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From: "Tompkins, M.L." <>
Subject: RE: Geoffrey Plantagenet's name (contempory evidence for the name Plantevelu)
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:39:37 -0000


<<The Plantagenet name is often incorrectly applied as though it were
the surname of all (or many) of the English kings throughout the 350
years from Henry II to Richard III but contemporary evidence for its
early use is sparse. As John Gillingham (2001) [John Gillingham, The
Angevin Empire, Second Edition (London, 2001), p 3.] remarks:

"But although Henry II's father Count Geoffrey was known as Plantagenet
it was not until the fifteenth century that this term came to be used as
a family name">>


Thank you very much for posting that interesting article, John.

One thing puzzles me. I can't claim ever to have thought much about the
origins of the surname Plantagenet, and I'm sure it's right that we know
of no use of it by any member of the royal family between Count Geoffrey
and Richard, Duke of York - but surely the surname must have had some
kind of currency during the intervening period. If it had been
completely unused for so long how would Richard of York have known of
it, and why would he have used it?

I can only think of one reason for him to adopt the name if it wasn't
already in use by his family: in order to emphasise his royal descent.
But that would only work if the name had known royal associations - it's
difficult to imagine him dredging up a long-forgotten surname last used
three centuries previously by someone who wasn't even himself a king of
England.

So it must surely have been in some kind of unofficial use between Count
Geoffrey and Richard of York, though the fact that it was apparently
never used officially does seem to suggest that it was thought to be not
respectable, or at least not sufficiently prestigious. Perhaps its
origins as a nickname were known and thought too frivolous for official
use.

Regards,

Matt Tompkins

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