[5] The empire was established by Henry II of England, who succeeded his father Geoffrey as Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou (from the latter of which the term Angevin is derived).

[8] The adoption of the Angevin Empire label marked a re-evaluation of the times, considering that both English and French influence spread throughout the dominion in the half-century during which the union lasted.

[14] At its largest extent, the Angevin Empire consisted of the Kingdom of England, the Lordship of Ireland which was considered illegitimate since Henry II broke the treaty of Windsor, the duchies of Normandy (which included the Channel Islands), Gascony and Aquitaine,[15] as well as of the counties of Anjou, Poitou, Maine, Touraine, Saintonge, La Marche, Périgord, Limousin, Nantes and Quercy.

This is because England and Normandy were home to more officials to collect taxes and, unlike Aquitaine, local lords were unable to mint their own coins, allowing the Angevin kings to control the economy from their administrative base of Chinon.

From the Pyrenees northwards the whole countryside is irrigated by the River Garonne and other streams, indeed it is from these life-giving waters that the province takes its name.The Capetian kings did not record such incomes, although the royal principality was more centralized under Louis VII and Philip II than it had been under Hugh Capet or Robert the Pious.

The reason is that as their fixed returns yielded less they took care to make up the total by extraordinary levies, relying more and more on these than on the ordinary sources of revenue.Petit Dutailli had commented that: "Richard maintained a superiority in resources which would have given him the opportunity, had he lived, to crush his rival."

Henry used his paternal inheritance to take the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of England and then tried to establish an alliance with Anjou by marrying his only legitimate son, William, to Fulk the Younger's daughter, Matilda.

There had been only one occurrence of a medieval European queen regnant before, Urraca of León and Castile, and it was not an encouraging precedent; nevertheless, in January 1127 the Anglo-Normans barons and prelates recognized Matilda as heiress to the throne in an oath.

[61] This situation quickly began to shift when, in September, Geoffrey died and Henry inherited his position as Count of Anjou, with rule also over Touraine and Maine.

Stephen gave up the struggle by ratifying the Treaty of Winchester, making Henry his heir on condition that the landed possessions of his family were guaranteed in England and France—the same terms Matilda had previously refused after her victory at Lincoln.

[70] In the earlier years of his reign, Henry II claimed further lands and worked on the creation of a ring of vassal states as buffers, especially around England and Normandy.

[76] He displayed all the wealth the Angevins could provide and, according to William Fitzstephen, a clerk and companion of Becket, a Frenchman exclaimed "If the Chancellor of England travels in such splendor, what must the king be?

[85] Conan had been too young to succeed his grandfather in 1148, but he became Henry II's perfect candidate to become Duke of Brittany on Bertha's death, as his English holdings as Earl of Richmond meant he would be easier to control.

There is no evidence that Henry II got a dispensation from the pope this time, as William of Newburgh put it, "prudently considering it was the king of England who had the better of the argument by reason of his much greater power.

As a part of the coalition set by Louis VII, William the Lion first invaded Northumberland in 1173 and then again in 1174, as a result he was captured near Alnwick and had to sign the tough Treaty of Falaise.

According to the Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogion, Henry raised "a mighty host of the picked warriors of England and Normandy and Flanders and Anjou and Gascony and Scotland" in order to "carry into bondage and to destroy all the Britons".

[109] It was strategically important, sitting between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, dominating regional trade and road networks that included significant towns such as Narbonne, Cahors, Albi, Nîmes and Carcassonne.

Henry finally provoked Becket's murder in 1170 by announcing, "What miserable traitors have I nourished in my household who led their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk!

The man who would later become Philip's main rival, the future Richard I, had administered Aquitaine since 1175 but his policy of centralisation of the Aquitanian government had grown unpopular in the eastern part of the Duchy, notably Périgord and Limousin.

[122] If Richard was unpopular in Aquitaine though, Philip was equally disliked by his contemporaries with comments describing him as: astute, manipulative, calculating, penurious and ungallant ruler.

Joined by Philip II, Count Raymond V of Toulouse, and Duke Hugh III of Burgundy, Henry died suddenly of a fatal illness in 1183, saving Richard's position.

He suspected Count Raymond would expand his lands into Aquitaine so he allied with Sancho VI the Wise, the King of Navarre, by marrying his daughter, Berengaria, to counter the threat.

[137] King Richard yielded Cyprus and left the Holy Land over a year later than Philip in October 1192, and possibly could have retrieved his empire intact had he reached France soon after.

[150] The first part of this war was difficult for Richard who suffered several setbacks, as Philip II was, as described by John Gillingham, "a shrewd politician and a competent soldier.

Baldwin IV was invading Artois and captured Saint-Omer while Richard I was campaigning in Berry and inflicted a severe defeat on Philip II at Gisors, close to Paris.

[158] From a position of strength, John was able to go on the offensive, and he won William des Roches, Arthur's candidate for the Angevin seneschal, to his cause following an incident with Philip.

[159] William des Roches also brought Arthur and his mother, Constance, as prisoners to Le Mans on 22 September 1199, and the succession appeared to have been secured in favour of John.

[186] In August, only Dover, Lincoln, and Windsor remained loyal to John in the east, and Alexander II of Scotland travelled to Canterbury to pay homage to Louis.

[186] Louis was defeated twice following John's death in 1217, in Lincoln in May, and at Sandwich in August, resulting in his withdrawal from the claim on the throne and England with the Treaty of Lambeth in September.

[192] Richard I's personal arms, three golden lions passant guardant on a red field, continue to appear in most subsequent English royal heraldry, and in variations on the flags of both Normandy and Aquitaine.