FULK NERRA (c. 970-1040), count of Anjou, eldest son of Count Geoffrey I., "Grisegonelle" (Grey Tunic) and Adela of Vermandois, was born about 970 and succeeded his father in the countship of Anjou on July 21, 987. He was successful in repel ling the attacks of the count of Rennes and laying the foundations of the conquest of Touraine (see ANJou). In this connection he built a great number of strong castles, which has led in modern times to his being called "the great builder." He also founded several religious houses, among them the abbeys of Beaulieu, near Loches (c. 1007), of Saint-Nicholas at Angers (1020) and of Ronceray at Angers (1028), and, in order to expiate his crimes of violence, made three pilgrimages to the Holy Land (in 1002 1003, C. 1008 and in 1039) . On his return from the third of these journeys he died at Metz in Lorraine on June 21, 1040. By his first marriage, with Elizabeth, daughter of Bouchard le Venerable, count of Vendome, he had a daughter, Adela, who married Boon of Nevers and transmitted to her children the countship of Ven dome. Elizabeth having died in 1 000, Fulk married Hildegarde of Lorraine, by whom he had a son, Geoffrey Martel (q.v.), and a daughter Ermengarde, who married Geoffrey, count of Gatinais. and was the mother of Geoffrey "le Barbu" (the Bearded) and of Fulk "le Rechin" (see AN Jov) .
See Louis Halphen, Le Comte d'Anjou au Xle siecle (1906). The biography of Fulk Nerra by Alexandre de Salies, Histoire de Foulques Nerra (Angers, 1874) is confused and uncritical. A very summary biography is given by Celestin,Port, Dictionnaire historique, geogra phique et biographique de Maine-et-Loire (3 vols., Paris-Angers, 1874 78), vol. ii. pp. 189-192, and there is also a sketch in Kate Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings (2 vols., 1887), vol. i. ch. iii.