted to her children the countship of VendÙme. Elizabeth having died in 1000, Fulk married Hildegarde of Lorraine, by whom he had a son, Geoffrey Martel, and a daughter, Ermengarde, who married Geoffrey, count of G‚tinais, and was the mother of Geoffrey le Barbu ("the bearded") and of Fulk le RÈchin