ORIGIN OF THE COUNTS OF ANJOU.

?

269

fool, a coward, or a fainéant. The history or legends of CHAP. VIII. the family which was to rise to such greatness laid claim to no very remote or illustrious pedigree.1 The first Count Ingelgar, first Count, of Anjou, who held a part only of the later County, was 870 invested with that dignity either by Charles the Bald or by his son Lewis the Stammerer.3 He bore the name of Ingelgar, and he seems to be the first member of the family who can be unhesitatingly set down as historical. His grandfather, Torquatius or Tortulfus, was, according to the Peasant origin of legend, a peasant, and seems to have sprung from that the family. Breton race of which his descendants became the most persevering enemies. It must have been a later version of the tale which invented for him a Roman name and a Roman descent. The son of Torquatius, Tertullus, rose, Torquatius

The history of the Counts of Anjou is given at length, but mixed up with much legendary matter in the early parts, in the "Gesta Consulum Andegavensium," written by a monk of Marmoutier in the time of Henry the Second, and printed in D'Achery's Spicilegium, iii. 234. It is introduced by a most curious fragment, namely a short Angevin history written or dictated by Count Fulk, nephew and successor of Geoffrey Martel. A lay historian is a phænomenon which we have not come across since the time of our own Æthelweard, and it is not to be denied that the Count shows much sounder sense, and a much nearer approach to historical criticism, than the monastic writer. He had at least one advantage in his princely rank, that he had nothing to gain by flattering his own forefathers. 2 Gest. Cons. 235. "Datus est ei et dimidius comitatus Andegavis civitatis ad defendendam regionem et urbem, sævisque prædonibus oppositus est, et Comes ibi factus." So in the fuller account in p. 239, which adds, "quia ultra Meduanam in Andegavo alter Comes habebatur." The "sævi prædones" are explained to be Northmen and Bretons.

The authors of the Art de Vérifier les Dates (ii. 828), as also Sir F. Palgrave (i. 502), place the enfeoffment of Ingelgar under Charles the Bald in the year 870. But the story in the Gesta Consulum (238 et seqq.) seems to make the reigning King to be Lewis the Stammerer. Count Fulk himself (233) describes the benefactor of his ancestor as "Rex Franciæ, non a genere impii Philippi, sed a prole Caroli Calvi." Fulk had excellent reasons for the epithet bestowed on Philip. See Will. Malms. iii. 257. 4 Gest. Cons. 237. "Fuit vir quidam de Armoricâ Galliâ, nomine Torquatius, genus cujus olim ab Armoricâ jussu Maximi Imperatoris a Britonibus expulsum est. Iste a Britonibus, proprietatem vetusti ac Romani nominis ignorantibus, corrupto vocabulo Tortulfus dictus fuit." We may

and Ter.

tullus.

CHAP. VIII. We are told, to importance at the court of Charles, and Historical founded the greatness of his house.1 Whatever may be these tales. the amount of strictly historical truth preserved in these

value of

stories, they are, in one point of view, of no small historical
value. Like the kindred story of the origin of Godwine,
they point to a belief, which can hardly have been ill-
founded, that, in Gaul in the ninth century and in England
in the eleventh, ignoble birth did not disqualify a man
from rising to the highest dignities, or from founding a
dynasty of Princes or even of Kings.2
even of Kings.2 But when we
reach Ingelgar, we seem to stand on more distinctly his-
torical ground. He held Amboise in Touraine as an allodial
possession, and he was, as we have seen, invested with the
Countship of Anjou on the hither side of the Mayenne.
But it is plain that no detailed account of his actions, or
of those of his immediate successors, was preserved.

3

His

be pretty sure that Tortulf, or something like it, of which his son's name Tertullus seems another and happier Latinization, was the true name. Charles made Torquatius a forester, "illius forestæ quæ Nidus-meruli nuncupatur." The writer goes on to talk about Senators and Emperors taken from the plough.

