An Aussie Mug's Guide to - England's Medieval Kings of the Middle Ages.

Plantagenet Dynasty - House of Anjou

ENGLAND's MEDIEVAL KINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Part 4

Power tends to corrupt & absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
Sir John Dalberg-Acton
(1834-1902)
English Historian

THE PLANTAGENET DYNASTY
1154AD to 1485AD

The Plantagenet line of Kings descended from Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou and Empress Matilda.
Geoff had a habit of wearing a yellow broom flower on his bonnet and that became an emblem of Angevin rulers. The name Plantagenet itself came from the name of the plant's species, Planta Genista

The Plantagenet surname wasn't actually used until 1460AD when Duke Richard of York claimed the throne as King Richard III Plantagenet. He used the name to emphasise his Royal connection, but until then surnames weren't universally used by Royal families. The House of Anjou or the Angevin Dynasty was the first family of the more contemporarily named Plantagenet Dynasty.

The dynasty consisted of four royal houses;
The House of Anjou/Angevin Dynasty, The House of Plantagenet and the Houses of Lancaster and York.
This powerful dynasty produced no less than fourteen Kings that ruled England and half of France for over three hundred and fifty years!
A bit like the bloody Romans?

HOUSE OF ANJOU

KING HENRY II
....was around twenty one years of age when he became King of England, reigning from 1154-1189AD.
He was also know as Henry Curtmantle or Henry FitzEmpress.

Henry (Jack) was born at Le Mans in Maine, France in 1133AD, the eldest child of Alain Prost...oops, the eldest child of Count Geoffrey V of Anjou and Empress Matilda. Jack spent his early life and was educated in Anjou, a dominion that had been ruled by his family since the tenth century. He was nine years of age when his dad sent the him to Bristol to live with his mum's half brother, Earl Robert of Gloucester. Robbie wasn't a big fan of King Stephen, so he teamed up with Matilda in an attempt usurp the throne right from under the King.

Henry was educated in England by a Magister and Canons of the church. Then around 1143AD he went back to Anjou and resumed his education with famous academic, William of Conches.

We've already heard young Jack took a small army to Wiltshire when he was fourteen in a cheeky attempt to take the crown from King Bloisy. He failed and was given a swift kick up the arse by the King who then generously paid his mercenaries, but the defeat didn't deter the little terrier.