House of Plantagenet
also Anjou, House of Anjou, Angevin
Royal house of England, 1154-1485, the longest dynasty in English history.
- Origin
- London, England
- Famous bearer
- Henry II (1133-1189), founder of the English common law and the Angevin Empire
- Register
- Princely house
Ranked of all time
The 15 Most Powerful English Houses of All Time
The seat of House of Plantagenet
Seat vacantChief
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Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once House of Plantagenet has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
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Help rebuild the Plantagenet clan →What does the Plantagenet name mean?
From the Old French 'plante genest' or Latin 'planta genista', the broom plant. The name was originally a personal nickname of Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou (1113-1151), who reportedly wore a sprig of broom in his cap; his descendants in the English royal line adopted it as a dynastic name from the 15th century. The senior line ruled England without interruption for 331 years, from Geoffrey's son Henry II in 1154 through Richard III in 1485.
The history of House of Plantagenet
The House of Plantagenet, originating with the Angevin counts of Anjou in western France, came to the English throne in 1154 when Henry II, son of Geoffrey of Anjou and the Empress Matilda, inherited the crown through his mother's line. The dynasty held the throne in unbroken succession for the next 331 years, the longest single ruling house in English history. Across that span the Plantagenets produced fourteen kings and ruled an Angevin Empire that at its 12th-century peak ran from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees.
The dynasty's transformative moments are clustered. Henry II laid the foundations of the English common law, established a unified system of royal justice, and built the political settlement that allowed the central government of England to function independently of the king's personal presence. Richard I (the Lionheart) led the Third Crusade and became the most renowned king of Christendom in his lifetime. King John's confrontation with the baronage produced Magna Carta in 1215, the foundational charter of English constitutional liberty. Edward I summoned the Model Parliament of 1295 (the direct ancestor of the modern Commons), brought Wales into the English crown, and codified land law through the Statutes of Westminster.
The 14th century saw the dynasty at its military peak. Edward III opened the Hundred Years' War, won Crécy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356, and founded the Order of the Garter, the most senior order of chivalry in England, in 1348. His son Edward the Black Prince was the most celebrated military commander of the age. Henry V brought English arms back to Agincourt in 1415, the high-water mark of the English continental campaign.
The line split between the senior branch of Lancaster (under Henry IV from 1399) and the cadet branch of York (under Edward IV from 1461), and the two branches contested the throne in the Wars of the Roses from the 1450s to 1485. The dynasty ended at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485 when Henry Tudor, of the Lancastrian line through his mother Margaret Beaufort, defeated Richard III. Every English monarch since has descended in some line from the Plantagenets through the Tudor, Stuart, Hanoverian and Windsor successions.
Champions of the Plantagenet name
The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.
Notable bearers of the Plantagenet name
- Henry II (1133-1189), founder of the English common law and the Angevin Empire
- Richard I 'the Lionheart' (1157-1199), king of England and crusader
- Edward I 'Longshanks' (1239-1307), conqueror of Wales and lawgiver of England
- Edward III (1312-1377), founder of the Order of the Garter and victor of Crécy
- Henry V (1386-1422), victor of Agincourt