Earlier this season (Week 3, 15 October 2019 – Round 7, History: Question 3) we had controversy about the last Plantagenet king. (Summary: the answer given was Richard II, but in fact the houses of York and Lancaster were cadet branches of the house of Plantagenet, so the last Plantagenet king was actually Richard III.)
The question of the first Plantagenet king is perhaps slightly less contentious, but by no means entirely unambiguous. Although his family name was Plantagenet, the dynasty that Henry II founded was known in his time as the House of Anjou. This name persisted until the reign of Henry III, by which time the family had lost most of their continental possessions and so they became known by their family name: Plantagenet. Henry III was the first King of England to be known in his lifetime as a member of the House of Plantagenet.
It was only retrospectively – and especially during the Tudor era – that the Angevin kings (Henry II, Richard and John) became known as Plantagenets.
Wikipedia sums up the issues quite neatly: "The name Plantagenet is used by modern historians to identify four distinct royal houses: the Angevins, who were also counts of Anjou; the main body of the Plantagenets following the loss of Anjou; and the Plantagenets' two cadet branches, the houses of Lancaster and York."
Anyone who answered "Henry III" to this question may well have felt aggrieved (rightly or wrongly) if they didn't get the points – which they probably wouldn't have.
The controversy could have been avoided had the House of Anjou been mentioned. For example: "Also known as the first of the Angevin kings, who is considered by modern historians to have been the first Plantagenet King of England?"
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