ORIGO CONSULUM: RUMOURS OF MURDER, A CRISIS OF LORDSHIP, AND THE LEGENDARY ORIGINS OF THE COUNTS OF ANJOU

afiyah mardhiyah;

The death of the young Geoffrey Martel, heir to the county of Anjou, in May 1106, precipitated a crisis in Anjou that lasted until the succession of Geoffrey’s younger brother, Fulk V, in 1109. It was during this period that a writer in Anjou began the dynastic narrative tradition known as the Chronica de gestis consulum Andegavorum. This article argues that the earliest version of the Angevin Chronica, and in particular the unique origin legend that it provides for the comital dynasty, must be read in the context of the political crisis of 1106–09. Read as a response to the crisis, the Chronica emerges as a subtle warning to Fulk V and future counts about the dangers of following bad ancestral examples.