The French dynasty that ruled England for near two centuries from the 12th Cent (King Richard died 1399) of whom the first to rule England was Henry II.
The term 'Angevin' derived from the fact that Henry II was the son of Geoffrey le Bel, the Count of Anjou, a province in France. He was married to Matilda, the daughter of Henry I, King of England, who died without a son (his only son had drowned at sea). Through her mother Henry II came to inherit the throne of England in 1154.
'Plantagenet,' on the other hand is the dynastic name. Its origin is unknown but seemed to have been coined in the 15th Cent by the supporters of Richard of York, one of the contenders for the throne. A suggestion, first put out in the late 19th Cent suggests that it came from the sprig of broom, Planta genista, that Geoffrey was thought to have a habit of wearing in his cap, and this remains the most widely held view today.
The dynasty ended with the so-called 'Wars of the Roses' between the two branches of the descendents of Edward III, when the House of Lancaster won the day over the House of York.
The Plantagent kings include:
King John
Henry III
Edward I
Edward II
Edward III
Richard II
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