| Fulk IV | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Count of Anjou | |
| Reign | 1068 – 14 April 1109 |
| Predecessor | Geoffrey III |
| Successor | Fulk V |
| Joint rule | Geoffrey IV, Count of Anjou (until 1106) |
| Born | 1043 |
| Died | 14 April 1109 |
| Spouses | |
| Issue | Ermengarde, Duchess of Brittany Geoffrey IV, Count of Anjou Fulk, King of Jerusalem |
| House | House of Anjou |
| Father | Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais |
| Mother | Ermengarde of Anjou |
Fulk IV (French:Foulques IV d'Anjou; 1043 – 14 April 1109), better known asFulk le Réchin (Latin:Fulco Rechin), was thecount ofAnjou from around 1068 until his death. He was noted to be "a man with many reprehensible, even scandalous, habits" byOrderic Vitalis, who particularly objected to his many women and his influential footwear, claiming he popularized thepigaches that eventually became thepoulaine, the medieval long-toed shoe.
Fulk was the usual name of the medievalcounts ofAnjou. It is theEnglish form of the sameGermanicmasculinegiven namelatinized asFulco in contemporary accounts and writtenFoulques inmodern French. They are allcognate with the wordfolk ("people,kin").
Réchin, theepithet by which he is usually known, has no certain translation.Philologists have made numerous and varied suggestions, most but not all negative, including "the Quarreler", "the Rude", "the Sullen", "the Surly", and "the Heroic".
Fulk, born in 1043,[1] was the younger son ofGeoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais (sometimes known as Aubri), andErmengarde of Anjou.[2] Ermengarde was a daughter ofFulk the Black, an earlier count of Anjou,[3] and the sister ofGeoffrey Martel who inherited Anjou upon his father's death.
Geoffrey Martel died without direct heirs, leaving Anjou to his nephewGeoffrey III, Fulk's older brother.[1] Some sources declare that his rule was incompetent and Fulk contested the succession, capturing Geoffrey in 1067.[4] Under pressure from thechurch, he released Geoffrey but the two brothers soon fell to fighting again. The next year Geoffrey was again imprisoned by Fulk, this time for good.[5] Fulk then ruled Anjou from 1068 until his death.[6]
Substantial territory was lost to Angevin control due to the difficulties resulting from Geoffrey's poor rule and the brothers' warring.Saintonge was lost, and Fulk had to give the Gâtinais toPhilip I of France to placate the king upon his victory.[7] Much of Fulk's rule was devoted to regaining control over this territory and to a complex struggle withNormandy for influence inMaine andBrittany.[8]
At some point before 1106, Fulk made a major gift to theFontevraud Abbey.[9]
There are conflicting accounts of Fulk's life, including some who pointedly condemned him as "a man with many reprehensible, even scandalous, habits".[10] The clerics of his time particularly objected to his sexual promiscuity or deviance, which included marrying as many as five times, although the exact number of lawful wives, divorces, and repudiations is disputed.[11]
Providing all the claimed formal marriages, he was said to have first wed Hildegarde ofBeaugency[12] in 1067.Ermengarde of Anjou, their daughter, later marriedAlan IV,duke ofBrittany.[13] Hildegarde was said to have diedc. 1070. Fulk was then said to have married Ermengarde ofBourbon,[14] daughter ofits lordArchambaud IV the Strong.Geoffrey IV Martel, their son, ruled jointly with Fulk for some time but died in 1106. Some of the sources state Fulk repudiated Ermengarde in 1075 on the basis ofconsanguinity. Around 1076, Fulk then wed Orengarde ofChâtelaillon,[15] the daughter of its lord Isambert or Isembard. He is said to have repudiated her in 1080, again on grounds of consanguinity. He was then said to have married a daughter ofWalter I, Count of Brienne by 1080.[15] He was said to have divorced this woman, whose name was not recorded in surviving accounts, in 1087.
Most scandalously, he was said to have marriedBertrade, daughter ofSimon I, lord ofMontfort, in 1089. He extortedRobert Curthose for support of the marriage in exchange for his assistance with rebelManceaux, which ultimately required Robert to restore the lands ofRalph the Asshead to Bertrade'sguardianWilliam of Évreux.[16] Bertrade bore himFulk V, who later became count of Anjou andking of theCrusaderrealm ofJerusalem,[17] before 1092, when she either abandoned Fulk in favor ofKing Philip I or was abducted by the king. (Accounts vary.)[18] Apparentlybigamously, she married the king and becamequeen ofFrance on 15 May 1092. She was said to have fully reconciled Fulk with the king and the situation.
Fulk died on 14 April 1109 leaving the restoration of the county of Anjou as it had been under Geoffrey III[19] to his successors.[20]
ALatin history of Anjou and its rulers—surviving only in part and now known asA Partial History of Anjou (Fragmentum Historiae Andegavensis)—are said to have been written by Fulk in 1096, although both the authorship and authenticity of the work are disputed.[21] The first part of the work describing Fulk's ancestry and some of his ancestor's deeds is extant. A second part which would have dealt with Fulk's own times—if it were ever written—has been lost. If he wrote it, it would have been one of the first works of history inmedieval Europe written by a layman rather than a cleric. Some scholars propose that Fulk may have actually commissioned the work but used scribes to compose it.[22]
.jpg)
Amid his other denunciations of Fulk, theEnglishhistorianOrderic Vitalis blamed him for the invention ofpigaches,[23] the pointy-toed "scorpion-tail" shoes, which became fashionable in France and England around this time and later developed into the unwieldy elongatedpoulaines. Supposedly Fulk began wearing narrow shoes with lengthened toes as a way of hiding his unsightlybunions from his 5th wife Bertrade[24][25][10] before she abandoned him in favor of the king. (Thefashion historian Ruth Wilcox offers that it may have been a simple adaptation of theNormans'sabatons, which they had extended to a point and turned down in the late 11th century to better hold theirstirrups during battle.)[26] In any case, the footwear was considered vain and obscene—if not demonic—and were immensely unpopular with the church leadership of the period.St Anselm banned its use byEnglish clerics at the1102 Synod of Westminster,[27] thepapal legateRobert de Courson banned its use by the faculty of theUniversity of Paris in August 1215,[28] and theFourth Lateran Council finally banned them for allCatholicclergy the same year.[29][30]
| Preceded by | Count of Anjou withGeoffrey IV 1068–1109 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
