Fulk IV , called le Réchin, was the Count of Anjou from 1068 until his death. The nickname by which he is usually referred has no certain translation. Philologists have made numerous very different suggestions, including "quarreler", "rude", "sullen", "surly" and "heroic". He was noted to be "a man with many reprehensible, even scandalous, habits" by Orderic Vitalis.
When Geoffrey Martel died without direct heirs he left Anjou to his nephew Geoffrey III of Anjou, Fulk le Réchin's older brother. Fulk fought with his brother, whose rule was deemed incompetent, and captured him in 1067. Under pressure from the Church he released Geoffrey. The two brothers soon fell to fighting again, and the next year Geoffrey was again imprisoned by Fulk, this time for good. Substantial territory was lost to Angevin control due to the difficulties resulting from Geoffrey's poor rule and the subsequent civil war. Saintonge was lost, and Fulk had to give the Gâtinais to Philip I of France to placate the king. Much of Fulk's rule was devoted to regaining control over the Angevin baronage, and to a complex struggle with Normandy for influence in Maine and Brittany.
Author of the ''History of Anjou''
In 1096 Fulk wrote an incomplete history of Anjou and its rulers titled Fragmentum historiae Andegavensis or "History of Anjou." The authorship and authenticity of this work is disputed. Only the first part of the history, describing Fulk's ancestry, is extant. The second part, supposedly describing Fulk's own rule, has not been recovered. If he did write it, it is one of the first medieval works of history written by a layman.
Succession
He died in 1109 leavingthe restoration of the countship, as it was under Geoffrey Martel, to his successors.
Family
Fulk may have married as many as five times; there is some doubt regarding the exact number or how many he repudiated. His first wife was Hildegarde of Beaugency. Together they had a daughter:
After her death, before or by 1070, he married Ermengarde de Bourbon. Together they had a son before Fulk repudiated her in 1075, possibly on grounds of consanguinity:
Geoffrey IVMartel, ruled jointly with him for some time, but died in 1106.
Around 1076 he married Orengarde de Châtellailon. He repudiated her in 1080, possibly on grounds of consanguinity. He then married an unnamed daughter of Walter I of Brienne by 1080. This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1087. Lastly, in 1089, he married Bertrade de Montfort, who was apparently "abducted" by King Philip I of France in or around 1092. They had a son:
