Ermengarde-Gerberga was born c. 956,[1] the daughter of Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou and Adele of Meaux.[2] She married Conan I of Rennes, Count of Rennes, in 973.[3] Her husband Conan of Rennes opposed her father and brother Fulk even though the marriage was apparently designed to form a political alliance between Anjou and Brittany.[4] Even after Conan had been killed by Fulk at the Battle of Conquereuil in 992, and during the period 992-994 when Ermengarde was Regent for their son Geoffrey, she remained loyal to her brother Fulk III, Count of Anjou.[4] In 992, following the interests of her brother, and functioning as Regent, she accepted Capetian over-lordship for Rennes while rejecting that of Odo I, Count of Blois.[5]
About 1000[6] her brother Fulk III arranged his widowed sister to marry, secondly, William II of Angoulême, one of his close allies.[7]
^She is called Ermengarde in northern [French] sources however at least one early southern source calls her Gerberga. Angevins were known to give daughters two names as evidenced by her aunt, called Adelaide-Blanche. See: Bachrach, 'Henry II and the Angevin Tradition', Albion, Vol. 16, No. 2, (1984), p. 117 n. 35; Crisp, 'Consanguinity and the Saint-Aubin Genealogies, Haskins Society Journal 14 (2005), p. 114; also: Bachrach, ""Fulk Nerra, (1993), p. 42.
^ abcdeDetlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany, 1984), Tafel 75
^ abBernard S. Bachrach, Henry II and the Angevin Tradition of Family Hostility, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2, (Summer, 1984), p. 117
^Bernard S. Bachrach, Henry II and the Angevin Tradition of Family Hostility, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2, (Summer, 1984), p. 117 n. 38
^ abcdefgDetlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 4 (Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, Marburg, Germany. 1989), Tafel 817
^Archibald R. Lewis, The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050 (University of Texas Press, 1965, p. 337) Online copy viewable here.
