Death of Geoffrey Plantagenet

September 7, 1151

The Count of Anjou who had conquered Normandy from his wife Matilda's rival died leaving his eighteen-year-old son Henry an empire-sized inheritance. Henry already held Normandy and Anjou; within a year he would marry Eleanor of Aquitaine; within three he would be king of England. Geoffrey's effigy in Le Mans shows the broom sprig on his hat that gave the Plantagenet dynasty its name.