What is Anjou?
[[File:Anjou in France (1789).svg|thumb|right|300px|{{center|Map of Anjou.}}]] '''Anjou''' ({{IPA-fr|ɑ̃ʒu}}) is a former [[county]], [[duchy]] (1360) and [[province]] centred on the city of [[Angers]] in the lower [[Loire Valley]] of western [[France]]. Its traditional [[Latin]] name was ''Andegavia''. Anjou, or then the Angevin march (border lands) formed the border between [[Neustria]] and [[Aquitaine]]. It also bordered between Neustria and [[Brittany]].<ref name=Norgate101>Kate Norgate, ''England under the Angevin Kings'', Vol. I (London ;New York Macmillan and Co. 1887), p. 101</ref> Sitting on a black slate rock was the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] [[:en:wikt:fortress|fortress]] of Angers. It guarded the rivers Mayenne and [[Loire River|Loire]] that flowed around it.<ref name=Norgate101/> The founder or first [[count of Anjou]] was [[Ingelger]].<ref>Bernard S. Bachrach, ''Fulk Nerra, the neo-Roman consul, 987-1040'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 4</ref> Anjou became a part of [[England]] from 1151-1199, when [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] [[:wikt:inherited|inherited]] the county. He became the [[Count of Anjou]] in addition to his other titles. His (third) son [[Richard I of England|Richard the Lionheart]] became count after his father. At the peak of its power the [[Angevin Empire]] spread from [[Ulster]] to the [[Pyrenees]]. Richard had no legitimate issue, so in 1199 Anjou passed to his nephew, [[Arthur of Brittany]]. He was the son of Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany. The Crown of England passed to Henry II’s fifth son and Richard’s youngest brother, [[King John of England|John]]. Arthur was taken prisoner by King John in 1203 and was never seen again. In 1204, Anjou was taken back by [[Philip II of France]]. It was later elevated to a duchy for Prince Louis, the second son of [[John II of France]]. It remained a duchy until the [[French Revolution]]. Today, Anjou corresponds largely to the present-day ''département'' of [[Maine-et-Loire]]. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:H