"It was the policy of this unfairly depreciated sovereign [Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, who received in the dismemberment of the Carlovingian Empire the Neustrian part, out of which was developed the modern kingdom of France, and who reigned from 840 to 877], to recruit the failing ranks of the false and degenerate Frankish aristocracy, by calling up to his peerage the wise, the able, the honest and the bold of ignoble birth. ... He sought to surround himself with new men, the men without ancestry; and the earliest historian of the House of Anjou both describes this system and affords the most splendid example of the theory adopted by the king. Pre-eminent amongst these parvenus was Torquatus or Tortulfus, an Armorican peasant, a very rustic, a backwoodsman, who lived by hunting and such like occupations, almost in solitude, cultivating his 'quillets,' his 'cueillettes,' of land, and driving his own oxen, harnessed to his plough. Torquatus entered or was invited into the service of Charles-le-Chauve, and rose high in his sovereign's confidence: a prudent, a bold, and a good man. Charles appointed him Forester of the forest called 'the Blackbird's Nest,' the 'nid du merle,' a pleasant name, not the less pleasant for its familiarity. This happened during the conflicts with the Northmen. Torquatus served Charles strenuously in the wars, and obtained great authority. Tertullus, son of Torquatus, inherited his father's energies, quick and acute, patient of fatigue, ambitious and aspiring; he became the liegeman of Charles; and his marriage with Petronilla the King's cousin, Count Hugh the Abbot's daughter, introduced him into the very circle of the royal family. Chateau Landon and other benefices in the Gastinois were acquired by him, possibly as the lady's dowry. Seneschal also was Tertullus of the same ample Gastinois territory. Ingelger, son of Tertullus and Petronilla, appears as the first hereditary Count of Anjou Outre-Maine,--Marquis, Consul or Count of Anjou,--for all these titles are assigned to him. Yet the ploughman Torquatus must be reckoned as the primary Plantagenet: the rustic Torquatus founded that brilliant family." _Sir F. Palgrave, History of Normandy and England, book 1, chapter 3._ ALSO IN _K. Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, volume 1, chapter 2._ {115} ANJOU: A. D. 987-1129. The greatest of the old Counts.