. Originally a relatively small pagus (administrative county) centered on the town of Angers at the confluence of the Loire and Mayenne rivers, Anjou expanded throughout the 11th century to become one of the major principalities of France. Under strong counts, Anjou was able to dominate much of western Francia independently of the king of France. From this base, the Plantagenêts were able to conquer Normandy and England, acquire Aquitaine by marriage, and establish the Angevin empire of the 12th century. After the king of France conquered the continental portions of this empire in 1202–04, the stable administrative institutions found there influenced the development of the Capetian kingdom.
In the 9th century, Anjou was merely a part of a larger lordship given to the Robertian family by Charles the Bald to defend against Viking attacks. Its chief city, Angers, was administered for the Robertians by a viscount, one of whom, Foulques le Roux (ca. 888–941), usurped the title of count by 930. Under his descendants, Anjou expanded beyond its original boundaries—sometimes by military conquest, often by marriage alliances. Before the end of the 10th century, Anjou had absorbed the Mauges and dominated Nantes in Brittany to the west, Vendôme to the east, and Loudun and the Gâtinais in the south.
Count Foulques Nerra (r. 987–1040) and his son Geoffroi Martel (r. 1040–60) were the true architects of Angevin expansion into a major power. By military victories, Nerra was able to maintain control of Nantes and the Mauges and to conquer Saintes, Saumur, and a major part of the Touraine. By diplomatic means, he dominated Vendôme and Maine. Geoffroi Martel capped Angevin expansion into the Touraine by capturing Tours from the count of Blois in 1044. This union with the Touraine made Anjou a major power in western Francia. Angevin control over the conquered territories was marked by an ambitious program of castle building, creating a complex system of defense in depth. Angevin domination was ensured as long as the lords of these castles were loyal to the count of Anjou.
Under the weak and unpopular rule of Geoffroi le Barbu (r. 1060–68), however, the system broke down. In the midst of a civil war between Geoffroi and his younger brother, Foulques le Rechin (r. 1068–1109), the Angevin barons increased their own power to the detriment of the count. By the time Foulques finally seized the countship in 1068, the Angevin state had been seriously weakened. He spent most of his reign trying to reassert his authority while successfully fighting off Norman advances into Maine. Although Angevin domination of outlying regions receded, control over the heartland of Anjou and the Touraine was maintained.
From this territory, Foulques le Rechin’s successors, Foulques V (r. 1109–29) and Geoffroi Plantagenêt (1129–51), were able to reassert comital authority over the bar-
ons. Maine was effectively united with Anjou by the marriage of Foulques V to the heiress of that county. In 1128, his heir, Geoffroi Plantagenêt, married Matilda, daughter and heiress of Henry I, king of England and duke of Normandy. Geoffroi, count of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, thus had a claim to both England and Normandy. The claim was frustrated, however, when Stephen of Blois, King Henry’s nephew, seized the English throne in 1135. Geoffroi, forced to fight for his wife’s inheritance, conquered Normandy in 1144. The war in England continued for another decade.
When Geoffroi’s son Henry became count of Anjou in 1151, he also governed Normandy and pursued his claim to England. The following year, Henry gained the vast duchy of Aquitaine by marrying its heiress, Eleanor. As the result of a political settlement with Stephen, he secured the throne of England in 1154. Anjou thus became part of an enormous territory, including all of England and most of western France, ruled by one man and sometimes called the “Angevin empire.” Following a flexible Angevin model, rather than the more tightly controlled Anglo-Norman model, monarchs made little attempt to integrate Anjou into a unified Plantagenêt state. Anjou was ruled by the Plantagenêt kings of England until 1202, when Philip Augustus (r. 1180–1223) captured Angers from John of England. From that point on, the history of Anjou is part of the history of France.
