Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (118:21). Bernard Bachrach, in his book *Fulk Nerra*, 1993, has on p 100: "Fulk's vigorous activities following his return from the Holy Land were highlighted by his marriage to Hildegarde, an *illusta puella* from Lorraine who was descended from royalty."
To this, he has a footnote on p 318: "*Cartul. du Ronceray*, no. 173, provides the documentary evidence for Hildegarde's royal birth. The veracity of this text is unchallenged: e.g., Halphen, *Le comte' d'Anjou*, 11, n. 1. Thus far, however, no one has been able to trace her immediate family with any certitude. See the literature cited by Bachrach, "Origins of Countess Gerberga," 14-15, n. 11." The last part is evidently a reference to his article cited in his bibliography, "Some Observations on the Origins of Countess Gerberga of the Angevins: An Essay in the Application of the Tellenbach-Werner Prosopographyical Method.", *Medieval Prosopography 7*, no. 2 (1986):
1-23. Bachrach says on p 100: "King Robert's diplomatic exchanges with the Germans, of which the Meuse meeting is the best documented, are likely to have prompted his interest in Hildegarde. More to the point, Fulk needed a wife who could provide a male heir and his choice of a woman from a prominent family in Lorraine might perhaps be seen to have had a diplomatic and strategic purpose as well, which could be threatened by Fulk's in-laws if the count of Blois chose to mount military operation against the Angevin count in the west." In the previous paragraph, Bachrach seems to be assuming without question that Hildegarde is from Lorraine, although as he says in the footnote, her "immediate family" hasn't been determined (as of 1993, to the best of Bachrach's knowledge).