Whether we realise it or not, we are steeped in a modern way of thinking.
Though it can be difficult for us to piece together the details, medieval ideas no doubt seemed simple at the time.
A `courtly' influence may have held more sway than a widespread active interest in philosophy for the formative meaning of the Plant name. Literary clues may be sought in, for example, the initial version of the poem the Roman de la Rose (illustration alongside), which was written by William de Lorris (illustration below) around 1230. In Jean de Meun's continuation of the poem, c1275, there are philosophical digressions, not least about Nature's generation. It is at least clear that understanding was different then and the contemporary ideas are important for the additional insights they give. |
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There was a plant within us (God's holy vine) and it carried powers of nutrition, growth, and reproduction.
More scholastically, growth and reproduction were developed into the concepts of augmentation and generation. The vegetable soul, within us, carried powers of nutrition, augmentation, and generation. These operations of the vegetable soul were supplemented by those of the animal (sensory) and intellective souls. There were various views as to how these souls depended on the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) and on Aristotle's `fifth element' light or intelligence.
In Christian teachings, since the times of St Augustine (354-430AD), the planted Word of God was `that true light that lighteth every man that cometh into this world'. This can be compared with the metaphor `creation is birth' which is found in such modern expressions as `the birth of blues music' or for example `Einstein's theory of relativity first saw the light of day in 1905'. In medieval times there was no such concept as the `speed of light' but there were beliefs based on the `light of creation'. Corruption (moral and physical) was the diminution of this creative light (cf. the physical reality of plant life).
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The proximity of the scholastic Robert Grosseteste to the first known evidence for the Plant (Plente) name is helpful in revealing the likely philosophy underlying the name's meaning. There are accounts of a friendship between Grosseteste and young king Henry III in his minority (1216-23) and, after Grosseteste's pre-eminence at Oxford, he was appointed bishop of Lincoln - he may be seen as a `Plantagenet favoured theologian' though he disputed with both King and Pope. |
Rather as the name Lionheart focussed on man's animal soul, Plant highlighted man's vegetatable soul. As a surname it could focus on the vegetable power of generation (fertility) and hence hereditary continuity to the child. This would be quite standard for a surname in that an offspring sense is quite usual (e.g. surnames such as Johnson, Children, Young) though, besides generation, the augmentative power (growth and elevation) of the vegetable soul was important.
As well as the `creation is birth' metaphor, metaphors of causation include (a) `the object comes out of the substance' as in `I made a statue out of clay' and (b) `the substance goes into the object as in `I made the clay into a statue'. Implantation can be viewed as a causal aspect of creation. Implantation is implied in Middle English reference to the `planted Word' or to `planted vertue' - the 13th century scholastic, Roger Bacon, of Oxford and Paris noted the 12th century opinion of Averroes of Cordoba that the virtues of the father are in the semen [seeds] and that they remain during the generation of the progeny.
In traditional ideas, the Plantagenet emblem - the sprig of broom - represented life's foundations. This involved man's contact with the land (the `sole of foot' meaning of planta) and life's creation through plant and animal (the `shoot for propagation' sense of planta and the `broom plant' sense of genista) - both plant and animal characteristics of generation can be sensed in the sprig of broom which is hairy (cf. the `hairy generative shoot' meaning of the earlier name Planteveleu). At a scholastic level, the flesh could be transubstantiated through plant and horse (genet) whilst God's planted Word could be received especially well into noble flesh.
Similar considerations can be applied to interpreting meanings for medieval Plant-like names in England.
Grosseteste's philosophy,
taken together with the duties in
1219 of Radulphus Plente to the king for the burbhote of Oxford, suggests a
possible meaning for Pl(a/e)nte.