1 Gest. Cons. 237.

2 See vol. i. pp. 251, 323, 706. The author of the Gesta Consulum becomes eloquent on this head (p. 237); "Tempore enim Caroli Calvi complures novi atque ignobiles, bono et honesto nobilibus potiores, clari et magni effecti sunt. Quos enim appetentes gloriæ militaris conspiciebat, periculis objectare et per eos fortunam temperare non dubitabat. Erant enim illis diebus homines veteris prosapiæ multarumque imaginum, qui acta majorum suorum, non sua, ostentabant; qui quum ad aliquod grave officium mittebantur, aliquem e populo monitorem sui officii sumebant, quibus quum Rex aliis imperare jussisset, ipsi sibi alium imperatorem poscebant. Ideo ex illo globo paucos secum Rex Carolus habebat; novis militaria dona et hæreditates pluribus laboribus et periculis acquisitas benigne præbebat. Ex quo genere fuit iste Tertullus, a quo Andegavorum Consulum progenies sumpsit exordium." See Palgrave, i. 404, 500-502; cf. ii. 11.

3 Gest. Cons. 239. villa."

"Alodium enim cognationis eorum erat Ambazium

Count Fulk (p. 233) says, with much good sense, "Quorum quatuor Consulum virtutes et acta, quia nobis in tantum de longinquo sunt, ut etiam loca ubi corpora eorum jacent nobis incognita sunt, digne memorare non possumus." Ingelgar, in the legend (p. 239), slays the accuser of

THE EARLY COUNTS.

3

Red.

Good.

938.

271

son Fulk the Red received from Charles the Simple the CHAP VIII. remaining portion of the County of Anjou, that beyond the Fulk the Mayenne, and he vigorously defended his enlarged domi- 888. nions against the attacks of Northmen and Bretons.1 This Romulus was appropriately succeeded by a Numa, Fulk Fulk the the Good, renowned for his piety, his almsdeeds, his just and peaceful government, and for being the traditional author of the proverb that an unlettered King is but a crowned ass.2 His son, Geoffrey Grisegonelle, renewed Geoffrey Grisegothe warlike fame of his house; he fought with his neigh- nelle. bours of Britanny and Aquitaine, and he is said to have 958. borne an important share in the wars between King Lothar and the Emperor Otto the Second. After him came his son Fulk, surnamed Nerra or the Black, renowned as a Fulk Nerra. warrior and still more renowned as a pilgrim, and who is 987. the first prince of his house whose name has found its way into the general history of France. He overthrew his brother-in-law Conan of Britanny in one or more pitched battles, which French, as well as Breton and Angevin, writers thought worthy of record. He was also engaged His war in a war with his neighbour Odo the Second, Count of of Chartres. Blois and Chartres, the grandson of the famous Theobald,

a slandered lady-in this case his own godmother and benefactress-much in the style of the ballad of Sir Aldingar or of the story of Queen Gunhild.

1 Gest. Cons. 235 (so 244). "Integrum comitatum, qui prius bipertitus erat, recepit." The Breton story (Chron. Briocense, ap. Morice, Memoires pour servir de Preuves a l'Histoire de Bretagne, pp. 29, 30) makes him— "vir maledictus et diabolicus"-marry the widow of the Breton prince Alan, and procure the death of her son Drogo.

2 See the story of Fulk and King Lewis From-beyond-Sea in the Gesta, p. 245. The proverb was a favourite with our Henry the First, and was at least approved by the Great William. See Will. Malms. v. 390.

3 "Grisa gonella "="grisa tunica." Gest. Cons. 246, 247.

See Appendix X.

5 Count Maurice, who in the Gesta (249) comes between Geoffrey Grisegonelle and Fulk Nerra, finds no place in the list given by Fulk Rechin, and is rejected by the authors of the Art de Vérifier les Dates.

978.

992.

with Odo

and loses

Tours. 990.

Pontlevois.

