The title Count of Anjou was first granted in the ninth century to Ingelger, a viscount who held land around Orléans and Angers. His descendants, who included some kings of England, continued to hold these titles and property until the French monarchy gained control of the area. Thereafter the titles Count of Anjou and, after 1360, Duke of Anjou were granted several times, usually to members of the French ruling houses of Valois and Bourbon.
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The title Count of Anjou was first granted in the ninth century to Ingelger, a viscount who held land around Orléans and Angers. His descendants, who included some kings of England, continued to hold these titles and property until the French monarchy gained control of the area. Thereafter the titles Count of Anjou and, after 1360, Duke of Anjou were granted several times, usually to members of the French ruling houses of Valois and Bourbon.
The title was held by a Philippe, a grandson of King Louis XIV, until he ascended the Spanish throne as Philip V of Spain. Since then, some Spanish legitimist claimants to the French throne have borne the title even to the present day, as does a relative of the Orléanist pretender.
In 1204, Anjou was lost to king Philip II of France. It was re-granted as an apanage for Louis VIII's son John, who died in 1232 at the age of thirteen, and then to Louis's youngest son, Charles, later the first Angevin king of Sicily.
In 1290, Margaret married Charles...
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