Henry was just of age when the death of Stephen (S141) called him to
the throne.
From his father, Count Geoffrey of Anjou, a province of France, came
the title of Angevin. The name Plantagenet, by which the family came
to be known later, was derived from the count's habit of wearing a
sprig of the golden-blossomed broom plant, or Plante-gene^t, as the
French called it, in his helmet.
Henry received from his father the dukedoms of Anjou and Maine, from
his mother Normandy and the dependent province of Brittany, while
through his marriage with Eleanor, the divorced Queen of France, he
acquired the great southern dukedom of Aquitaine.
Thus on his accession he became ruler over all England, and over more
than half of France besides, his realms extending from the borders of
Scorland to the base of the Pyrenees. (See map facing p. 84.)
To these extensive possessions Henry added the eastern half of
Ireland.[1] The country was but partially conquered and never justly
ruled. The English power there remained "like a spear-point embedded
in a living body," inflaming all around it.[2]
[1] Ireland: The population of Ireland at this time consisted mainly
of descendants of the Celtic and other prehistoric races which
inhabited Britain at the period of the Roman invasion. When the
Saxons conquered Britain, many of the natives, who were of the same
stock and spoke essentially the same language as the Irish, fled to
that country. Later, the Danes formed settlements on the coast,
especially in the vicinity of Dublin.
The conquest of England by the Normans was practically a victory
gained by one branch of the German race over another (Saxons, Normans,
and Danes having originally sprung from the same Teutonic stock or
from one closely akin to it, and the three soon mingled); but the
partial conquest of Ireland by the Normans was a radically different
thing. They and the Irish had really nothing in common. The latter
refused to accept the feudal system, and continued to split up into
savage tribes or clans under the rule of petty chiefs always at war
with each other.
Thus for centuries after England had established a settled
government, Ireland remained, partly through the battles of the clans,
and partly through the aggressions of a hostile race, in a state of
anarchic confusion which prevented all true national growth.
[2] W. E. H. Lecky's "England in the XVIIIth Century," II, 102.