Counts and dukes of Anjou
The Count of Anjou was the ruler of the county of Anjou, first granted by Charles the Bald in the 9th century to Robert the Strong. Ingelger and his son were viscounts of Angers until Ingelger's son Fulk the Red assumed the title of Count of Anjou. The Robertians and their Capetian successors were distracted by wars with the Vikings and other concerns and were unable to recover the county until the reign of Philip II Augustus, more than 270 years later.
Ingelger's male line ended with Geoffrey II, Count of Anjou. Subsequent counts of Anjou were descended from Geoffrey's sister Ermengarde of Anjou and Geoffrey II, Count of Gâtinais. Their agnatic descendants, who included the Angevin 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.
Similar to the title of Duke of York in England, none of those who received the title Duke of Anjou, were able to transmit it; they either died without a male heir, returned it to the royal domain, or succeeded to the throne.
The title was held by Philippe, a grandson of King Louis XIV, until he ascended the Spanish throne as Philip V of Spain in 1700. Since then, some Spanish legitimist claimants to the French throne have borne the title even to the present day, as does a nephew of the Orléanist pretender.
Counts of [Anjou]
Robertian dynasty">Robertians">Robertian dynasty
[House of Ingelger]
[Angevin kings of England] and [Plantagenets]
In 1204, Anjou was lost to king Philip II of France. It was re-granted as an appanage 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.[Capetian dynasty]
House of Anjou">Capetian House of Anjou">House of Anjou
In 1290, Margaret married Charles of Valois, the younger brother of king Philip IV of France. He became Count of Anjou in her right.[House of Valois]
In 1328, Philip of Valois ascended the French throne and became King Philip VI. At this time, the counties of Anjou, Maine, and Valois returned to the royal domain. On 26 April 1332, Philip granted the county to his eldest son, John:| Name | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death |
| John 1332–1350 also: John the Good, count of Maine, of Poitiers, duke of Normandy, and Aquitaine | 16 April 1319 son of Philip VI and Joan the Lame | Bonne of Bohemia 28 July 1332 Church of Notre-Dame, Melun nine children Joanna I of Auvergne 19 February 1350 Nanterre two children | 8 April 1364 Savoy aged 44 |
Following John's ascension to the throne as John II in 1350, the title again returned to the royal domain.
Dukes of Anjou
The dukes contributed greatly to social reform in the 1300s and 1400s.First creation: 1360–1481 – House of Valois-Anjou">House of Valois">House of Valois-Anjou
On the death of Charles IV, Anjou returned to the royal domain.Second creation: 1515–1531 – [House of Savoy]
Third creation: 1566–1576 – House of Valois-Angoulême">House of Valois">House of Valois-Angoulême
Fourth creation: 1576–1584 – House of Valois-Angoulême">House of Valois">House of Valois-Angoulême
Fifth creation: 1608–1626 – [House of Bourbon]
Sixth creation: 1640–1660 – [House of Orléans]
Seventh creation: 1668–1671 – [House of Bourbon]
8th creation: 1672 – [House of Bourbon]
9th creation: 1683–1700 – [House of Bourbon]
10th creation: 1710–1715 – [House of Bourbon]
11th creation: 1730–1733 – [House of Bourbon]
12th creation: 1755–1795 – [House of Bourbon]
Dukes of Anjou without legal creation
1883–present – [House of Bourbon]
After the death of Henry, Count of Chambord, only the descendants of Philip V of Spain remained of the male line of Louis XIV. The most senior of these, the Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne, became the eldest of the Capetians. Some of them used the courtesy title of Duke of Anjou, as shown below:| Name | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death |
| Jaime 1909-1931 also: duque de Madrid | 27 June 1870 Vevey third son of Carlos, Duke of Madrid and Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma | never married | 2 October 1931 Paris aged 60 | |
| Alfonso Carlos 1931-1936 also: duque de San Jaime | 12 September 1849 London second son of Juan, Count of Montizón and Archduchess Maria Beatrix of Austria-Este | Infanta Maria das Neves of Portugal 26 April 1871 Kleinheubach no issue | 29 September 1936 Vienna aged 87 |
At the death of Alfonso Carlos in 1936, the Capetian seniority passed to the exiled King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. In 1941, Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, succeeded his father Alfonso XIII as the heir male of Louis XIV and therefore as the Legitimist claimant to the French throne. He then adopted the title of Duke of Anjou.
| Name | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death |
| Jaime 1941-1975 also: duque de Segovia, duque de Madrid | 23 June 1908 Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg | Emmanuelle de Dampierre 4 March 1935 Church of San Ignacio de Loyola, Rome two children Charlotte Tiedemann 3 August 1949 Innsbruck no issue | 20 March 1975 St. Gallen aged 66 | |
| Alfonso 1975-1989 also: duque de Cadiz, duc de Bourbon, ducs de Bourgogne | 20 April 1936 Rome eldest son of Jaime and Emmanuelle de Dampierre | María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco 8 March 1972 Royal Palace of El Pardo two sons | 30 January 1989 Beaver Creek Resort aged 52 | |
| Louis Alphonse 1989-present also: duc de Touraine, duc de Bourbon | 25 April 1974 Madrid second son of Alfonso and María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco | María Margarita Vargas Santaella 6 November 2004 La Romana four children | living |
2004–present – House of Bourbon-Orléans">House of Orléans">House of Bourbon-Orléans
On December 8, 2004, Henry, Count of Paris, Duke of France, Orléanist Pretender to the French throne, granted the title Duke of Anjou to his nephew Charles-Philippe. Because he doesn't recognize his cousin's courtesy title, in his view the title was available since 1824.| Name | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death |
| Charles-Philippe 2004-present | 3 March 1973 Paris eldest son of Michel, Count of Évreux and Beatrice Pasquier de Franclieu | Diana Álvares Pereira de Melo, 11th Duchess of Cadaval 21 June 2008 Cathedral of Évora | living |