Fulk le Réchin
| Fulk IV | |
|---|---|
| "le Réchin" | |
 |
|
| Count of Anjou | |
| Reign | 1068–1109 |
| Predecessor | Geoffrey III |
| Successor | Fulk V |
| Joint rule | Geoffrey IV, Count of Anjou (until 1106) |
| Born | 1043 |
| Died | 1109 |
| Spouse | Hildegarde of Baugency m. 1068 – wid. 1070 Ermengarde de Bourbon m. 1070 – div. ca. 1075 Orengarde de Châtellailon m. 1076 – div. 1080 N of Brienne m. 1080 – div. 1087 Bertrade de Montfort m. 1089 – div. 1092? |
| Issue |
by Hildegarde: Ermengarde, Duchess of Brittany by Ermengarde: Geoffrey IV, Count of Anjou by Bertrade: Fulk of Jerusalem |
| House | House of Anjou |
| Father | Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais |
| Mother | Ermengarde of Anjou |
Fulk IV (in French Foulques IV) (1043–14 April 1109), called le Réchin, was the Count of Anjou from 1068 until his death. The nickname by which he is usually referred has no certain translation. Philologists have made numerous very different suggestions, including "quarreler", "rude", "sullen", "surly" and "heroic". He was noted to be " a man with many reprehensible, even scandalous, habits" by Orderic Vitalis.
Fulk, born 1043, was the younger son of Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais (sometimes known as Aubri), and Ermengarde of Anjou. Ermengarde was a daughter of Fulk the Black, count of Anjou, and the sister of Geoffrey Martel who preceded Fulk and his brother Geoffrey as Count of Anjou.
When Geoffrey Martel died without direct heirs he left Anjou to his nephew Geoffrey III of Anjou, Fulk le Réchin's older brother. Fulk fought with his brother, whose rule was deemed incompetent, and captured him in 1067. Under pressure from the Church he released Geoffrey. The two brothers soon fell to fighting again, and the next year Geoffrey was again imprisoned by Fulk, this time for good. Substantial territory was lost to Angevin control due to the difficulties resulting from Geoffrey's poor rule and the subsequent civil war. Saintonge was lost, and Fulk had to give the Gâtinais to Philip I of France to placate the king. Much of Fulk's rule was devoted to regaining control over the Angevin baronage, and to a complex struggle with Normandy for influence in Maine and Brittany.
In 1096 Fulk wrote an incomplete history of Anjou and its rulers titled Fragmentum historiae Andegavensis or "History of Anjou." The authorship and authenticity of this work is disputed. Only the first part of the history, describing Fulk's ancestry, is extant. The second part, supposedly describing Fulk's own rule, has not been recovered. If he did write it, it is one of the first medieval works of history written by a layman.
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