General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Count
Note:
Geoffrey IV, also called GEOFFREY PLANTAGENET, byname GEOFF
REY THE FAIR, French GEOFFROI PLANTAGENET, or GEOFFROI le B
EL (b. Aug. 24, 1113--d. Sept. 7, 1151, Le Mans, Maine [Fra
nce]), count of Anjou (1131-51), Maine, and Touraine and an
cestor of the Plantagenet kings of England through his marr
iage, in June 1128, to Matilda (q.v.), daughter of Henr
y I of England. On Henry's death (1135), Geoffrey claimed t
he duchy of Normandy; he finally conquered it in 1144 and r
uled there as duke until he gave it to his son Henry (late
r King Henry II of England) in 1150.
Note:
Geoffrey was popular with the Normans, but he had to suppre
ss a rebellion of malcontent Angevin nobles. After a shor
t war with Louis VII of France, Geoffrey signed a treaty (A
ugust 1151) by which he surrendered the whole of Norman Vex
in (the border area between Normandy and Île-de-France) t
o Louis. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]
Note:
The Plantagenet family name was originally just a nicknam
e for Geoffrey. He many times wore a sprig with yellow flow
ers in his hat. The flower was named "genet" or "genistae
" in the French of the times--thus his nickname was "Plant-
a-Genet".
Genet was supposedly a traditional flower of the Anjou fami
ly dating back to the time of Fulk, The Great, Count of Anj
ou 898-941 who was scourged (in order to atone for past sin
s) with broom twigs of the Genet while on pilgrimage in Jer
usalem.
Most people of the times had personal nicknames such as "Be
auclerc", "Curtmantel", "Longshanks", and "Lackland", but G
eoffrey's stuck and eventually (many generations later) bec
ame the family name. Geoffrey's immediate descendants wer
e probably not known as the Plantagenet family at the tim
e they lived, it was only later that the Plantagenet famil
y name was applied to all descendants of Geoffrey.