Fulk ( or Foulques; 1089 or 1090 – 10 November 1143) was the count of Anjou (known as Fulk V or the Younger) from 1109 until 1129 and the king of Jerusalem from 1131 until 1143. He was a vigorous and assertive ruler who defeated numerous rebellions as both count and king and left both states more secure than he had found them.
Fulk was born to Count Fulk IV of Anjou and Bertrada of Montfort. He became co-count with his father after the death of his half-brother Geoffrey IV in 1106 and sole count upon his father's death in 1109. Through his marriage with Countess Eremburga, he also became count of Maine in 1110. Fulk's rule in Anjou was marked both by baronial uprisings and a prolonged conflict with King Henry I of England. Eremburga had a prominent place in Fulk's government until her death in 1126. In 1127, Fulk negotiated the marriage of their son, Geoffrey V, to Henry's daughter and heir presumptive, Matilda. In 1129, he relinquished Anjou to Geoffrey and moved to Jerusalem to marry Melisende, daughter and heir presumptive of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem.
Fulk became king upon Baldwin II's death in 1131. The nobles of Antioch recognized him as regent in the name of their young princess, Constance, but he had to defeat Constance's mother, Princess Alice, and Count Pons of Tripoli to enforce his claim to the regency. He enjoyed a cordial relationship with Pons after saving him from Turks in 1133 and remained involved in the defense of crusader states from the ambitious Turkic leader Imad al-Din Zengi throughout the first half of his reign. He excluded Melisende from power early on and faced a rebellion of her kinsman Hugh II of Jaffa in 1134. He defeated Hugh, but Melisende forced him to share rule with her henceforth.
After losing Montferrand to Zengi in 1137, Fulk concentrated on strengthening the defenses of his own kingdom, especially on the southern border with Fatimid Egypt. He deferred to Melisende on Church matters and supported her patronage interests. In 1142, he deftly avoided a confrontation with Emperor John II Komnenos, but both men died in hunting accidents the following year.
Youth Fulk was born in late 1089 or 1090, shortly after the marriage of his parents, Count Fulk IV of Anjou and Bertrada of Montfort. Fulk IV had children from prior marriages, including his heir apparent, Geoffrey IV. In 1092, Countess Bertrade eloped with King Philip I of France; as both were married, their union was widely condemned as bigamy. Fulk likely spent his childhood at the court of his much older paternal half-sister Duchess Ermengarde of Brittany, with whom he developed a close relationship that lasted throughout their lives; he also appears to have regarded her husband, Duke Alan Fergant, as a father figure. While the counts of Anjou had long prized education, Fulk was the first member of the family known to have had a dedicated tutor. His tutor was a landed knight called Adam, probably a Breton, whom Fulk came to cherish. Fulk returned to the Angevin court at Angiers with Adam in 1098.
In 1095, Pope Urban II travelled and preached the First Crusade among the Franks of northern France. By 1099, the Frankish crusaders defeated the Muslim rulers of the Levant and established four crusader states: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, and the counties of Edessa and Tripoli. Fulk IV's failure to participate earned him the contempt of his vassals and other contemporaries. Between 1103 and 1105, his son and heir, Geoffrey, rebelled against him with the help of Count Elias I of Maine–an Angevin vassal and the father of Geoffrey's betrothed, Eremburga–and forced the old count to share the comital authority. The younger Fulk was becoming prominent in their father's acts, and Geoffrey may have felt threatened; according to the Annals of Saint-Aubin, the old count had intended to disinherit Geoffrey and instate the younger Fulk as his heir. Fulk may have then been sent to the court of King Philip and Queen Bertrada as part of the settlement between his father and half-brother. In early 1106, King Philip arranged for two of his daughters to marry leading crusaders: Constance wed Prince Bohemond I of Antioch, while Cecile–daughter of Bertrada and half-sister of Fulk–married Bohemond's nephew Tancred.
Geoffrey died on 19 May 1106, killed by an arrow while besieging a rebellious vassal. According to Orderic Vitalis, Fulk received the news of his half-brother's death at the royal court and was forced to recognize that he would hold Anjou from the king. Philip chose Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who happened to be attending the court, to escort Fulk to Anjou. William instead kidnapped Fulk and demanded the fortress of Mirebeau from Fulk's father in return for Fulk's freedom. William of Tyre says that Fulk was already at William IX's court, serving as the duke's cupbearer, when Geoffrey died. The same year, Philip arrived in Angiers with Bertrada, enforcing royal rights over Anjou. Despite his mother's intercession, Fulk remained in custody–ill-treated, according to Orderic–until his father agreed to William's demand in 1107.
Count Comital government
In the aftermath of Geoffrey's death, Fulk V became co-count with his father, but comital authority in Anjou collapsed when Elias of Maine stepped in and started restoring order. Fulk's stepfather, King Philip, died on 29 July 1108. By that time, Fulk had married Elias's daughter and heir, Eremburga. Fulk became the sole count of Anjou upon the death of his father on 14 April 1109. When his father-in-law died on 11 July 1110, he became count of Maine as well, by right of his wife.
