Angevin,
Angevin /ˈanjəvən/ I. noun 1. a native, inhabitant, or ruler of Anjou. 2. any of the Plantagenet kings of England, especially those who were also counts of Anjou (Henry II, Richard I, and John). II. adjective 1. of or relating to Anjou. 2. of, relating to, or denoting the Plantagenets. – origin from French, from medieval Latin Andegavinus, from Andegavum ‘Angers’ (see Angers).
The Angevins (/ˈændʒɪvɪnz/; "of/from Anjou") were a royal house of Anglo-French origin that ruled England and Ireland and in France in the 12th and early 13th centuries; its monarchs were Henry II, Richard I and John. Henry II won control of a vast assemblage of lands in western Europe that would last for 80 years and would retrospectively be referred to as the Angevin Empire. As a political entity this was structurally different from the preceding Norman and subsequent Plantagenet realms. Geoffrey of Anjou became Duke of Normandy in 1144 and died in 1151. In 1152, his heir, Henry, added Aquitaine by virtue of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry also inherited the claim of his mother, Empress Matilda, the daughter of King Henry I of England and Matilda of Scotland (who was also the remaining descendant of the royal House of Wessex), to the English throne, to which Henry II succeeded in 1154 following the death of Matilda's cousin Stephen.[2]
Angevins
Arms adopted in 1198
Parent house
House of Châteaudun
Country
England, France, Ireland
Founder
King Henry II of England
Current head
Extinct[1]
Final ruler
John, King of England
Titles
King of England
Lord of Ireland
Duke of Aquitaine
Duke of Brittany
Duke of Normandy
Count of Anjou
Count of Gâtinais
Count of Maine
Count of Touraine
Count of Mortain
In 1189, Henry was succeeded by his third son, Richard, whose reputation for martial prowess won him the epithet "Cœur de Lion" or "Lionheart".[3] He was born and raised in England but spent very little time there during his adult life, perhaps as little as six months. Despite this Richard remains an enduring iconic figure both in England and in France, and is one of very few kings of England remembered by his nickname as opposed to regnal number.[4]
When Richard died, his brother John – Henry's fifth and last surviving son – took the throne. In 1204, John lost many of the Angevins' continental territories, including Anjou, to the French crown. He and his successors were still recognized as dukes of Aquitaine. The loss of Anjou, for which the dynasty is named, and other French fiefs made John the last of the Angevin kings of England.[5] However, there is no agreement among historians. Some make no distinction between Angevins and Plantagenets while considering Henry II as the first Plantagenet king.[6][7][8][9][10] From John, the dynasty continued on the throne of England and unbroken in the senior male line until the reign of Richard II before dividing into two competing cadet branches, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. In the 17th century, historians would use the term "Plantagenet" when describing the house.[11]
Terminology
edit
Angevin
edit
Colour map of Northern France in the 1100s
Northern France around the County of Anjou; red circles mark regional urban centres
The adjective Angevin is especially used in English history to refer to the kings who were also counts of Anjou—beginning with Henry II—descended from Geoffrey and Matilda; their characteristics, descendants and the period of history which they covered from the mid-twelfth to early-thirteenth centuries. In addition, it is also used pertaining to Anjou, or any sovereign, government derived from this. As a noun, it is used for any native of Anjou or Angevin ruler. As such, Angevin is also used for other counts and dukes of Anjou; including the three kings' ancestors, their cousins who held the crown of Jerusalem and unrelated later members of the French royal family who were granted the titles to form different dynasties amongst which were the Capetian House of Anjou and the Valois House of Anjou.[12]
Angevin Empire
edit
The term "Angevin Empire" was coined in 1887 by Kate Norgate. As far as it is known, there was no contemporary name for this assemblage of territories, which were referred to—if at all—by clumsy circumlocutions such as our kingdom and everything subject to our rule whatever it may be or the whole of the kingdom which had belonged to his father. Whereas the Angevin part of this term has proved uncontentious, the empire portion has proved controversial. In 1986, a convention of historical specialists concluded that there had been no Angevin state and no empire but the term espace Plantagenet was acceptable.[13]
Plantagenet
edit
Ancient depiction of the first Plantagenet King Henry the 2nd of England
Henry II (1154–1189) is considered by some to be the first Plantagenet king of England.
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, adopted Plantagenet as his family name in the 15th century. Plantegenest (or Plante Genest) had been a 12th-century nickname for his ancestor Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy. One of many popular theories suggests the blossom of common broom, a bright yellow ("gold") flowering plant, genista in medieval Latin, as the source of the nickname.[14]
It is uncertain why Richard chose this specific name, although, during the Wars of the Roses, it emphasised Richard's status as Geoffrey's patrilineal descendant. The retrospective usage of the name for all of Geoffrey's male-line descendants was popular during the subsequent Tudor dynasty, perhaps encouraged by the further legitimacy it gave to Richard's great-grandson, Henry VIII.[15] In the late 17th century, this name passed into common usage among historians.[11]
Origins
edit
An illuminated diagram showing the Angevins; coloured lines connect the two to show the lineal descent
Thirteenth-century depiction of the Angevins (Henry II and his legitimate children): (left to right) William, Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan and John
The Angevins descend from Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais and Ermengarde of Anjou. In 1060 this couple inherited, via cognatic kinship, the county of Anjou from an older line dating from 870 and a noble called Ingelger.[16][17] The marriage of Count Geoffrey to Matilda, the only surviving legitimate child of Henry I of England, was part of a struggle for power during the tenth and eleventh centuries among the lords of Normandy, Brittany, Poitou, Blois, Maine and the kings of France. It was from this marriage that Geoffrey's son, Henry, inherited the claims to England, Normandy and Anjou that marks the beginning of the Angevin and Plantagenet dynasties.[18] This was the third attempt by Geoffrey's father Fulk V to build a political alliance with Normandy. The first was by marrying his daughter Matilda to Henry's heir William Adelin, who drowned in the wreck of the White Ship. Fulk then married his daughter Sibylla to William Clito, heir to Henry's older brother Robert Curthose, but Henry had the marriage annulled to avoid strengthening William's rival claim to his lands.[19]
