Geoffroy I "Greymantle" OF ANJOU ( -987)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

	Illustration of the tomb of Adele of Meaux with her effigy		Fulk Nerra's castle keep at Loches.

Individual Note

Geoffrey I of Anjou (died July 21, 987), known as Grisegonelle ("Greymantle"), was count of Anjou from 960 to 987.[1] He succeeded his father Fulk II. He cultivated the loyal support of a group of magnates, some of whom he inherited from his father,[2] others whom he recruited: men such as Alberic of Vihiers, Cadilo of Blaison, Roger I (le "vieux") of Loudon, Joscelin of Rennes, castellan of Baugé, Suhard I of Craon, Tobert of Buzençais and members of the Bouchard clan, and encouraged them to see their own dynastic interests as tied to the success of the Angevin count.[3] He succeeded in establishing a group of fideles upon whom his son, Fulk called "Nerra", was able to depend in establishing Anjou as a cohesive regional power in an age of territorial disintegration.[4] In preparing the way, Geoffrey was the first count in the west of France to associate his son in the comital title.[5]

Geoffrey allied with the Count of Nantes against the Count of Rennes, and allied with Hugh Capet, fearing an invasion by the Count of Blois. He was one of the men responsible for bringing Hugh to the throne of France.

Children:

He married Adele of Meaux (934–982), daughter of Robert of Vermandois and Adelais de Vergy. Their children were:

Gottfried of Anjou (-987)

Fulk III of Anjou.

Ermengarde of Anjou (b. 965), married Conan I of Rennes.

Gerberga (b. 973), married Count William IV of Angoulême.

He married, secondly, to Adelaise de Chalon in Mar 979 and had one child:

Maurice of Anjou (980 - 1012), married to a daughter of Aimery, Count of Saintes and had one son.

NOTES:

1 Refer to Bernard S. Bachrach, "Fulk Nerra: Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040" (California, 1993) 261 and 262 for a useful genealogy of the Angevin comital line.

2 "Although the documentation for the later ninth and early tenth centuries in Anjou is not good, enough material does survive to suggest a noteworthy continuity in the entourage of the Angevins counts" concludes Bernard S. Bachrach, "Enforcement of the Forma Fidelitatis: The Techniques Used by Fulk Nerra, Count of the Angevins (987-1040)" Speculum 59.4 (October 1984:796-819) p. 801, note 26.

3 Bachrach 1984:799f.

4 Other exceptions to the disintegration of the pagus, in addition to the example of Anjou, were Normandy and Flanders. (François Marignier, "Political and monastic structures in France at the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries", in Frederic L. Cheyette, ed. and tr., Lordship and Community in Medieval Europe (New York) 1967:106, 125.

5 Bachrach 1984:802.

SOURCES:

Mabille, Emile. Introduction aux chroniques des comtes d'Anjou (Paris) 1871.²

Sources