Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou

[3] Geoffrey started by making his power-base the citadel of Angers strategically placing his fidèles in key areas surrounding the city to protect his territories.

[6] His father had controlled Nantes through his second marriage to the widowed countess and Geoffrey continued this by making Count Guerech accept him as overlord.

[9] Geoffrey had influence in Aquitaine by way of his mother Gerberga and then of his sister Adelaide-Blanche's first marriage to the powerful baron Stephen, Count of Gevaudan and Forez, after whose death the lands were ruled by Adelaide.

[9] But the marriage to a woman thirty years his senior failed as did Geoffrey's plans to control Aquitaine through his young son-in-law.

[6] Through the marriage of his son Fulk III to Elisabeth, the heiress of Vendôme, Geoffrey brought that county into the Angevin sphere of influence.