In the course of producing a work of this type an author will happily incur many debts which it is a pleasure to acknowledge. My first words of gratitude are for Sir James Holt, who supervised the doctoral thesis that forms the basis of the present work. His influence upon my understanding of the dynamics of the Angevin ‘empire’ will be apparent throughout the chapters below. David Luscombe, as series editor, and Edmund King both kindly read the entire manuscript as it was prepared for publication, and their comments and encouragement have been of immense value. I am similarly grateful to Catherine Holmes for her comments upon the introduction. Three other people deserve my particular thanks. Nicholas Vincent drew my attention to countless manuscripts which he had discovered in French and British archives. Kathleen Thompson and Judith Everard generously shared their knowledge of Anglo-French and Breton history respectively with me. I also wish to thank the following historians for sending me offprints or unpublished research, or for their guidance, suggestions, or support: Martin Aurell, David Bates, Pierre Bauduin, Maïté Billoré, Christine Carpenter, David Crouch, Marc-Antoine Dor, John Gillingham, Judith Green, Julian Haseldine, Matthew Innes, the late Tom Keefe, Rosamond McKitterick, Vincent Moss, John Morrill, Béatrice Poulle, Sandra Raban, Jonathan Steinberg and Elisabeth Van Houts. I am much obliged to William Davies of Cambridge University Press for his patience while awaiting the arrival of a much-delayed text.