county · France and the Low Countries
County of Anjou
Origins
Anjou emerged in the late 9th century, when the Frankish crown entrusted the region around Angers to local magnates facing Breton and Viking raids. Ingelger held authority there, and his son Fulk the Red was styled count by about 930, founding a dynasty that turned a frontier command into a hereditary principality.
Rule and society
The counts ruled from Angers with a dense network of stone castles, many built by Fulk Nerra (987–1040), which let them push into Touraine and Maine. Anjou was a wine and river-trade region with powerful abbeys. Geoffrey Plantagenet conquered Normandy in the 1140s, and his son Henry II joined Anjou to England and Aquitaine in the Angevin Empire.
Decline and legacy
Philip II of France seized Anjou in 1204. It was granted as an appanage to Charles of Anjou in 1246, became a duchy in 1360 for Louis I, and its last great duke, René of Anjou, died in 1480. Louis XI then annexed it to the Kingdom of France.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (3)
- County of Maine was part of County of Anjou1110 CE – 1204 CE
- County of Anjou was part of Angevin Empire1154 CE – 1204 CE
- County of Anjou in personal union with Kingdom of England1154 CE – 1204 CE
More states of France and the Low Countries →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). County of Anjou. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-anjou
- MLA
- “County of Anjou.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-anjou. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “County of Anjou.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-anjou.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘County of Anjou’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-anjou (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