Burbhote means 'upkeep' or 'funds for upkeep'. The Middle English definition of plente is generosity (or abundant or fertile). A known 14th century sense to the variant word plante of implanting virtue fits with Grosseteste's early 13th century philosophy.This suggests the consistent meanings shown alongside for some early 13th century names. Such ideas are consistent also with some French evidence near ``Plantagenet Anjou''. |
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Some clarification about the underlying philosophy of soul and faith can be sought, for the Plant name's late 14th century homeland, in the works of the local contemporary `Pearl' poet, around the times of the Black Death. Those times may be associated with more corpse-like images of medieval "Green Man" heads (illustration below).
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In traditions near the main Plant homeland, the Welsh otherworld was called Anwyn and it was a land of peace and plenty with a cauldron of rebirth. Late medieval legends of the Holy Grail can be compared with Celtic belief in cauldrons of rebirth and plenty and Grail legends are found also near the Planta homeland in Switzerland. Plenty (plente) and plants can be compared with Biblical tradition of a vine of descent, the tree of Jesse, and men as plants in God's vineyard.
The works of the `Pearl' poet refer to..
- a heavenly court, London, and evidently Cheshire - this may be compared with the contemporary disinheritance of the Warren Plantagenet affinity from the earldom of Surrey and lands around Norfolk, and their settlement in east Cheshire;
- two crafts of soul and body, in keeping with Grosseteste's philosophy;
- the `filth of the flesh that horses have used', which may refer to a meaning of the Plantagenet name;
- the likening of pe(e)s (peas or peace) to a pearl - this can be compared with Grosseteste's Prince of Peace as well as Langland's virtuous pl(a/e)nte of pe(e)s;
- Mary's grace of grewe which can be compared with the translation God increase it of the name of Dieulacress Abbey at Leek in the Plant homeland - this suggests strong meaning relating to the `augmentative' operation which is one of the vegetative operations in Grosseteste's philosophy of the unified soul, with the other two being the nutritive and the generative;
- `plant(t)ed' with the meaning `established'.
The likely meaning of Plant seems to relate to the vegetative (green) vertues of nutritive generosity, abundant growth, and fertile generation. There is also 14th century reference to planting virtue, planting God's Word, and planting the grace of noble lineage. Like Langland, Grosseteste had referred to God's daughters Peace and Justice kissing on Judgement day, prior to the rule of the Prince of Peace (cf. plonte of pees), and had related this to the children of a King. William Langland refers to the plontes of virtuous pees and Trewe-love which evidently relate to a `sense of divinity' with a propre plonte blowing in privelege, bringing forth folke of alle nacion, and shored up by a trinity of the Power of god the father (Potencia-dei-patris), his Wisdom (Sapencia-dei-patris), and his `breath of life' (Spiritus Sanctus). There were also senses to plant of establishing a colony, a town, or a religious establishment. For these and other reasons, a summary sense to Plant can be taken to be:-
- an implant(er) of the lord's spirit, ethos, or virtue, or;
- an (im)plant of the vegetative life-force and lordly Word.
Similar concepts, relating to establishing life and order, are still in evidence by the 17th century with reference, in the Plant homeland, to..
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In the Plant homeland, near the border of Prestbury parish with Leek, a 17th century Wincle Chapel inscription evidently remains compatible with an earlier faith in establishing the lordly Word. Many had believed that the foetus was purely vegetative and sensory until it received intellective operations in the soul. Grosseteste maintained that Christ received God's Word from the moment of holy conception though, for the Pearl poet, this was to be joined with Mary's grace of grewe. |
The cosmology of Grossteste (c1175-1253) broke away from Aristotle's
tradition and united the philosophy of heaven in a hierarchy with earth. For
Grosseteste, each superior body passes its form, species, or virtue by light
to the body that follows. Unlike his contemporary Phillip the Chancellor in
Paris, he considered soul as a unity of vegetative, sensory, and
intellective operations separated from ignoble flesh by mind as spiritual
light (irradatio spirtualis) engendered by celestial light (lux
suprema). Rather differently, Phillip the Chancellor considered a
plurality of forms of the soul, with the vegetative and the sensory
intermediate of the rational soul and the flesh. Grosseteste's follower,
Roger Bacon (c1214-92), at Oxford and Paris, claimed that all
English theologians and all philosophers taught the direct creation (by God)
of the intellective soul only, though this was not quite in line
with the teachings of Grosseteste. Bacon also claimed that the virtue of the
father flowed with the semen into the mother, who was of sufficiently
similar nature for the virtue to be retained and thereby pass to the
progeny.
