Fulk Nerra – the Butcher of Anjou

This knight, part of a frieze at the collegiate church of St Ours, Loches, shows an early mediaeval knight. The church was built by Fulk’s son; could this be an image of the man himself?

Lithes and listen you ladies and young gentlemen
To my jolly journey now as I on le Gringalet jaunts
South  to Loches in the Loire, lively once to the sounds
Of clinking iron clattering in the clamour for blood
and now silent in the sunshine.
Enter here Fulk Nerra, the Black – and blackest of the black;
Blacker here than the blue-black crack of Beeston’s fractured well.
Fulk the Black, founder of the fight to form
A future in a land of chaos, chancing to chafe
His enemies by brutal power pressing with a pounce.

I knew him well, that man who men mention that
Even God and the Devil in equal measure paled from his presence.
I saw him when fresh-wed in the fruiting of his lust he
Clasped young breast and pink beauty to his bosom
And planted seed a plenty with the pleasantry of seduction.
But then I saw him have fair wife whipped in flames
For adultery unsupported by actions or actuary.
I saw his enemies bludgeoned, burned and bastard sons
Blossom in the aftermath of his cruelty.
No man, count, courtier or king could withstand
His blood red eyes and bleeding passion for bloodshed.
Even the king, it is said, was made with eyes a-wet
To watch on old friend executed on Fulk’s command!

Yet here was a man of contrasts contrary:
His ferocity was fewtered by a fear fecund;
On four crusades he crossed to be crossed
And his flesh bore witness to a whipping
Bare naked in the streets of Jerusalem –
Penitence indeed for the power he pricked
With spurs of spurting contempt for his fellow man.
Yet he held with fear and favour his fideles and in
So doing he built donjons dramatic to dab
The skies of the low and looming Loire and Indre.

Which brings me now to Loches, the light of lovelies:
The finest of all fine keeps and fair in faint colour,
Its tuffeau tower twinkling on horizons
For mile after mile as a monument of power
And suppression silent to all who see it far and wide.
This columned keep captures the eye from where man roams
In this part of Anjou; no angel from any angle
And but a blunt stub to bludgeon the blind.
It towers on its hill high, the highest of all keeps
And in its day dwarfing even Rochester in our own isles.
But this was one of the first – and what a first fastness!
It is peerless , matchless and unmatched;
It housed in later years the Lionheart himself
And still today stands almost to its full height,
Diminished but a little by the passing of the years.

What this has watched we wouldn’t wish to know:
Torture, touching tender its secrets to will out;
De Commynes confined in cruel uncertainty;
Sforza in centuries later secured in solemn dark;
Untold horrors hidden in these holes.
But time treats all the same
As the seasons wend and waft their way
And Fulk himself did to dust dimly pass
As so we all must in the drifting of our days.
Now at Beaulieu, Fulk be-fears no more his folk
But sleeps soundly in a solemn grave
Among the stones that once astounded one and all.

If we slay others in the vanity of our aims
On pursuit of glories only we can see
Then little wonder the payment for our gains
Is contempt of others – on our death their glee.

The looming presence of the keep on its hill dominates the skyline of the region.

The keep at Loches, viewed from the inner courtyard. Standing 121 feet high today, it was originally even taller – possibly reaching 135 feet in total.

From any angle, the great keep at Loches is formidable and dominating.

In this view, we see the remains of the private quarters of Fulk Nerra which, in later years, was also enjoyed by Richard the Lionheart.

Another view of the imposing and uncompromising keep at Loches – one of the finest of all keeps and one of the earliest – beating stone construction in English castles by 80 years.

This knight, part of a frieze at the collegiate church of St Ours, Loches, shows an early mediaeval knight. The church was built by Fulk’s son; could this be an image of the man himself?

The Collegiate Church of St Ours, Loches, was built by the son of Fulk Nerra. Built in the Romanesque style of the period, it contains a host of exquisite carvings, of which this doorway contains a sumptuous variety, well worthy of inspection.

This ancient font is older than the rest of the church and is made from an ancient Roman pillar bearing images of soldiers and sporting figures.

Loches has a spectacular collection of mediaeval graffiti. This intimate writing in a 15th Century hand may well have been written by a courtier who knew Charles VII or his “official” mistress, Agnes Sorel.

The tomb of Agnes Sorel, the “official” mistress of Charles VII. She died young from an undiagnosed complaint, leaving Charles distraught.

Sic transit gloria mundi – the tomb of the once mighty and brutal Fulk Nerra, who went on four pilgrimages to atone for his sins.