battle of pontlevoy 1016, fulk nerra, eudes II of Blois

Battle of Pontlevoy: 1016

Fulk Nerra and Eudes II of Blois

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Fulk Nerra III (987-1040)
Approximately contemporary (to Fulk) immobilized Charles the Bald from Tours

(for a larger version of this coin, click here)

AR denier, 18 mm, .95gr. Obv: GRATIA D-I REX, central KRLS monogram. Rev: TVRONES CIVITAS (?), central cross. Mint is Tours. This is a 10th C immobilized coin that was part of the Fecamp hoard. Dumas 6935+. #6952-53 are listed as .96gr. The Fecamp hoard was laid down about 977, 10 years before Fulk comes to power. His coins say 'GRATIA D-I COM. I'm still waiting for an image of one - this is as close as I can come at the moment.

Eudes II (?)(997-1037)

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AR denier, 21mm, 1.28gr. Obv: degenerate head left, ‘+’ either side, other design elements. Rev: +DVNIS CAST__, central cross. Mint is Chateaudun. Attribution is difficult in that no image clearly matches the obverse design elements. R1579v; Boud 238+v; PdA 1824+v. Closest is Dy 462 (vers 1020-40, which largely covers Eudes rule).

While attribution of the coins is uncertain, the battle itself between the forces of Eudes and Fulk is not. This was one of the bloodiest early medieval battles. The battle field itself is not marked today, at least we could find no monuments, but it is possible to pick out where this occurred. First take a look at the neighboring countryside.

Pontlevoy (circled in red) is between Blois to the north (and visible on the map) and Tours to the west (barely visible). It is north of Montrichard, which today has the ruins of a castle Fulk built. The sources for this page are a local history from Pontlevoy and Bernard Bachrach's Fulk Nerra. Fulk had fortified Montrichard, south of Pontlevoy, to protect his possessions at Loches and Amboise. In 1011 he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was gone for about five years. During this time Eudes, his traditional enemy, ravaged Fulk's territories and sought political and military advantage in the area for himself. Fulk returned in 1016 and sought to confront Eudes. Fulk was allied with Herbert, comte de Maine, known as 'l'Eveille Chien," or Wake Dog, by modern standards a strange nickname.

Herbert 1 of Maine (1015-1032/36)

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AR denier 22mm. Obv: +COMES CENOMANNIS, central monogram of Herbert I of Maine. Rev: SIGNUM DEI VIVI, central cross with detail. Mint in Maine (LeMans). R 4121, Boud 170.

Eudes mounted a large army and headed south from Blois, with the apparent intention of attacking Montrichard. His army included large numbers of foot soldiers as well as seige machines. Fulk countered and met him at Pontlevoy on July 6. They met north of Pontlevoy, between two locations known as l'ail vert and l'etang de Sudais. Conveniently for those wanting to find the battle field these are current place names, circled in red on the following map. When Eudes arrived, Fulk's army was in position and ready for battle. Eude's army was fairly compact and not aligned for battle when they encountered Fulk. Fulk, with the element of surprise, attacked. The two sources I have suggest slightly different events. Bachrach says that Fulk's horse went down, he was shaken and Fulk's standard bearer, Sigebrannus was either killed or wounded and the standard fell. When the standard fell Fulk's forces withdrew from the field. The local Pontlevoy history says Fulk was wounded and captured. Regardless, at this stage of the fight it had gone largely Eudes' way.

We visited the battlefield on a rainy day and these pictures are taken from the position marked with a cross just under l'etang de Sudais. This is down a small dirt road, actually the entrance to a farm. This first picture is looking east towards l'ail vert. The countryside is flat and today relatively open, though with woods in the distance to the north and to our back from the perspective of the first photo. There are smaller woods evident in this photo. While it looked as if the fight had gone Eude's way, the tide was turned when Herbert of Maine arrived with the reserves. He attacked from the west and hit the right flank of Eude's army. The sun was in the eyes of Blois' forces and they didn't realize the seriousness of the attack until Herbert's forces were upon them. The local history says that Fulk was freed and forces of Blois were routed. This next photo is looking generally north, NW, so it would have been out of a similar line of woods, to the left of the picture, from which Herbert emerged. Bachrach says that Fulk took no prisoners and that casualties were heavy. The local history (of which I have only xeroxes of the pages that relate to the battle, so don't have a good citation) claims 6000 casualties for Eudes. Eudes escaped but the loses among his foot troops were extensive. From the local history; "Cette bataille fut la plus sanglante de toutes celles qui se livrerent en France sous le regne de Robert le Pieux." The battlefield is not marked today, and on a nicer day, after the crops were in, it would be an interesting experience to walk on the fields. This countryside is so extensively agricultural and modern building so few that you can get a sense of the terrain and ambiance as it was 1000 years ago.

The battle was a significant milestone in Anjou lore. Here is an except from, with introductory note, of a history from Fulk IV. This fragment of a history of the counts of Anjou (Fragmentum historiae Andegavensis) was translated by Geoffrey G. Koziol (University of California - Berkeley) and is reproduced here with his permission (2/27/04)

"From Chroniques des comtes d'Anjou et des seigneurs d'Amboise, ed. Louis Halphen and René Poupardin (Paris, 1913), pp. 232-38. "

Professor Koziol's introduction: " ... The history was written by Count Fulk le Réchin in 1096 (Fulk IV), for reasons unknown. If we read it carefully, it should give a rare glimpse into the way an eleventh-century count actually thought ... " (the full text is on the Anjou page)

"He (Geoffrey Greymantle) was succeeded by his son Fulk, my ~~(削除) uncle (削除ここまで)~~ (grandfather), whose courage was great and admirable. He acquired the county of Maine and added it to the county of Anjou; and he built several castles on his land, which had remained deserted and reverted to woods on account of the savagery of the pagans. So in the county of Tours he built Langeais, Chaumont, Montrésor, Saint- Maur; in Poitou [he built] Mirebeau, Moncontour, Faye, Montreuil, Passavant, Maulévrier. In Anjou he built Baugé, Château-Gontier, Durtal, and many others which it would be tedious to list. He also began the castle of Saumur in that time when Count Odo [of Blois] came to Anjou with his army and built his castle on the Onglée between the same city and the river Loire. Fulk also fought two great battles in the open field: one on the plain of Conquereuil against Conan, count of Brittany, near the city of Nantes, which Conan tried to take from him. Conan himself died in this battle along with a thousand of his knights [equites]. He fought the other battle against the said Odo, a most powerful count, on the river Cher, at Pontlevoy. Here was great slaughter of Gauls and Angevins. Count Herbert called Wake- Dog fought with him in this battle of Le Mans, where by the grace of God he came away the victor. He built two abbeys: one in honor of St. Nicholas near the city of Angers, another at the castle of Loches, which is called Beaulieu, in honor of the Lord of the Holy Sepulchre. He went to Jerusalem twice. On his second trip he left human cares around the feast of St. John, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand forty. His body was brought to the said abbey of Beaulieu and was buried there in the chapter."