See also

Family of Fulk IV + and Bertrade + of MONTFORT

Husband: Fulk IV + (1043-1109)
Wife: Bertrade + of MONTFORT (1070-1117)
Children: Fulk V + of JERUSALEM (1092-1143)

Husband: Fulk IV +

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Fulk IV +

Name: Fulk IV +
Sex: Male
Nickname: Le Rechin
Father: Geoffrey II + (1000-1046)
Mother: Ermengarde + of ANJOU (1018-1075)
Birth 1043 Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, Loire, France
Occupation Count of Anjou
Title frm 1068 to 1109 (age 24-66) Count of Anjou
Death 14 Apr 1109 (age 65-66) Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, Loire, France

Wife: Bertrade + of MONTFORT

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Bertrade + of MONTFORT

Name: Bertrade + of MONTFORT
Sex: Female
Father: Simon I + of MONTFORT (1025-1087)
Mother: Agnes + of EVREUX (1030-1116)
Birth 1070
Death 14 Feb 1117 (age 46-47)

Child 1: Fulk V + of JERUSALEM

Name: Fulk V + of JERUSALEM
Sex: Male
Spouse 1: Ermengarde + (1096-1126)
Spouse 2: Melisende (1105-1161)
Birth 1092 Anjou, Isere, Rhone-Alpes, Loire, France
Occupation Count of Anjou
Title Count d'Anjou
Death 10 Nov 1143 (age 50-51) Jerusalem, Judea

Note on Husband: Fulk IV +

Fulk 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 the younger son of Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais (sometimes known as Aubri), and Ermengarde of Anjou, a daughter of Fulk the Black, count of Anjou, and sister of Geoffrey Martel, also 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", though 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.[1]

 

Fulk may have married as many as five times; there is some doubt regarding two of the marriages.

 

His first wife was Hildegarde of Beaugency. After her death, before or by 1070, he married Ermengarde de Bourbon in 1070, and then in 1076 possibly Orengarde de Châtellailon. Both these were repudiated (Ermengarde de Bourbon in 1075 and Orengarde de Chatellailon or Châtel-Aillon in 1080), possibly on grounds of consanguinity.

 

By 1080 he may have married Mantie, daughter of Walter I of Brienne. This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1087. Finally, in 1089, he married Bertrade de Montfort, who was apparently "abducted" by King Philip I of France in or around 1092.

 

He had two sons. The eldest (a son of Ermengarde de Bourbon), Geoffrey IV Martel, ruled jointly with him for some time, but died in 1106. The younger (a son of Bertrade de Montfort) succeeded him as Fulk V.

 

He also had a daughter by Hildegarde of Beaugency, Ermengarde, who married firstly with William IX, count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and secondly with Alan IV, Duke of Brittany.

Note on Wife: Bertrade + of MONTFORT

Bertrade de Montfort (c. 1070 – 14 February 1117) was the daughter of Simon I de Montfort and Agnes, Countess of Evreux. Her brother was Amaury de Montfort.

 

The oft-married Fulk IV, Count of Anjou was married to the mother of his son in 1089, when the lovely Bertrade caught his eye. According to the chronicler John of Marmoutier:

 

The lecherous Fulk then fell passionately in love with the sister of Amaury de Montfort, whom no good man ever praised save for her beauty.

 

Bertrade and Fulk were married, and they became the parents of a son, Fulk, but in 1092 Bertrade left her husband and took up with King Philip I of France. Philip married her on 15 May 1092, despite the fact that they both had spouses living. He was so enamoured of Bertrade that he refused to leave her even when threatened with excommunication. Pope Urban II did excommunicate him in 1095, and Philip was prevented from taking part in the First Crusade. Astonishingly, Bertrade persuaded Philip and Fulk to be friends.

[edit] Children

 

With Fulk IV, Count of Anjou:

 

Fulk of Jerusalem, Count of Anjou and King of Jerusalem (1089/92–1143)

 

With Philip I of France:

 

Philip of France, Count of Mantes (living in 1123)

Fleury of France, Seigneur of Nangis (living in 1118)

Cecile of France (died 1145), married (1) Tancred, Prince of Galilee; married (2) Pons of Tripoli

 

[edit] Later life

 

According to Orderic Vitalis, Bertrade was anxious that one of her sons succeed Philip, and sent a letter to King Henry I of England asking him to arrest her stepson Louis. Orderic also claims she sought to kill Louis first through the arts of sorcery, and then through poison. Whatever the truth of these allegations, Louis succeeded Philip in 1108. Bertrade lived on until 1117; William of Malmesbury says: "Bertrade, still young and beautiful, took the veil at Fontevraud Abbey, always charming to men, pleasing to God, and like an angel." Her son from her first marriage was Fulk V of Anjou who later became King of Jerusalem iure uxoris. The dynasties founded by Fulk's sons ruled for centuries, one of them in England (Plantagenet), the other in Jerusalem.