77811488. Geoffrey IV "the Plantagenet" , Comte d'Anjou, Duc de Normandie
Plantagenet, a surname conveniently but unhistorically applied to the royal line descended from the union of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, with the Empress Maud, who are now styled by historians the Angevin House, that are descendants from the Counts of Anjou. It was historically only a nickname of Geoffrey, as was Curtmantel of his son Henry II, and was derived from his wearing in his cap a sprig of the broom (genet) plant. When the fashion of personal nicknames passed away, the members of the royal family were usually named from their birthplace, as Thomas "of Brotherton" and Edmund "of Langley," and so forth. But Edward I and his younger brother, the founder of the House of Lancaster, had still nicknames, respectively, as Longshanks and Crouchback. These two sons of Henry III, Edward and Edmund, were Plantagenet kings. Edmund, the younger, was created Earl of Lancaster, and his great-granddaughter Blanche married John of Gaunt or Ghent, and their descendants fought for the throne as Lancastrians in the War of the Roses. John of Gaunt was the son of Edward III, and his younger brother Edmund of Langley was created Duke of York, and founded the House of York, the other side in the War of the Roses. Although no other dynasty has reigned so long over England, the whole male issue (legitimate) of Count Geoffrey Plantagenet is clearly proved to have become extinct in 1499.
Burke, in his Royal Families of England, Scotland and Wales, says: The Royal House of Plantagenet derived its surname according to Rapin from the following circumstance: "Fulk, the Great, Count of Anjou 898-941, in France, being stung with remorse for some wicked action, in order to atone for it, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was scourged before the Holy Sepulchre with broom twigs `Planta de genet,' which grew in plenty there." Earlier authorities, however, assign for origin of the appellation, the custom of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, who bore a full blossomed branch of the yellow broom, Planta Genistae, as a plume in his helmet.
Anjou, the old name of a French territory representing the ancient Gallic state of the Andes, preserved as an administrative district under the Franks with the name first of Pagus, then of Countatus or Countship of Anjou. During the last years of the ninth century, in Anjou, as elsewhere, the power was delegated to a Viscount; descended from Charlemagne.
Geoffrey Plantagenet, the Handsome, Count of Anjou 1129-1151. King Henry I, in 1127, when a new alliance was made at Rouen, betrothed his daughter Maud, or Matilda, to Geoffrey Plantagenet, and the marriage was celebrated at Le Mans, France, June 2, 1127. She was called the Empress Maud, being the widow of Henry V, Emperor of the Roman Empire and later of Germany, whom she had married Jan. 7, 1114. From the first Geoffrey tried to profit by his marriage, and after the death of Henry I, Dec. 1, 1135, laid the foundation for the conquest of Normandy, by a series of campaigns; about the end of 1135 or beginning of 1136 he entered that country and rejoined his wife, the Countess Maud. After many battles he received the submission of Argentan, Domfront, Bayeux, Caen and Falaise. In March, 1141, on hearing of his wife's success in England he entered Normandy, and many towns surrendered, and in 1144 he entered Rouen and received the ducal crown of Normandy in its cathedral. Finally in 1149, after crushing a last attempt at revolt, he handed over the Duchy to his son Henry, who received the investiture at tfhe hands of the King of France. Geoffrey Plantagenet had, by Maud, who died Sept. 10, 1167, a son and successor Henry, Count of Anjou, who ascended the throne of England as Henry II. (He also had a natural son, Hameline Plantagenet, who married Isabel de Warren, and took the name of de Warren, and became through his wife the Earl of Warren and Surrey, from whom you descend in several different ways.) Geoffrey Plantagenet, a prince of great justice and charity, died Sept., 1150, and was buried at Mans, in St. Julien's Church.
[Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith].
© 1995-2001, Saul M. Montes-Bradley