Angevin
Angevin (
IPA: ) is the name applied to the residents of
Anjou, a former province of the Kingdom of France, as well as to the residents of
Angers. It is also applied to three distinct
medieval dynasties which originated as
counts (from
1360, dukes) of the western
French province of
Anjou (of which
angevin is the adjectival form), but later came to rule far greater areas including
England,
Ireland,
Hungary,
Poland,
Naples and Sicily, and
Jerusalem (
see Angevin Empire). The first of these Angevin dynasties ruled England in some form or another from the reign of
Henry II, beginning in 1154, until the
House of Tudor came to power when
Richard III fell at the
Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
The original House of Anjou was the dynasty established by the viscounts and counts of Angers at the beginning of the
10th century. It became extinct in the male line in 1060, but was inherited through a daughter by the House of Gâtinais, which came to rule both Anjou and
Maine by the early 12th century. This became the first royal Angevin dynasty, known from the
12th century as the
Plantagenet dynasty in England, came (with its
Lancastrian and
Yorkist branches) to rule
Jerusalem (1131–1205),
England (
1154–
1485),
Normandy (
1144–
1204 and
1415–
1450), and
Gascony and
Guyenne (
1153–
1453), but lost Anjou itself to the French crown in
1206.
The name "Plantagenet" is derived from the
broom flower (
planta genesta). It originated with
Geoffrey of Anjou, father of King
Henry II of England, because he adopted the flower as his emblem, often wearing a sprig of it.
The surname "Plantagenet" has been retrospectively applied to the descendants of Geoffrey of Anjou as they had used no surname. The first descendant of Geoffrey to use the surname was
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, father of both
Edward IV and
Richard III, who apparently assumed it about
1448. That said, it has been traditional when referring to the Plantagenets to call all descendants of Geoffrey by this surname.
1The family became extinct in the legitimate male line with the execution of
Edward, Earl of Warwick, the nephew of Edward IV and Richard III, in
1499. The last female Plantagenet was his sister,
Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, who was executed by
Henry VIII in
1541.
A notable illegitimate line of the family were the
Beauforts, descendants of
John of Gaunt by his mistress, who held the title of
Duke of Somerset and were one of the prominent
Lancastrian families in the
Wars of the Roses. Although the Beauforts became extinct in the male line in
1471, it was through them, on his mother's side, that
Henry Tudor claimed the English throne. An illegitimate branch of the Beauforts, descended from an illegitimate son of
Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, survives to the present day, bearing the surname "Somerset" and the title
Duke of Beaufort.
The second Angevin dynasty, known also as the house of
Capet-Anjou, began with
Charles, made count (from
1360 the family were dukes) of the western
French province of
Anjou by his elder brother king
Louis IX of France in
1246; they were members of the French ruling house of
Capet.
In
1266 Charles was granted the crown of
Naples and
Sicily by the Pope in return for overthrowing the territories'
Hohenstaufen rulers. Charles was driven out of Sicily in
1282, but his successors ruled Naples until
1435. This House of Anjou included the branches of Anjou-
Hungary, which ruled Hungary (1308–1385, 1386–1395) and
Poland (1370–1399); Anjou-
Taranto, which ruled the remnants of the
Latin Empire (1313–1374); and Anjou-
Durazzo, which ruled Naples (1382–1435) and Hungary (1385–1386). The line became extinct in the male line with the death of
King Ladislas of Naples in
1414, and totally extinct with the death of his sister
Joan II in
1435.
In the 1350s, a junior branch of the Capet-Anjou was originated when King
John II of France, of
Valois line of Capetians, whose grandmother had been a princess of the senior Angevin line (eldest daughter of King
Charles II of Naples), gave the County, and then
Duchy of Anjou to his second son,
Louis.
Within a couple of decades, Queen
Joan I of Naples (of the senior Angevin line) realized that she would remain childless. Although there were extant heirs of the senior branch (for example, the Durazzo
cadet line), she decided to adopt Louis as her final heir. Thus, in addition to the struggle of the Angevins with the Aragonese in Southern Italy, the two Angevin lines now began to contest with each other for the possession of the Kingdom of Naples. The Durazzo line was initially successful in securing control of Naples, but the Valois Angevins managed to secure
Provence and continued to contest the throne, with
Louis II actually in control of the city of Naples from
1389 to
1399. The extinction of the line of Anjou-Durazzo in
1435 temporarily secured Naples for the Valois-Anjou, but they were driven from Naples by
Alfonso V of Aragon in
1442.
René, the last duke of this line, died in
1480, and Anjou reverted to the French crown. With the death of his nephew the Duke of Maine in 1481 all Angevin possessions (including
Provence) reverted to the crown.
The Angevin pretensions to Naples were continued intermittently by the
House of Lorraine, which descended from René's eldest daughter, particularly during the
Valois-Habsburg War of
1551 to
1559, when
François, Duke of Guise, a member of a
cadet branch of the family, led an unsuccessful French expedition against Naples.
Interestingly, recent geneological work has shown that at least a majority of American Presidents are descended from this family.
*
1The Complete Peerage, 2nd edition, vol. I, p. 183, note (c).
*
English claims to the French throne*
List of Counts and Dukes of Anjou*
List of British monarchs*
List of Hungarian rulers*
List of Polish rulers*
List of monarchs of Naples and Sicily*
List of monarchs of Jerusalem crusader state