Such philosophies evidently hold relevance to 14th century Middle English
reference to planted virtue, the planted Word of God
(through St Augustine's light of creation and Grosseteste's lux
suprema), and the planted grace of noble lineage. There is for
example the quotation "(1340) Ayenb. 123/3: The holy gost .. bestrepth
the zeue zennes uram the herte and plonteth (F plante) and
norisseth zeue uirtues" relating planted virtues to the holy ghost.
Around 1230, the Orleans poem, the Roman de la Rose began its
300 years of influence, not least through the English court. The Roman
de la Rose, was continued by Jean de Meun around 1275-80 who, for
example, asserted for the fern plant:-
Some French evidence near `Plantagenet Anjou'
Do we not see how those who are masters of glassblowing create from fern
... both ash and glass?
Ash was associated with rebirth, specifically of the phoenix. Glass could
multiply images of whatever adorned the garden. This multiplication of images
is set in the context of God's chambermaid, Nature, continuing always to
hammer and forge to renew the species by new generation.
For Grosseteste, generation of corporeal things are described through the action of created light which transmits the form of each body to that which comes after it. In the above extract from the Rose poem, there is evident reference to generation in the medium of glass - this was described in particular in Roger Bacon's work on the multiplication of species, De Multiplicatione Specierum. In the above extract from the Rose poem, it appears that this multiplication, or generation of images, is associated with the generative operation in the vegetative soul of the fern.
My lord, in whom evere yit be founde
Pite withoute spot of violence,
Kep thilke pes alwei withinne bounde,
Which god hathe planted in thi conscience;
The poem Saint Erkenwald has been associated with the so-called `Pearl poet' or `Gawain poet' of the NW Midlands dialect district, who has been tentatively identified with the Rector of Stockport around the times of the c1340 marriage of Sir Edward de Warren into de Stockport lands in east Cheshire and south Lancashire. This can hence be tentatively associated with the settlement of the illegitimate Warren Plantagenet descent and the Plant surname in east Cheshire.
Lines 346-7 of Saint Erkenwald suggest belief in the two crafts of `transubstantiated body' and `planted soul':-
For as soon as the soule was sesyd in blisse (i.e. heaven)
Corrupt was that othir crafte that couert the bones.
A commonly supposed story for the origins of the Plantagenet name is that Geoffrey V "le Bon" (1113-51), Count of Anjou, who was the father of king Henry II of England and Hamelin (Warren) earl of Surrey, took to wearing a spring of broom, or planta genista, in his cap. Apart from questioning the reliability of the story, it might be questioned whether such a story would have survived down the centuries if plante genet did not hold some further significance. It may be noted, in particular, that the contemporary philosophy was not that of modern science but was very much concerned with creation and generation and adding a spiritual superstructure to such ancient Natural Histories as that of Pliny - this is evidenced by, for example, such books as 12th century Herbals and the De rerum Naturis of Alexandar Nequam (1157-1217). Sprig of broom may have been important as a perceived origin to the Lord's "planted life" as outlined further below.
The Pearl poet refers to beasts biting on broom. Broom, as a nutritive origin for animals, may relate to the usually supposed `sprig of broom' meaning of the Plant(a/e)genet name though this translates rather better as `plant-horse'. Broom may have been seen as an origin for the life species partly because it was a source of plant powers to the parasitic herb broomrape. Various strands of contemporary philosophy seem compatible with such a notion, such as indicated below for example.
