Robert the Strong in the context of "Hugh Capet"

The Count of Anjou was the ruler of the County of Anjou, first granted by King Charles the Bald of West Francia in the 9th century to Robert the Strong. Ingelger and his son, Fulk the Red, were viscounts until Fulk assumed the title of count.

Ingelger's male line ended with Geoffrey II. Subsequent counts of Anjou were descended from Geoffrey's sister Ermengarde and Count Geoffrey II of Gâtinais. Their agnatic descendants, who included the Angevin kings of England, continued to hold the title and territory until King Philip II Augustus seized the region and annexed it to the French crown lands.

Ranulf I (also Ramnulf, Rannulf, and Ranulph) (820–866) was a Count of Poitiers (from 835) and Duke of Aquitaine (from 852). He is the son of Gerard, Count of Auvergne. Few details are known about Ranulf I, except that he died in 866 in Aquitaine from wounds received in the Battle of Brissarthe against the Vikings (in which Robert the Strong also died).

The Robertians (sometimes called the Robertines in modern scholarship) are a proposed Frankish noble family and royal dynasty, whose members were ancestors of the Capetian dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of France and several other countries (currently Spain and Luxembourg). Prominent Robertian ancestors of the Capetian dynasty appear in historical records as powerful nobles serving under various rulers of the Carolingian dynasty, mainly in West Francia, which later became France. Most notable of them were: the eponymous count Robert the Strong (d. 866) and his sons, West Frankish kings Odo (888–898) and Robert I (922–923), whose son – duke Hugh the Great was father to the first Capetian king Hugh Capet (987–996).

The Battle of Brissarthe was fought on 2 July 866, between the West Franks and a joint Breton-Viking army near Brissarthe, Neustria. It was marked by the death of Robert the Strong, the Neustrian margrave, and Ranulf I, the duke of Aquitaine, and an ancestor of all the kings of France from 987 to 1848.

In 866, Salomon, Duke of Brittany, allied with Hastein (Hasting), a Danish chieftain, for an expedition into Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. In the course of the campaign, Le Mans was sacked. Robert, commander of the afflicted regions, assembled a large army to expel them. He was joined by Ranulf of the region of Poitou and by Gauzfrid and Hervé of Maine.