Norse word meaning to soothe, referring to its carminative qualities in allaying pain. It is one of the garden plants of which the Pharisees were wont to pay tithes. It is used in pickles and soups. The star-anise of liqueur-makers is the produce of a totally different plant, Illicium anisatum, belonging to the Natural Order Magnoliaceæ, sub-order Wintereæ. It receives its name from its flavour, and from its fruit spreading out like a star.
ANJÁR, a fortified town of Hindustán, and the capital of a district of the same name in the native state of Cutch, lies in 23° 6' N. lat., 70° 3' E. long. The country is dry and sandy, and entirely depends on well irrigation for its water supply. The town is situated nearly 10 miles from the Gulf of Cutch. It suffered severely from an earthquake in 1819, which destroyed a large number of houses, and occasioned the loss of several lives. In 1820 the population was estimated at 10,000. The town and district of Anjar were both ceded to the British in 1816, but in 1822 they were again transferred to the Cutch Government in consideration of an annual money payment. Subsequently it was discovered that this obligation pressed heavily upon the resources of the native state, and in 1832 the pecuniary equivalent for Anjar, both prospectively and inclusive of the arrears which had accrued to that date, were wholly remitted by the British Government.
ANJENGO, once a British factory and fortress, now a small sea-port town of India, in Travancore, nearly encircled by a deep and broad river, at the mouth of which it is situated. It lies in 8° 40' N. lat., 76° 49' E. long. The fort was built by the English in 1684, and retained till 1813, when the factory was abolished on account of the useless expense attending it. Anjengo is infested with snakes, scorpions, and centipedes, those animals finding shelter in the matted leaves of the cocoa-tree with which the houses are mostly thatched. Anjengo is celebrated for the best coir cables on the Malabar coast, manufactured from the fibre of the Laccadive cocoa-nut. It also exports pepper, cotton cloths, and drugs.
ANJER, a sea-port town of the Dutch East Indian island of Java, situated on the Strait of Sunda, 18 miles W. of Batavia. It is protected by a fort, and besides carrying on a considerable trade in Eastern curiosities, supplies passing vessels with fresh water and provisions. The population is considerable, but its amount is not known.
ANJOU, one of the thirty-six ancient provinces of France, approximately equivalent to the modern department of Maine and Loire. It was bounded on the N. by Maine, which separated it from Normandy; E. by Touraine; S. by Poitou; and W. by Brittany. It was, as Mr Freeman has remarked, altogether lacking in geographical individuality, and owed its somewhat prominent position in history to the character and fortunes of its counts and dukes. By the ancient chronicler of Anjou the origin of the countship is referred to a certain Tertullus, who owed his elevation from an humble rank to Charles the Bald; but the first person history lays hold of is Ingelgar, who lived about 870, and obtained possession of that portion of the subsequent province which lies between the Maine and the Mayenne. He was followed in succession by Fulk the Red (888); Fulk the Good (938), author of the proverb that an unlettered king is a crowned ass; Geoffrey Grisegonelle, or Grey-Tunic (958); Fulk Nerra, or the Black, famous as a warrior, and on account of his pilgrim ages, by way of penance, to the Holy Sepulchre; Geoffrey Martel, a vigorous but unsuccessful opponent of William the Conqueror; his nephews, Geoffrey the Bearded and Fulk Rechin, from the latter of whom we have an interesting historical fragment, giving an account of his ancestors and defending his own conduct (D'Achéry, Spicilegium, folio edition, vol. iii.); Fulk Nerra II.; and Geoffrey Plantagenet, who united Anjou and Maine, and—by his marriage with Matilda of England—Normandy also into one dominion. When his son became (1154) king of England, as Henry II., these various provinces passed into the power of the English crown, but were forfeited by King John (1204) to Philip Augustus of France. Henry III. demanded restitution, but did little in support of his demand; and Anjou soon passed into the hands of Philip, son of Louis VIII., and from him to Charles, the brother of Louis, who by his exploits in Italy made the name of Charles of Anjou famous, and established the house of Anjou on the throne of Naples (1266–1285). His son, Charles II., king of Naples, nicknamed il Zoppo, or the Lame, gave the investiture of Anjou and Maine to his son-in-law, Charles of Valois, younger son of Philip the Bold; and from 1290 the counts of Valois took the title of. dukes of Anjou and counts of Maine. In 1328 the son of Charles of Valois became king of France, as Philip VI., and united the duchy of Anjou to the crown. King John in 1356 bestowed it on his son Louis. The Anjou line ended in the unfortunate René (noticed below), who was deprived of his duchy by Louis XI. of France, or, more strictly, in his brother Charles, who died in 1481. Meanwhile old Rene s daughter Margaret, who was made of sterner stuff than her father, was battling with more than a woman s valour for the rights of her son in England. From this time onward the title of duke of Anjou has been borne, without implying any territorial sovereignty, by Charles VIII. of France, by each of the four sons of Henry II., by the second son of Henry IV,, by the two sons of Louis XIV., by his grandson (Philip V. of Spain), and by his great-grandson (Louis XV.) Charles, a nephew of Charles of Naples, obtained the throne of Hungary in 1308, and was succeeded by his son Louis the Great, who also became king of Poland; but the same fatality of failure in the male line also befell this branch of the house of Anjou. (See Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. ii. p. 267; D Achery, Spicilegium, vol. iii.)
