The
Angevins ("from
Anjou") were an English royal house in the 12th and early 13th centuries; its monarchs were
Henry II,
Richard I and
John. In the 10 years from 1144, two successive counts of
Anjou,
Geoffrey and his son, the future Henry II, won control of a vast assemblage of lands in western Europe that would last for 80 years and would retrospectively be referred to as the
Angevin Empire. As a political entity this was structurally different from the preceding
Norman and subsequent
Plantagenet realms. Geoffrey became
Duke of Normandy in 1144 and died in 1151. In 1152 his heir, Henry, added Aquitaine by virtue of his marriage to
Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry also inherited the claim of his mother,
Empress Matilda, the daughter of
King Henry I, to the English throne, to which he succeeded in 1154 following the death of
King Stephen.