Geoffrey V, Count of Anjour b 1113 and MATILDA, PRINCESS OF ENGLAND b 1102

 22nd Generation

Geoffrey V “Plantagenet” Count of Anjour, son of Fulk V “The Young” Count of Anjou and Frembourg, was born on 24 Aug 1113 in , , Anjou, France and died on 7 Sep 1151 at age 38.

GEOFFREY, surnamed PLANTAGENET, COUNT d’ANJOU, born 1113, died 1151. King Henry I, of England, in despair over loss of his son, William, Duke of Normandy, who was drowned in the sinking of a ship off the coast of France, sought the aid of GEOFFREY PLANTAGENET, one of the most powerful princes of France, a noble person, with “elegant and courtly manners and a reputation for gallantry in the field”. Approving the marriage of his daughter MATILDA with GEOFFREY, King Henry personally invested him with Knighthood, and expressed the hope that all Englishmen would give them full allegiance. The Barons took the oath to uphold the succession of Matilda and Geoffrey and their children after them. Thus Geoffrey heads the line of English Kings which bear his Plantagenet name. The friends of Geoffrey were unaware that their playful nickname for him of Plantagenet would live through the years. The story is told that while disguised in battle and to make himself known to his followers, he leaned from his horse and grasped a sprig of “plante de genet”, the common broom corn, and thrust it in his helmet. Thus he derived his popular title. As eldest son of FULK V, KING OF JERUSALEM, and his wife, LRMENGARDE, daughter of HELIAS, Count of Maine, Geoffrey was of the House of Angevin Kings, which had been prominent for three centuries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Plantagenet,_Count_of_Anjou

Geoffrey married Matilda Princess of England. The child from this marriage was:

i. Henry II, “Plantagenet ” King of England

Matilda Princess of England, daughter of Henry I King of England and Matilda “Atheling” of Scotland, was born in 1102 in Winchester, Hampshire, England, died on 10 Sep 1167 in Rouen, Normandie Région France at age 65, and was buried on 14 Sep 1167 in Bec Abbey, Le Bec-Hellouin,.

Matilda I of England (1102-1167) is deemed so hazardous to the idea of male rule in England that she is listed in genealogies as Henry II’s mother and as both Empress of the Holy Roman Empire–a title that she held through marriage to her first husband Henry V–and Countess of Anjou through her marriage to her second husband Geoffrey (Plantagenet) of Anjou. But not as Queen of England. Geoffrey was the father of her son and ultimate heir, Henry II.

But Matilda was, in fact, a ruling queen of England. She became heir to the throne after her brother William drowned and her father, Henry I, died in 1135. To ensure an uncontested succession, he demanded that his barons swear fealty to Matilda as their ruler. Having married, reached adulthood and borne a male heir, Matilda was in a much better position than the young Eleanor to defend her newly inherited realm.

She would need it: shortly after her father’s death, a cousin, Stephen of Blois (c1097-1154), turned usurper and raised a rebellion among the barons. Stephen’s excuse was that Matilda, as a woman, was unfit to rule. Baronial support of Stephen’s rule may have been influenced by a fear that Matilda’s husband would rule England in her stead. Either way, none of them reckoned with Matilda. She may have been an empress and countess by marriage, but she was a queen by birthright and she wasn’t about to give that up.

Call it courage, fortitude or sheer pigheadedness, but Matilda fought Stephen to a standstill in a bloody and divisive civil war for the next 18 years. Supported by her husband, Matilda rode into battle herself, even capturing her rival at one point. They eventually agreed to a compromise in 1153. In exchange for ruling until his death, Stephen accepted Henry, Matilda’s son, as his heir.

By this agreement, Stephen and the other rebellious barons were able to sidestep the question of whether or not a woman had a right to rule (and therefore, whether they had been traitors to their feudal lord by oath). But in the end, Matilda’s dynasty won out over Stephen’s. And one of her distant descendants, Elizabeth I, would be rated possibly the greatest English ruler of all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Plantagenet,_Count_of_Anjou