Plantagenet: Where the Name Comes From and Who It Covers

Contents6

• Where the Plantagenet name comes from
• When Plantagenet became a surname
• Which kings count as Plantagenet
• Plantagenet names in the royal family
• The Plantagenet arms
• Verdict: what Plantagenet means today

Plantagenet is the name historians give to the royal house that ruled England from 1154 to 1485. The kings in that house did not use it themselves. The word began as a nickname for one French count, and it only became a surname three centuries later. This page explains where the name came from, whom it covers and how reference works use it today.

TL;DR: Plantagenet comes from planta genista, the broom plant, linked to Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (died 1151). His son became Henry II of England in 1154. Richard, Duke of York, was the first to use the name officially, in 1460. Historians now apply it to 14 kings, from Henry II to Richard III.

Where the Plantagenet name comes from

Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, lived from 1113 to 1151. Britannica gives two stories for his nickname. He may have worn a sprig of broom, genista in Latin, in his hat. Or he may have planted broom to improve the cover on his hunting grounds. Britannica calls the second explanation the more likely one.

Broom is a shrub with bright yellow flowers. Later kings used the broom as a badge, most famously Richard II, whose livery collars were made of broom pods.

When Plantagenet became a surname

For more than 250 years, Geoffrey's royal descendants in England had no surname at all. Kings did not need one. That changed in the Wars of the Roses.

In 1460, Richard, Duke of York, pressed his claim to the throne in Parliament. He called himself Richard Plantagenet. The name stressed his descent from Geoffrey and Henry II, which was part of his case against the Lancastrian king, Henry VI. From then on, the name stuck to the royal line.

The first official use

Richard, 3rd Duke of York, uses "Plantagenet", 1460.

Status: Reviewed.

Note: Britannica records 1460, when Richard, Duke of York, claimed the throne, as the first official use of Plantagenet as a surname by any of Geoffrey's descendants. It also calls the name "well established" but notes it has "little historical justification" as a label for the earlier kings.

Sources: Britannica, "House of Plantagenet"; Britannica, "Geoffrey IV, count of Anjou".

Which kings count as Plantagenet

Reference works do not all use the name the same way.

• The broad use: Britannica applies it to all 14 kings from Henry II to Richard III, including the houses of Lancaster and York.
• The four-house use: The Royal Family website calls Henry II, Richard I and John the Angevins, and names Henry III to Richard II as the Plantagenets, with Lancaster and York as separate houses.
• The narrow use: Some historians keep the name for the main line only, from Henry III to Richard II.

None of these changes the kings or their dates. They only change the labels. The full table of the 14 kings, with the branch for each, is on the house of Plantagenet page.

Plantagenet names in the royal family

Several people are known in reference works as "Plantagenet" plus a first name. That can cause confusion.

• Henry Plantagenet usually means Henry II, the first king of the line. See Henry Plantagenet.
• John Plantagenet usually means King John, who reigned from 1199 to 1216. See John Plantagenet.
• Richard Plantagenet is often Richard, Duke of York, the man who first used the surname.
• Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, was an illegitimate son of Edward IV who served Henry VIII.

The Plantagenet arms

The three gold lions on red, still part of the royal arms today, are linked to the Plantagenets. Richard I used a shield with three lions from about 1198. Edward III later added the arms of France when he claimed the French throne. The lions remain in the first and fourth quarters of the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.

Dan Jones's The Plantagenets tells the dynasty's story from Henry II to Richard II. It is one of eight picks in our guide to the best books about the royal family.

Verdict: what Plantagenet means today

Plantagenet is a later label, not a surname the early kings used. It began as a nickname for Geoffrey of Anjou, it became a surname with Richard, Duke of York, in 1460, and it now covers the 14 kings from 1154 to 1485. When a source says Angevin, Plantagenet, Lancaster or York, it is naming parts of the same family. For all monarchs since 1066, see the England royal family hub.

Sources checked for this page

• Britannica, "House of Plantagenet"
• Britannica, "Geoffrey IV, count of Anjou"
• Britannica, "Broom"
• The Royal Family, "The Angevins"
• The Royal Family, "The Plantagenets"

Questions people also ask

What does Plantagenet mean?

It comes from planta genista, the Latin name for the broom plant. Geoffrey of Anjou was said to wear a sprig of broom in his hat, or to plant broom on his hunting grounds.

Did the Plantagenet kings call themselves Plantagenet?

No. The name was not a family surname in their lifetimes. Richard, Duke of York, first used it officially in 1460, when he claimed the throne.

Are there Plantagenets alive today?

Many people descend from the Plantagenet kings, including the present royal family through several lines. No living family uses Plantagenet as an inherited royal surname.