| JOHN |
Posted - 06/16/2007 : 11:52:00
850 years ago the Church of Rome held dominance throughout Europe. Excommunication was a real and terrible punishment. The common language in daily use by the upper classes in England; kings, princes, barons, and knights, was French, as you might expect after William the Conqueror took over, but all educated people wrote and read in Latin. There were few horticulturalists, (and even fewer garden centres) and plants were generally known by their genus rather than separate species.
A French baron; Geoffrey , Earl of Anjou; gained some notoriety by wearing a sprig of Broom in the helmet of his armour in much the same way as the various Guards Regiments wear sprigs of shamrock or leek etc in their berets today. This broom was known at the time as "Planta Genista". Geoffrey's son; Henry; became King Henry II of England in 1154, and started a dynasty known as the "Plantagenets" after the sprig of planta genista worn by his father. |
