He fought against Salomon, King of Brittany and in 866 participated in the battle of Brissarthe alongside Robert the Strong, the Frankish Margrave of Neustria.

[3] Bordering the county of Anjou to the south and the Duchy of Normandy to the north, Maine became a bone of contention between the rulers of these more powerful principalities.

Sometime between 1045 and 1047 Hugh IV married Bertha, daughter of Odo II, Count of Blois and widow of Alan III, Duke of Brittany.

The precise chronology is disputed, but it is clear that in 1051 Hugh IV died and the citizens of Le Mans opened their gate to the Angevins.

Hugh IV's son Herbert II fled to the Norman court (though some historians say he was under Angevin control for a few years first) and his death in 1062 precipitated a succession crisis.

Duke William of Normandy claimed the county on their behalf of Herbert's young sister Margaret, betrothed to his son Robert Curthose.

William invaded Maine in force in 1063 and despite stiff opposition from Fulk IV, Count of Anjou and from local barons such as Geoffrey of Mayenne and Hubert de Sainte-Suzanne, he controlled the county by the beginning of 1064.

[citation needed] Norman control of Maine secured the southern border of Normandy against Anjou and is one factor which enabled William to launch his successful invasion of England in 1066.

[citation needed] After Norman attacks in 1073, 1088, 1098 and 1099, Elias I succeeded his cousin Hugh V, who sold Maine to him in 1092 for ten thousand shillings.

When Richard the Lionheart, ruler of England, Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, Brittany, Maine and Touraine, collectively known as the Angevin Empire, died in 1199, it sparked a war of succession that lasted until 1204.

The growing need of soldiers had bad consequences in the Maine, the south of Normandy and the eastern part of Brittany: Young men refused to join the army and preferred to disappear and hide themselves.

During the French Revolution Maine became part of the new created départements Mayenne and Sarthe, now they are incorporated together in the Pays de la Loire Region.