GENEVIÈVE
(ca. 420–ca. 512). Saint and patroness of Paris. When Attila and his Huns threatened
Paris in 451, Geneviève, a woman from nearby Nanterre, urged the populace not to
abandon their homes but to pray for deliverance. Attila’s bypassing of Paris for Orléans
was attributed to her prayers. Ten years later, when the city was blockaded by the Franks,
she arranged convoys to bring food down the Seine from Troyes to avert starvation.
Through her intervention, both Childeric and Clovis treated captured Parisians leniently.
At her death, she was interred next to Clovis and his wife, Clotilde, in a basilica built by
Clovis on Paris’s Mont-Sainte-Geneviève to celebrate his victory over the Visigoths at
Vouillé (507). Her reliquary is now in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
William W.Kibler
GEOFFROI
. A succession of Angevin counts named Geoffroi were instrumental in the development
of an Angevin state from the 10th to the 12th century. Through their efforts, Anjou
became a major territorial principality and gave rise to the Angevin empire of the 12th
century.
Geoffroi I Grisgonelle (r. ca. 958–87) succeeded in dominating Nantes, exerted
Angevin influence over Maine, acquired Loudun, and married his son to the heiress of
Vendôme. Loyal to his Robertian overlords, he died fighting to make Hugh Capet king of
France in 987. He was succeeded by his son Foulques Nerra.
Nerra’s son, Geoffroi II Martel (r. 1040–60), consolidated Angevin control over the
expanded Anjou left to him by his father. While an active campaigner, conquering Tours
in 1044, his greatest accomplishments were in statecraft, creating the essential elements
of Angevin government. He skillfully combined the tradition of Carolingian public rights
with new feudal elements of vassalage and homage. Expanding the network of castles
begun by his father, Martel kept his castellans under tight control. For as long as he was
married to Agnes, widow of Duke William the Fat of Aquitaine, he was able to exercise
considerable control over that region as well. When the marriage ended in divorce in
1052, he was still able to dominate Vendôme and virtually ruled Maine until his death.
At Martel’s death, the countship went to his nephew Geoffroi III le Barbu (r. 1060–
68), whose rule was a disaster for Anjou. His incompetence and military ineffectiveness
soon alienated the Angevin nobility, including his brother, Foulques le Rechin (r. 1068–
1109). After an abortive coup in 1067, Geoffroi was deposed and imprisoned by
Foulques in 1068. The civil war between the brothers seriously shook comital control
over the lords of Anjou.
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