Fulk's mother, Queen Bertrada–banished from the royal court by King Philip's son and successor, Louis VI–returned to Anjou and became one of Fulk's closest advisers. After Bertrada arrived with her and King Philip's sons, Philip and Florus, Fulk introduced to the Angevin court a number of prestigious offices associated with the French royal court. Countess Eremburga did not initially have a prominent role in Fulk's government, probably because of a series of pregnancies. The couple had two daughters, Matilda and Sibylla, and two sons, Geoffrey and Elias. Eremburga eventually became closely involved in the comital government, with official narratives presenting the relationship as one of love and affection.
Baronial unrest Fulk worked to centralize power, an endeavor his vassals resented. He faced several rebellions in his first years and dealt with them decisively. In 1109, he besieged and subdued the castellans of Doué-la-Fontaine and L'Île-Bouchard; around the same time, he also brought to heel the castellan of Montrichard.
In the 1110s, King Louis and a number of barons of northern France waged wars against King Henry I of England, who ruled the vast Duchy of Normandy to the north of Anjou. Fulk's point of contention with Henry was Maine: the dukes of Normandy had long claimed either suzerainty or direct control over the county. Whereas Elias had been a friend and vassal of Henry, Fulk refused to do homage to Henry for Maine. An armed conflict erupted between them in 1111, and Henry quickly took the frontier fortress of Alençon. He won allies through bribes, intrigues, and marital alliances, and soon many nobles from Maine went over to his side. In 1112, Fulk had to put down another rebellion (possibly instigated by Henry), reducing the castellan of Brissac-Quincé. This prevented him from joining cause with King Louis and Henry's other enemies. In late February 1113, Fulk met Henry near Alençon and did homage for Maine; he also betrothed his daughter Matilda to William Adelin, Henry's sole legitimate son and heir apparent.
The Annals of Saint-Aubin report that in 1114, a coalition of unnamed barons staged a particularly devastating uprising against Fulk. It is possible that Fulk's otherwise undated siege of Preuilly-sur-Claise was part of this war. The following six years saw only one rebellion, that of John of Montbazon, whom Fulk subdued in 1118.
Fulk was encouraged to donate to the Church by his half-sister Ermengarde. In the 1100s, he was a major patron of the Fontevraud Abbey, a newly established double monastery in Maine. Around 1116, his mother joined the community as a nun and died there in 1119. The same year, Matilda married William Adelin.
Crusading and diplomacy
Throughout the first decade of his rule, Fulk sought to involve his family in the crusading movement by recruiting crusaders and employing them in the comital bureaucracy. In 1120, Fulk became a major sponsor of the Knights Templar and decided to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Fulk entrusted his land and his son, Geoffrey, to Saint Julian, patron of Le Mans Cathedral; overcome with emotion, he left Geoffrey on the cathedral's altar before departing with a large army some time after 2 May. During his absence, Eremburga ruled their territories alone. For a year, Fulk maintained in Palestine a force of 100 knights at his own expense, which left a favorable impression on the barons of the kingdom. While Fulk was on his pilgrimage, William Adelin died in the sinking of the White Ship in November 1120. King Henry was left without an obvious heir, and the problem of Maine was raised once again; By 21 September 1121, Fulk had returned to Anjou.
Fulk sent messengers to Henry in late 1122 to demand the return of Matilda's dowry–lands, towns, and castles–but they were rebuffed. Fulk responded by having his other daughter, Sibylla, marry William Clito, Henry's nephew and contender for the Duchy of Normandy, and he gave them Maine as Sibylla's dowry. Between 1122 and 1124, Fulk reconciled with the lords of Trèves and Amboise, who had avoided the comital court for decades after falling out with his father.
At Henry's request, the papal curia annulled Sibylla's marriage with William Clito on the grounds of consanguinity in 1124. Fulk was so infuriated that he burned the papal letter, imprisoned the envoys, and scorched their hair and beards. For this, he was excommunicated and his lands placed under interdict. At this time–and possibly in response to the ecclesiastical sanctions against Fulk–the lord of Montreuil-Bellay rebelled. Fulk prevailed, and he faced no further rebellions in Anjou. The interdict remained in place until at least 12 April 1125.
Eremburga fell ill in late 1126. Fulk summoned Abbot John of Saint-Nicholas, his friend and personal physician, to attend her at the comital castle of Baugé. She died in late December 1126 (or possibly early January 1127). On 1 January 1127, King Henry recognized his widowed daughter Empress Matilda as his heir presumptive. Later that year, at the insistence of King Louis, the nobles of Flanders elected William Clito to be their count. Fearing that William would be in a position to make good his claim on Normandy, Henry once again allied with Fulk, betrothing Empress Matilda to Fulk's son and heir apparent, Geoffrey.
Royal marriage