Ermengarde of Anjou

Provided that details of the 12th century manuscript Gesta Hereward are true IVO DE TAILLEBOIS (bef 1035 - 1094/7) was perhaps a bastard child of ERMENGARDE OF ANJOU.

She was the daughter of Count FULK III OF ANJOU and his second wife, HILDEGARDE DE HAUTE-LORRAINE DE SUNDGAU. She was sometimes also known as Ermengarde-Blanche.

Provided that her parents had married around 1005/1006, ERMENGARDE was born in the period 1006 - c. 1018 and died 18. March 1076 Fleurey-sur-Ouche, France.

She married first, c. 1035 Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais. Together they had the following children:
-   Hildegarde de Château-Landon, married c.1060 to Joscelin I, Lord of Courtenay
-   Geoffrey III, Count of Anjou
-   Fulk IV, Count of Anjou
She married secondly Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. Together they had one daughter:
-   Hildegarde (c. 1056–1104), who married Duke William VIII of Aquitaine.


FULK III. OF ANJOU was a son of GEOFFREY I. OF ANJOU (c. 938/940–987) and Adèle of Meaux also known as ADÈLE DE VERMANDOIS (934-982).

FULK III OF ANJOU was the first great builder of castles. He constructed an estimated 100 castles and abbeys across the Loire Valley in today’s France, fought successive wars with neighbors in Brittany, Blois, Poitou and Aquitaine counties.

Fulk was a natural horseman and a fearsome warrior, with a keen sense of military strategy that saw him get the better of most of his opponents. He was allied with the goals and aims of the Capetians against the dissipated Carolingians of his era. With his county seat at Angers, Fulk’s bitter enemy was Odo II, Count of Blois, his neighbor 128 km east along the Loire River, at Tours. The two men traded towns, followers and insults throughout their lives.

Fulk built his first castle at Langeais, 104 km east of Angers, on the banks of the Loire, in 992. Like many of his constructions, it began as a wooden tower, and was eventually replaced with a stone structure, fortified with exterior walls, and equipped with a thick-walled tower called a donjon in French. He built it in the territory of Odo I of Blois, and they fought a battle over it in 994. But Odo I died of a sudden illness, and his son and successor, Odo II, did not manage to evict him.

Fulk was also a devout Christian, and built, enlarged or endowed several abbeys and monasteries. Although he never learned to write, he endowed a school with revenue to provide poor students with an education. Fulk also undertook four pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

FULK III. OF ANJOU was married twice:
(1) Elisabeth de Vendôme (- c. 979/99)
NOTE: Elisabeth’s death was recounted in the Chronicles of Saint-Florent: "she suffered a fall from a great height, and then was burnt at the stake for adultery."
(1.1.)   Adèle of Anjou
(2) HILDEGARD OF SUNDGAU
(2.1.)   Geoffrey of Anjou born c. 1006; he became known as Geoffroy Martel and succeeded his father as count of Anjou in 1040. He had no children from either of two marriages. The Anjou title went to his nephews, the two sons of his sister Ermengarde-Blanche.
(2.2.)   ERMENGARDE OF ANJOU

HILDEGARDE DE HAUTE-LORRAINE DE SUNDGAU, was the daughter of THEDORIC I., DUKE OF UPPER LORRAINE and Richilde, daughter of Folmar III, count of Bliesgau and Metz.  

THEODORIC (Thierry) (c. 965 – between 11 April 1026 and 12 January 1027) was the son and successor of FREDERICK I, DUKE OF UPPER LORRAINE and BEATRICE, daughter of HUGH THE GREAT, count of Paris, and sister to the French king, Hugh Capet.

His mother was the regent until 987. In 985, he joined the other Lorrainer lords, including his cousin Godfrey the Prisoner, in trying to repel King Lothair of France's invasion: but at Verdun, he was captured.

Like almost all the dukes of Lorraine until the Gallicisation of the region in the thirteenth century, Theodoric was loyal to the Holy Roman Emperors. In 1011, he aided Henry II in his war with Luxembourg. He was captured a second time in 1018 in combat with Burgundy, but overcame Odo II of Blois, also count of Meaux, Chartres, and Troyes (later Champagne). In 1019, he associated his son, Frederick, in the government with him. He briefly opposed the Emperor Conrad II, Henry's successor, but soon joined his supporters.