page_title: Angers
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Angers / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Château d'Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France. La porte des champs côté sud au premier plan, était l'entrée principale de la forteresse à l'origine. English: Château d'Angers, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France. The gate of the fields on the south side in the foreground, used to be the main entrance into the fortress originally.
context_page_description: Angers is a city in western France, about 300 km southwest of Paris. It is chef-lieu of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the province are called Angevins. Not including the metropolitan area, Angers is the third most populous commune in northwestern France after Nantes and Rennes and the 18th in France.
  For centuries, Angers was an important stronghold in northwestern France. It was the cradle of the Plantagenet dynasty and became one of the intellectual centers of Europe during the reign of René of Anjou. Angers developed at the confluence of three rivers, the Mayenne, the Sarthe, and the Loir, all coming from the north and flowing south to the Loire. Their confluence, just north of Angers, creates the Maine, a short but wide river that flows into the Loire several kilometres south. The Angers metropolitan area is a major economic centre in western France, particularly active in industry, horticulture, and tourism.
  Angers proper covers 42.70 square kilometers and has a population of 152,960 inhabitants, while around 422,700 live in its metropolitan area.
context_section_description: Angers received its first bishop in 372 during the election of Martin of Tours. The first abbey, Saint-Aubin, was built during the 7th century to house the sarcophagus of Saint Albinius. Saint-Serge Abbey was founded by the Merovingian kings Clovis II and Theuderic III a century later. In 2008, ten Frankish sarcophagi from that period were discovered where Saint-Morille church once stood during the tramway construction.
  From the 850s, Angers suffered from its situation on the border with Brittany and Normandy. In September 851, Charles the Bald and Erispoe, a Breton chief, met in the town to sign the Treaty of Angers, which secured Breton independence and fixed the borders of Brittany. However, the situation remained dangerous for Angers, and Charles the Bald created in 853 a wide buffer zone around Brittany comprising parts of Anjou, Touraine, Maine and Sées, which was ruled by Robert the Strong, a great-grandfather of Hugh Capet.
  In 870, the Viking chief Hastein seized Angers where he settled until a successful siege temporarily displaced him. He again took control of the town in 873, before the Carolingian Emperor ousted him.
  Fulk I of Anjou, a Carolingian descendant, was the first viscount of Angers (before 898 until 929) and of Tours (898–909), and count of Nantes (909–919). Around 929, he took the title of count (earl) of Angers and founded the first Anjou dynasty, the House of Ingelger (French: Ingelgeriens). Angers subsequently formed the capital of the province of Anjou.
  During the 12th century, after internal divisions in Brittany, the county of Nantes was annexed by Anjou. Henry II Plantagenêt kept it for more than 30 years. The grandson of Henry I of England, he also succeeded to the English crown and ruled the vast Angevin Empire, which stretched from the Pyrenees to Ireland. The castle of Angers was then the seat of the Court and the dynasty. The Empire disappeared in 1204–1205 when the King of France, Philip II, seized Normandy and Anjou. Henceforth there were no more counts of Anjou, as the French king had made Anjou a dukedom.
  Now a part of the Kingdom of France, Angers became the "Key to the Kingdom" (Clé du Royaume) facing still independent Brittany. In 1228, during Louis IX's minority, Blanche of Castile decided to fortify the city and to rebuild the castle. Later, during the 1350s and 1360s, the schools of Law, Medicine and Theology, renowned in Europe, were organized into a university. In 1373, Louis I of Naples and Anjou ordered the six tapestries illustrating the Apocalypse of St John known today as the Apocalypse Tapestry.
caption: The castle, seat of the Plantagenêt dynasty
exif: {}