From "Anarchy" to "Empire": Revising the History of the Counts of Anjou, ca. 1060-1150
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Kathryn Dutton
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Manchester
Presider Name
Richard E. Barton
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of North Carolina-Greensboro
Paper Title 1
Angevin Civil War in Comparative Context: Fulk le Réchin, Geoffrey le Barbu, and Geoffrey Martel le Jeune
Presenter 1 Name
Basit Hammad Qureshi
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Paper Title 2
Politics and Inheritance in the Marriages of Count Fulk V of Anjou
Presenter 2 Name
Mark Blincoe
Presenter 2 Affiliation
California Baptist Univ.
Paper Title 3
Angevin Comital Charter Production in the Twelfth Century
Presenter 3 Name
Kathryn Dutton
Start Date
9-5-2014 10:00 AM
Session Location
Schneider 2345
Description
Modern historiography of Greater Anjou (the counties of Anjou, Maine and the western Touraine) is largely occupied with the region's history prior to the reign of Count Fulk V (1109-29) and its later place in the so-called 'Angevin Empire' from 1154 onwards. Where it has been studied, the first half of the twelfth century emerges as a period of recovery after comital authority had been weakened by civil war, the rise of castellan and aristocratic power, and the fragmentation of the comital demesne after c.1060. These characterizations, however, remain to be tested in detail. This session brings together three scholars from a vibrant and growing community of historians engaging with the history of Anjou and bringing new approaches to the table. It aims to tackle some aspects of the question of comital power and authority in Anjou in the period c.1060-1151, traditionally regarded as marking the beginning of the decline of comital power upon the death of Count Geoffrey II and its full-blooded recovery under Henry, crowned king of England in 1154.
The three papers in this session will address questions of comital power and authority from a variety of perspectives. Basit Hammad Qureshi (University of Minnesota) compares the 'civil wars' of the 1060s and 1103-6, taking a prosopographical approach in order to examine elite participation in dynastic conflict, as well as the responses of the counts themselves. This paper will consider Fulk IV as first a rebel, who successfully wrested the county from his brother Geoffrey III, and then as a count faced with the rebellion of his own son, Geoffrey IV. Mark Blincoe (California Baptist University) examines the two marriages of Fulk V, first as count of Anjou to Aremburga of Maine in 1110, and second to Melisende, heiress to the kingdom of Jerusalem, in 1129. Using charters and other acta he considers the interactions of Fulk with his wives and the kinds of jurisdiction to which they could lay claim. This paper will engage with expectations of the politics of marriage, and will argue that a successful partnership with Aremburga provided a template for overcoming problems in the Latin East. Kathryn Dutton (University of Manchester, UK) considers the production of comital acta in the reign of Geoffrey V, revising older arguments about the identity of his 'chancellor', Prior Thomas of Loches, and suggesting that charters were produced collaboratively. Engaging with Dominique Barthélemy's work on changing documentary practices in the late eleventh century, this paper will suggest that the apparently loose control of written output was not a sign of comital weakness but instead of strength, bringing together not only scribes from the count's chapel and beneficiary institutions, but also key men from within his household. Together, these three papers will question assumptions about the nature of comital power and authority, providing much-needed detail of an aspect of this formative period in Angevin history.
Kathryn Dutton
From "Anarchy" to "Empire": Revising the History of the Counts of Anjou, ca. 1060-1150
Schneider 2345
Modern historiography of Greater Anjou (the counties of Anjou, Maine and the western Touraine) is largely occupied with the region's history prior to the reign of Count Fulk V (1109-29) and its later place in the so-called 'Angevin Empire' from 1154 onwards. Where it has been studied, the first half of the twelfth century emerges as a period of recovery after comital authority had been weakened by civil war, the rise of castellan and aristocratic power, and the fragmentation of the comital demesne after c.1060. These characterizations, however, remain to be tested in detail. This session brings together three scholars from a vibrant and growing community of historians engaging with the history of Anjou and bringing new approaches to the table. It aims to tackle some aspects of the question of comital power and authority in Anjou in the period c.1060-1151, traditionally regarded as marking the beginning of the decline of comital power upon the death of Count Geoffrey II and its full-blooded recovery under Henry, crowned king of England in 1154.
The three papers in this session will address questions of comital power and authority from a variety of perspectives. Basit Hammad Qureshi (University of Minnesota) compares the 'civil wars' of the 1060s and 1103-6, taking a prosopographical approach in order to examine elite participation in dynastic conflict, as well as the responses of the counts themselves. This paper will consider Fulk IV as first a rebel, who successfully wrested the county from his brother Geoffrey III, and then as a count faced with the rebellion of his own son, Geoffrey IV. Mark Blincoe (California Baptist University) examines the two marriages of Fulk V, first as count of Anjou to Aremburga of Maine in 1110, and second to Melisende, heiress to the kingdom of Jerusalem, in 1129. Using charters and other acta he considers the interactions of Fulk with his wives and the kinds of jurisdiction to which they could lay claim. This paper will engage with expectations of the politics of marriage, and will argue that a successful partnership with Aremburga provided a template for overcoming problems in the Latin East. Kathryn Dutton (University of Manchester, UK) considers the production of comital acta in the reign of Geoffrey V, revising older arguments about the identity of his 'chancellor', Prior Thomas of Loches, and suggesting that charters were produced collaboratively. Engaging with Dominique Barthélemy's work on changing documentary practices in the late eleventh century, this paper will suggest that the apparently loose control of written output was not a sign of comital weakness but instead of strength, bringing together not only scribes from the count's chapel and beneficiary institutions, but also key men from within his household. Together, these three papers will question assumptions about the nature of comital power and authority, providing much-needed detail of an aspect of this formative period in Angevin history.
Kathryn Dutton