The Fairy Mermaid of the Plantagenets

Have you ever looked at the Starbucks logo and wondered where exactly the inspiration came from? Me either, but I always thought it was a rather interesting logo.  Turns out, the logo was inspired by Melusine who was a female water spirit known to frequent fresh water rivers or sacred springs.  She was described as being human on the top half of her body, but fish like or serpent like on the bottom half of her body.  Sometimes she was described as having twin tails (much like the Starbucks logo) and sometimes had wings.  She was often referred to as a "fairy mermaid", and I'm most likely related to her.


It doesn't get much cooler than that (actually it does, but I have to reveal the cool one blog post at a time).

Melusine or Melusina as she is sometimes called, was the daughter of Pressina, who was a full on water fairy, and a mortal man by the name of King Elinas of Alba (now called Scotland).  It's interesting to note that King Elinas' mother is listed as "The Dragon Queen" (seriously, who needs Game of Thrones, just go research history).  Pressina told her husband she would marry him under one condition- that he never look upon her during or immediately following childbirth.  Elinas agreed and the two married.  Soon after, Pressina became pregnant and gave birth to triplet girls named Melusine, Melior and Plantina.  King Elinas ended up breaking his promise and went in to see his wife and new daughters shortly after they were born.  Upset that her husband broke his promise to her, Pressina took the three children and fled to a hidden island.  When the girls became teens, the eldest Melusine, learned of her father's betrayal and decided to punish him by kidnapping him and hide him in a mountain.  She talked her sisters into helping her with her plan of revenge.  But Pressina learned of the plan and punished Melusine by cursing her to turn into a mermaid like creature every Saturday.

Melusine goes to live alone in a forest where she meets Raymond, Count of Anjou who was distressed after accidentally killing his uncle during a boar hunt.  Melusine promised to help Raymond attain wealth and power and offered advice on how to explain his uncle's death.  Raymond was so pleased, he asked Melusine to marry him.  She agreed but only if he agreed never to come to her private chamber on Saturdays.  He agreed and they were married at once.

Melusine did help the Count gain power to the kingdom and became the mother of the Lusignan line.  She and Raymond had 10 children, and each was born with some type of deformity.  Raymond was eventually pressured into learning of Melusine's Saturday activities.  He peaked through the keyhole and saw her fish like lower half.  Raymond didn't say anything about what he saw at first.  It wasn't until his son Geoffrey burned a church and killed  100 monks that Raymond, feeling Melusine's secret meant she was an agent of Satan and the reason for Geoffrey's attack, blurted out that she was a false serpent.  Distraught over husband's betrayal, Melusine leaped out of the window and sway away in the river. (You'll remember from the previous post that Geoffrey the Count of Anjou was the beginning of the Plantagenets).

Many royals all the way back to Charlemagne claim descent from the Melusine and the Plantagenet still claim the lineage.  In fact, Richard I the Lionheart said, "We come from the Devil, and to the Devil we shall go" it's said he was referring to the story of Melusine.  The Plantagenet line (Anjou, Vere and Angevin) all go back to her.

I may be one of a few who think being descended from a twin tailed fairy mermaid is super cool, but trust me when I tell you, this isn't even the coolest part of this lineage.  Wait until you hear about the Merovingians!