Foulques III Nerra (970-1040)

Count of Anjou for 53 years, coming to power in his 17th year and ruling for the rest of his life, our 31st GGF Foulques “The Black” built the foundations of the later Angevin empire of his great-great-great grandson Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, our 26th great-grandparents. That empire, as Henry liked to boast, was greater than (38GGF) Charlemagne’s. Then their son, our 25th GGF King John Lackland, dismembered it by his incompetence.

Foulques’ definitive biographer¹ Bernard S. Bachrach credits Foulques with building his new state on brilliantly creative adaptation of Roman ideas and tactics, consolidating political power with Roman military strategies and fortifications described by Vegetius, and building chateaux that survive today.

We come through Foulques’ second wife, 31GGM Hildegarde, who also bore him his successor, our 31st Great-Uncle Geoffroy Martel (“Jeff Hammer”).

¹Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040, A Political Biography of the Angevin Count.

…Back (Charlemagne)

Next (Foulques V…)

Presentations People Places Updates Do you know?

This Presentation: Carlisle, Page 101

Carlisle Homesteads Ancestors Page Index

[FoulquesNerra.htm]