Atto of Vercelli (924-61) had complained in a sermon of the custom practiced by "little trollops" (meretriculae) in his diocese of baptising branches and turves (and hence calling them - it is not clear whom - coparents), hanging them in their houses and afterwards guarding them assiduously quasi religionis causa. Avicenna (c980-1036) from Persia maintained that the souls of plants and animals were shared with humans. He developed the NeoPlatonic thesis on light as a vehicle for the soul and maintained that the better the balance between the active (fire and air) and passive (water and earth) elements, with the balance being regulated by spiritual light, the better was the body conditioned to receive the higher forms of life. The Spanish Jew Avicebron (c1020-70) developed traditional Islamic ideas about spiritual emanations from bodies. Transubstantiation (such as of the whole substance of the eucharistic bread to become the body of Christ) became an article of Christian faith in 1079. Averroes (1126-98) at Cordova in Moorish Spain reiterated an ancient scheme for the generation of life from the elements, such as earth, through plants and animals to man. Robert Grosseteste (c1170-1253) was influenced by such ideas as well as by traditional Christian statements from St Augustine (354-430), such as the soul of man bears witness to God's light yet itself is not that light. Transubstantiation remained an article of faith throughout, for example, the Church's condemnation of Determinism, associated with some aspects of Aristotelism and Averroism, in 1277 when rather more in Paris than Oxford were condemned as heretics.
There is hence a deeper possible interpretation of the Plantagenet name beyond the usually supposed sense of the Latin planta genista meaning "sprig of broom". A "spring of broom" interpretation of Plantagenet is consistent with a sense of the Lord's planted Word (of creation), transubstantiation from broom to broomrape, and thereon to the beasts. An alternative "plant horse" sense of Plantagenet is consistent with a scheme of generation from God's "planted Word" (of creation) through the plants and the much esteemed horse to the nobility itself. It seems noteworthy that either interpretation is consistent with the same contemporary scheme for the creation and generation of life.
By the times of the `Pearl' poet, most interest in the Plant(a/e)genet name could have passed from the Warrens to the Lancastrians, with whom the Warrens had feuded. This would help explain why there is little attempt by the `Pearl' poet (late 14th century) to defend `horse used flesh' vis a vis the nobility of the separate (partly vegetative) soul.
Plantagenet can accordingly be translated in such a context as that of Grosseteste's philosophy as..
`of particularly well balanced flesh, transubstantiated through the plant and horse genera; balanced to receive a particulalry high implant of the Lord's planted Word'.
William Langland's poem, Piers Plowman can be associated with London and Shropshire, near the east Cheshire Plant homeland, around 1380, and it includes the lines:-
Loue if the louest thing that oure lord askith,
And ek the pl(a/e)nte of pes;
...
For treuth telleth that loue is triacle [for] synne
And most souerayne salue for soule and for body.
Loue is [the] plonte of pees, most precious of vertues,
A stong emphasis on the vegetative operation, the augmentative in the soul is suggested by the Pearl poet's reference to Mary's grace of grewe (lines 425-6 .. 429-31 of Pearl):-
We leuen [rise or gain Word] on Marye that grace of grewe,This refers to rising on Mary's grace of growth that bore a child from the vegetative (cf. the elevated rose flower) and likens this to the Arabic (erstwhile Greek) rebirth of the Phoenix that flew from the ashes to gain courtly grace. It suggests that not only scholastics such as Grosseteste, but also the wider community, believed in the augmentative power of the vegetative soul, not only for physical growth but also for spiritual or moral enrichment. Growth (or elevation) also features strongly in the plonte of pees, the climbing hedge rose, the practice of chair lifting (raising young men and women on a chair on May Day) found in the court of Edward I (who, with his brother, Edmund, first earl of Lancaster bore the gold and red rose badges), and the same custom of chair lifting found in the Plant homeland around Leek parish where the Plants have a red rose appended to their blazon.
That ber a barne [child] of virgyn flour.
..
We calle hyr Fenyx [Phoenix] of Arraby,
That fereles fleze [flies] of hyr Fasor [Creator]
Lyk to the quen of cortaysye [courtesy].
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