PLANTAGENET, plan-tre'-net, a family whose various branches occupied the throne of England from the reign of Henry II (1154) until the accession (1485) of Henry VII, the representative in the female line of the Lancas trian branch of it who, by his marriage (1486) with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, representative of the York branch, united its various branches in the house of Tudor, of which he was the direct descendant. On the death of Henry I the Crown was claimed by his daughter, Maud or Matilda, first married to Henry V, emperor of Germany, and after ward to Geoffroi V, Count of Anjou, surnamed Plantagenet, on behalf of her son by the latter, Henry Plantagenet. Stephen obtained it during his lifetime and was succeeded on his death by Henry, who became the first of the Plan tagenet kings. The name is said to have been derived from the circumstance of the Count of Anjou wearing a branch of broom (plante de limit) in his cap. The direct line became
extinct in Richard II (1399), before whose death the Crown was usurped by Henry IV, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan'caster, 4th son of Edward III, in prejudice of Edmund and Anne Mortimer, the descendants of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 3d son of the same Edward.. He was succeeded by his descendants, Henry V and Henry VI, and during the reign of the latter, Edmund Mortimer having died without heirs, Richard, Duke of York, son of Anne Mortimer, who had married the heir of Ed mund, Duke of York, 5th son of Edward III, claimed the Crown. This occasioned the wars of the Roses, which terminated in the accession of Henry VII, as above mentioned. See ENG LAND, History; and articles on individual monarchs.