Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/185

Rh p L A P L A 175 II. N. Moseley, &quot; On the Anatomy and Histology of the Land Planarians of Coylon, with some Account of their Habits, and with a Description of Two New Species, and with Notes on the Anatomy of some European Aquatic Species,&quot; in Phil. Trans. (London, 1874), and &quot;Notes on the Structure Of several Forms of Land Planarians, with a Description of Two New Genera and Several New Species, and a List of all Species at present known,&quot; in Quart. Jour. Alter. Sei., vol. xlvii., 1877 ; J. v. Kennel, &quot; Die in Deutschland gef umlenen Landplaiiaricn Khynchode- mits terrestris und Geodesmus bilineatus,&quot; in Arbeit. Zool.-Zootom. Jitstit. Wiirz- burg, v., 1879. Polycladida. A. Lang, &quot; Die Polycladen,&quot; in Fauna und Flora ties Golfes von Neapel, No. 11, 39 plates, Leipsic, 1884-80. (L. v. G.) PLANCK, GOTTLIEB JAKOB (1751-1833), theologian and clmrok historian, was born at Niirtingen in Wiirtem- berg, where his father was a notary, on November 15, 1751. He was educated for the Protestant ministry at Blaubeuren, Bebenhausen, and Tubingen, and from 1774 to 1784 held successive appointments as repetent, preacher, and professor in Tubingen and Stuttgart. In 1781 he published anonymously the first volume of his Geschichte cits Protestantischen Lehrbegrifs ; the second, also anony mous, appeared in 1783 ; and in 1784 he was chosen to succeed Walch at Gottingen. Here in the course of a long and useful professional career he enjoyed a large number of academical and ecclesiastical honours. His death took place on August 31, 1833. The Gcsdiichte cles Protestant ischcn Lchrbcyriffs was completed in 6 vols. in 1800. It was followed by an extensive Gcschiehtc der Kirchenverfassung. in 5 vols. (1803-1809). Both are works of considerable importance, and are characterized by abundant learn ing and actiteness, the most conspicuous fault in the eyes of his least favourable critics being a tendency, which cannot be wholly denied, to &quot;subjective pragmatism. &quot; PLANTAGENET. This surname, distinctive of a line of kings who ruled in England for more than three hundred years, was first adopted by Geoffrey, count of Anjou, in reference to a sprig of broom (planta (/mutte) which he is said to have worn in his bonnet. He is described by early writers as a very handsome man, but there was certainly nothing very striking in his character. He was the son of Fulk, count of Anjou, king of Jerusalem, who, before his departure for the Holy Land, placed him in J possession of the counties of Anjou and Maine. This made him in the eyes of Henry I. of England, who was | anxious to protect Normandy, an eligible husband for his widowed daughter, the empress Maud, whom he proposed to make his heiress, both in England and beyond sea. It was a purely political marriage, and the couple immediately afterwards had violent quarrels. Nor was either of them popular in England, where a female sovereign would at that time have been an innovation, and Geoffrey was dis liked as a foreigner although the same objection might have seemed to apply to Stephen of Blois, whose superior activity gained possession of the throne before Maud could make good her pretensions. In a long war with the usurper, though recognized as &quot;lady of England&quot; and virtual sovereign by one part of the country, she was only able in the end to secure the succession for her son. Stephen ended his days in peace, and the house of Plantagenet succeeded to the throne in the person of Henry II. by virtue of a compact. Henry, the son of Geoffrey of Anjou and the empress Maud, was born at Le Mans in the year 1133, and was just twenty-one years of age when he attained the crown. But his youth had been well spent in preparation for it. When eight years old he was brought to England to be trained in arms. At sixteen he was knighted by his great-uncle David of Scotland. In 1151 his father put him in possession of Normandy, and, dying soon after, left him also the succession to Anjou. These advantages he improved next year by his marriage with Eleanor of Aquit.iine, which, by adding Poitou and Guienne to his dominions, gave him the lordship over the whole western side of France from north to south, with the exception of Britanny, which also some time afterwards came under his power. Having thus, even before he was twenty, become master of so many fair provinces, he then sailed to England, and, though he did not dethrone Stephen, compelled him to acknowledge him as his successor. Next year he was king It is a new era in the history of England as well as in the fortunes of his house. The country, which was lately so impatient of the rule of a foreigner fearing, doubtless, that English interests would be sacrificed to those of Anjou now yields an easy submission to the ruler of all western France from Picardy to the Pyrenees. And, though Henry is in fact one of the greatest of Continental potentates, greater really than his feudal superior the king of France, there is no great cause for anxiety. Henry devotes him self to the interests of his island kingdom, takes steps to secure the succession there to his issue, causing his eldest son even to be crowned king during his own lifetime, and is much more intent on the subjugation of Wales and Ireland and the recognition of his feudal superiority over Scotland than upon any extension of his responsibilities abroad. Personally a man of fiery temperament and strong passions, his patience as a politician is remarkable. Bit by bit he is building up a strong empire, and even keeping the pretensions of the church within definite and reasonable bounds. But a single angry word undoes the work of years. He is responsible for Becket s murder. He must do penance and make his peace with the church. He must humiliate himself before Becket s grave. His dynastic policy seemed almost an equal failure, but was productive of wide and far-reaching consequences. His ungrateful sons rebelled against him, and when he heard that even John had joined the confederacy he felt that he had nothing more to live for. The eldest, Henry, whom he had been so anxious to make a king during hi-&amp;gt; own life, sickened and died in France after flagrant acts of ingratitude and impiety. Geoffrey, to whom he had secured the duchy of Britanny, soon followed his brother; and there remained but Richard and John, besides three daughters, who were all disposed of in marriage to Continental princes. As Richard, though he came to the crown, also died without legitimate issue, the male line was continued in the two sons of John, Henry III. and liichard, king of the Romans, and the issue of the latter became extinct in the next generation. It is remarkable how the prosperity of England seemed to keep pace with the stability of the succession. The short reigns of Richard I. and John were times of peculiar misery, which was only brought to a climax by the war of the Great Charter and by the dauphin being called in to enforce it. Matters improved under Henry III., even during the minority ; but he, too, had a war with his barons in the latter part of his reign. He, too, like his father, had but two sons who grew up to manhood ; and, while the elder, Edward I., succeeded him on the throne and was the ancestor of all the following kings, the younger, Edmund Crouchback, became progenitor of the house of Lancaster by the marriage of his great granddaughter Blanche to John of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward III. Edward I. had three sons who came to man s estate; Edward II. only two, or more properly only one, for the second, John of Eltham, died in Scotland at the age of nineteen. Finally the time of Edward III. with his great family was the climax in the fortunes of the house of Plantagenet. Nor need we pursue the family history further, as the story of its descent after the days of Edward III. will be found sufficiently treated elsewhere (see LANCASTER, HOUSE OF, and YoPvK, HOUSE OF). Of the alliances of this great dynasty the most import ant after the clays of Henry II. were those of the house of Lancaster. Henry III. married his daughter Margaret to Alexander III. of Scotland, and another daughter to the