Geoffrey IV (1070/75 – 19 May 1106), called Martel (the Hammer), was

Count of Anjou The Count of Anjou was the ruler of the County of Anjou, first granted by Charles the Bald in the 9th century to Robert the Strong. Ingelger and his son, Fulk the Red, were viscounts until Fulk assumed the title of Count of Anjou. The Robertians ...

from 1103 until his early death, either co-ruling with his father, Fulk IV, or in opposition to him. He was popular with the Church and grew a reputation for curbing tyranny and opposing his violent father, who, according to

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern historia ...

, enjoyed pillaging and terrorising his subjects. Geoffrey was a son of Fulk's second wife, Ermengard of Bourbon. His father tried to disinherit him in favour of Fulk the Younger, his son by his fourth wife, Bertrada of Montfort. Fulk, by then an old man, had previously delegated much of his authority to Geoffrey. With the support of his father's adversaries, Geoffrey seems to have achieved recognition from his father and from 1103 styled himself "count" (''comes'' in the Latin of the day) and took control of the government. He allied with

Renaud de Martigné Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan (), known as Renaud (), born 11 May 1952, is a French singer, songwriter and actor. His characteristically 'broken' voice makes for a very distinctive vocal style. Several of his songs are popular classics in F ...

Bishop of Angers The Roman Catholic Diocese of Angers ( Latin: ''Dioecesis Andegavensis''; French: ''Diocèse d'Angers'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The episcopal see is located in Angers Cathedral in the city of A ...

, against the baron Maurice of Craon. An anonymous poem by a scholar or cleric addressed to a certain Philip, probably Philip of Melun, son of

Philip I of France Philip I (23 May 1052 – 29 July 1108), called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to 1108. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low i ...

through his dalliance with Bertrada, is an

encomium ''Encomium'' is a Latin word deriving from the Ancient Greek ''enkomion'' (), meaning "the praise of a person or thing." Another Latin equivalent is ''laudatio'', a speech in praise of someone or something. Originally was the song sung by the c ...

of a "Count Martel" (''Martellus consul''), probably Geoffrey IV. The poem is didactic and upholds the count, only named as Martel, as an exemplar of good rulership. The last lines offer hope that he may "long prosper", and so must have been written during the brief period of his rule in Anjou. Geoffrey was besieging a rebellious baron in the castle of

Candé Candé () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. History In the 11th century the village became an important military site for Anjou under baron Rorgon de Candé, at Fort-Castle of Candé. Candé was noted in 2000-2 ...

when, on 19 May 1106, he was struck and killed by an arrow while going to negotiations. The '' Chronica de gestis consulum Andegavorum'' attributed this assassination to Fulk and Bertrada, and praised the late count as "an admirable man, distinguished in justice, a cultivator or the whole of goodness, who was a terror to all his enemies." The ''

Annales Vindocinenses Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...

'' call him "a subduer and conqueror of tyrants erhaps his father protector and defender of churches."Quoted in Ziolkowski et al., 78–79: ''debellator et expugnator tyrranorum, protector et defensor ecclesiarum'', from Louis Halphen, ed., ''Recueil d'annales angevines et vendômoises'', (Collection de textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire; 37.) (Paris: A. Picard, 1903), 50–79.

Notes

Bibliography

* Bachrach, Bernard S. "Henry II and the Angevin Tradition of Family Hostility". ''Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies'' 16/2 (1984): 111–30. *Halphen, Louis. ''Le comté d'Anjou au XIe siècle''. Paris: A. Picard, 1906. *Jaeger, C. Stephen. ''The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939–1210''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. *Ziolkowski, Jan M.; Balint, Bridget K.; et al. ''A Garland of Satire, Wisdom, and History: Latin Verse from Twelfth-Century France (Carmina Houghtoniensia)''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007.

Ancestry

{{DEFAULTSORT:Geoffrey 04 1070s births 1106 deaths Counts of Anjou Assassinated French people People murdered in France