Plantagenet Queens Consort of England

Women married to the Plantagenet kings of England had quite different backgrounds. On the following, pages are introductions to each of these English queens, with basic information about each, and some linked to a more detailed biography.

The Plantagenet royal dynasty began when Henry II became king. Henry was the son of Empress Matilda (or Maud), whose father, Henry I, one of the Norman kings of England, had died without any living sons. Henry, I had his nobles swear to support Matilda after his death, but her cousin Stephen quickly took the crown instead, leading to the civil war called the Anarchy. In the end, Stephen kept his crown, Matilda was never made a queen in her own right -- but Stephen named Matilda's son rather than his own younger, surviving son as his heir.

Matilda had married, first, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. When he died and Matilda had not had children by that marriage, she returned to her homelands, and her father married her to the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey. 

The name Plantagenet didn't come into usage until the 15th century when Richard, the 3rd Duke of York, used the name, supposedly after Geoffrey's use of the planta genista, broom plant, as an emblem.

Generally accepted as the Plantagenet kings, though the York and Lancaster rivals are also of the Plantagenet family, are the following rulers. 

• Henry II
• Henry the Young King - ruled as a junior king with his father, but predeceased his father
• Richard I
• John
• Henry III
• Edward I
• Edward II
• Edward III
• Richard II

On the following pages, you'll meet their queen's consort; no queens ruling in their own right in this dynasty, though some served as regents and one seized power from her husband.