Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul 987-1040: A Political Biography of the Angevin Count

by Bernard S. Bachrach

This is the first comprehensive biography of Fulk Nerra, an important medieval ruler, who came to power in his teens and rose to be master in the west of the French Kingdom. Descendant of warriors and administrators who served the French kings, Fulk in turn built the state that provided a foundation for the vast Angevin empire later constructed by his descendants.

Bernard Bachrach finds the terms "constructed" and "built" more than metaphorical in relation to Fulk's career. He shows how Fulk and the Angevin counts who followed him based their long-term state building policy on Roman strategies and fortifications described by Vegetius. This creative adaptation of Roman ideas and tactics, according to Bachrach, was the key to Fulk's successful consolidation of political power. Students of medieval and military history will find here a colorful, impressively researched biography.

Genres: History, Medieval History, Biography

412 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Bernard Stanley Bachrach was an American historian and a professor of history at the University of Minnesota. He specialized in the Early Middle Ages, mainly on the topics of Medieval warfare, Medieval Jewry, and early Angevin history. He received the CEE Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Minnesota in 1993 and entered the College of Liberal Arts Scholars of the College at Minnesota in 2000. He has also been the recipient of a McKnight Research Award.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jacob Lehman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much the story of local power dynamics in Northern France in Fulk's era as of the man himself.

I read this book as a part of my project to read one book from every aisle in Olin Library. You can read more about the project, find reactions to other books, and (eventually) a fuller reaction to this one here: https://jacobklehman.com/library-read

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conquest of England by William of Normandy changed the island’s political nature for all and good, but his dynasty didn’t last very long. The Angevins, beginning with Henry II, had an almost equally great impact and their control continued more or less strongly for several centuries. In the earlier period, a century before the Conquest, the counts of Anjou were every bit the equals of the dukes of Normandy, eventually establishing an empire that stretched from Scotland to the Pyrenees, and which encompassed both England and Aquitaine in addition to Anjou itself. The story really begins with Fulk Nerra, who built the Angevin state, both physically and politically, and laid the essential groundwork for Henry’s later conquests. Of course, Fulk’s efforts were based on those of his own predecessors, back into the early 9th century, and Bachrach spends a fair amount of time discussing this ancestral power and its roots in the old Roman civitates. Bachrach is perhaps the leading present authority on the Angevins and his theories are worth paying attention to. There’s also an excellent, lengthy bibliography.

[Rodney Bond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good description of the history and the personal relationships of the time. Having said that, very wordy and somewhat repetitive.