Now you Know

A few years back we finished the wonderful series "The Tudors" and I remember my mind bookmarking the term "Plantagenet" while a young still handsome Henry VIII was talking about avenging his father's death and ending the Plantagenet line for good which he does by having Richard killed (his daughter Elizabeth as we know continuing the Tudor line). Here is a good explanation from a book I am reading this week:

"Henry II was the first in a long line of fourteen Plantagenet kings. Their reigns stretched over more than three hundred years of English history, from accession of Henry II in 1154 to the death of Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485 (I believe this was during the War of the Roses). The name "Plantagenet" was originally a nickname given to Count Geoffrey of Anjou, father of Henry II, because of the gay yellow broom flower (Planta genista) which he wore in his helmet. In this time the emblem was used in the family arms.
For the sake of convenience, the Plantagenets are usually divided up under the names of the three related families of Anjou, Lancaster and York, from amongst whose members the fourteen monarchs came..."

From "Kings and Queens of England and Great Britain" ed. Eric R. Delderfield

Yet another great book checked out for free from our awesome local library here! I loved history and only lately have become interested in learned the details of how, exactly "royalty" came to be in Europe...when did it start? Who decided who was "king" in the beginning and how crazily intermarried all the European countries' monarchies are (some serious interbreeding has been going on for thousands of years..except for a few surprising 'broken' family tree areas where commoners were married and/or distant relatives took up the throne instead of direct descendants). very interesting to learn how humans evolved into this way of thinking, this lineage mindset and why it's important to learn from it and not roll our eyes at old history.

Good stuff. I'm going to do some yoga and try not to dwell on negative crap today. The past week has been very busy here which means we are happy, and this kind of dark rainy day tends to make me moody. grr..

Hope you are well out there friends!