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 goatherd 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. As a result, historiography has this to say about him:
| “ | Fulk of Anjou, plunderer, murderer, robber, and swearer of false oaths, a truly terrifying character of fiendish cruelty, founded not one but two large abbeys. This Fulk was filled with unbridled passion, a temper directed to extremes. Whenever he had the slightest difference with a neighbor he rushed upon his lands, ravaging, pillaging, raping, and killing; nothing could stop him, least of all the commandments of God.[1]
…un des batailleurs les plus agités du Moyen Âge.[2] |
” |
Fulk fought against the claims of the counts of Rennes, defeating and killing Conan I of Rennes at the Battle of Conquereuil on 27 June 992. He then extended his power over the Counties of Maine and Touraine.
Fulk's enterprises came up against the no less determined and violent ambitions of Odo II of Blois, against whom he made an alliance with the Capetians. On 6 July 1016, he defeated Odo at the Battle of Pontlevoy. In 1025, after capturing and burning the city of Saumur, Fulk reportedly cried, "Saint Florentius, let yourself be burned. I will build you a better home in Angers." However, when the transportation of the saint's relics to Angers proved difficult, Fulk declared that Florentius was a rustic lout unfit for the city, and sent the relics back to Saumur.
Fulk also commissioned many buildings, primarily for defensive purposes. While fighting against the Bretons and Blesevins, protecting his territory from Vendôme to Angers and from there to Montrichard, he had more than a hundred castles, donjons, and abbeys constructed, including those at Château-Gontier, Loches (a stone keep), and Montbazon. He built the donjon at Langeais (990), one of the first stone castles. These numerous pious foundations, however, followed many acts of violence against the church.
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.
| Preceded by Geoffrey I |
Count of Anjou 987–1040 |
Succeeded by Geoffrey II |