CHAP. VIII. a war which passed on as an inheritance to the next generation, and which proved the origin of the first entanglements between Normandy and Anjou.1 It sounds like an incursion from another hemisphere, when we read how Aldebert, Count of Perigueux, Perigueux with its cupolas and its Roman tower, far away in the heart of Aquitaine, Fulk gains appeared as an ally of the Angevin Count.2 He took Tours and gave it to Fulk, but the citizens were ill disposed to their new master, and Odo recovered it after a Battle of short time. Later in his reign, Fulk defeated Odo in a great battle at Pontlevois in Touraine, and afterwards gained or recovered Saumur. We have already met with him in the character of a mediator between contending candidates for the Crown of France,3 and he appears also in the less honourable light of an assassin, who removed a courtier of King Robert who stood in the way of the plans of his own termagant niece Queen Constance. We hear also heavy complaints of him as a violator of ecclesiastical rule, by setting up the usurped authority of the See of Rome against the rights of the independent Metropolitans of Gaul. But he is perhaps best known for his two pil

1016.

1031.

4

According to R. Glaber (iii. 2), he sent assassins, who murdered Hugh, the courtier in question, before the King's eyes. The murder is done, according to good English precedent, at a hunting-party, which perhaps makes the story a little suspicious. See vol. i. p. 325.

5 Fulk founded a monastery near Loches-"in honore ac memoriâ illarum cœlestium virtutum quas Cherubin et Seraphin sublimiores sacra testatur auctoritas," (R. Glaber, ii. 4, copied in the Gesta Consulum, 251) —and applied to Hugh, Archbishop of Tours, to consecrate the church. The Primate refused, unless Fulk restored some alienated possessions of his see. Fulk then went to Rome with well-stored money-bags, by the help of which he persuaded Pope John-which of all the Johns contemporary with Fulk we are not told-to send a Cardinal to consecrate it. The Bishops of Gaul were horrified at this invasion of their rights, and divine vengeance showed itself by the church being blown down on the night following its consecration. Rudolf takes this opportunity to set forth his

FULK NERRA.

273

grimages to the Holy Sepulchre, for the ready ingenuity CHAP. VIII. which he displayed on his first journey, and for the extreme His pilgrimages. of penitential humiliation by which he edified all men on 1028, 1035. the second.1 Less happy in his private than in his public career, he was troubled in his last years by a rebellion of his son ;2 he was charged, truly or falsely, with the murder of one wife, and with driving another from him by illtreatment.3 A reign of unusual length made him, during a few years, a contemporary of the Great William, and at last he left his dominions to a son under whom Normans and Angevins met for the first time in open warfare.

Martel.

This son, Geoffrey by name, rejoiced in the surname of Geoffrey Martel, which he bestowed upon himself to express the 1040. heavy blows which, like the victor of Tours, he dealt around upon all his enemies.4 He began his distinctive career in his father's lifetime. A dispute for the possession of the county of Saintonge led to a war between him and William the Sixth or the Fat, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou.5 Geoffrey was successful; he took the He impriAquitanian prince prisoner, and kept him in close bondage, William of till his wife Eustacia ransomed him at a heavy price. Aquitaine. April 22,

theory of the Papal authority, which is well worth studying, and which breathes in its fulness the spirit of the later Gallican liberties. The Bishop of Rome is the first of Bishops, but he may not interfere with the diocesan jurisdiction of any of his brethren.

1 On Fulk's pilgrimage see Fulc. Rech. p. 233; Gest. Consul. 252; Will. Malms. iii. 235. The Chronicler of Saint Maxentius makes him die, "ut dicitur," on pilgrimage in 1032.

2 See at length Will. Malms. u. s.

3 See Art de Vérifier les Dates, ii. 838.

✦ Fulk, p. 233. "Propter quæ omnia bella, et propter magnanimitatem quam ibi exercebat, merito Martellus nominatus est, quasi suos conterens hostes." William of Malmesbury (iii. 231) calls him "Gaufredus cognomento Martellus, quod ipse sibi usurpaverat, quia videbatur sibi felicitate quâdam omnes obsistentes contundere." Another account makes the name derived from the trade of Geoffrey's foster-father, a blacksmith, something like Donald of the Hammer in Scottish story.

On the whole story see Appendix Y. VOL. II.

T

sons

1033.