Geoffrey De Vexin

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 3904

Geoffrey — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 5244

Notes:

Count of Gâtinais. Geoffroy I, comte de Gâtinais was born in 970. He was the son of Geoffrey de Vexin.2 Geoffroy I, comte de Gâtinais was living in 990. He married Beatrice de Mâcon, daughter of Albéric II de Mâcon and Ermentrude de Roucy, before 1000

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p44.htm#i4581

I — Beatrice De Mâcon. Beatrice was born 974. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Ferreol
• Reference Number: 4

Notes:

Geoffrey II, de Château-Landon ( -1043/6) was the Count of Gâtinais. He was traditionally viewed as son of Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais by Beatrice of Macon, the daughter of Aubry II of Mâcon, but recent research has suggested the alternative that he was son by another husband of Beatrice, Hugh of Perche. About 1035 he married Ermengarde of Anjou, Duchess of Burgundy, daughter of Fulk III, Count of Anjou.. After Geoffrey's death she married secondly Robert I, Duke of Burgundy.

II — Ermengarde D'anjou. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Le Rechin
• Reference Number: 11698

Notes:

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".

Life:

He was the younger son of Geoffrey II, 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.

Family:

Fulk may have married as many as five times; there is some doubt regarding the exact number or how many he repudiated.

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.

IV — Bertrade De Montfort. Bertrade was born 1060; died 14 Feb 1117. [Group Sheet]