This ground-breaking and substantive new history considers Richard's reign from a perspective that is as much French as English. Viewing the king himself as a great military commander, it also shows him as a more competent administrator than previously acknowledged. Modern revisionist work allows the authors to correct many misconceptions about Richard's French possessions, and recent scholarship on his rival, Philip Augustus, permits examination of the formidable threat that the resurgent Capetian monarchy represented.Editors Preface.......................................................................................... Vll Authors' Preface .......................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations ................................................................................... xi The historians' balance-sheet ............................................................... 1 2 The character of the Angevin 'empire' ............................................. 17 3 The problem of Philip Augustus and growing French royal power .............................................................. 41 4 Richard's apprenticeship: count of Poitou 1172-89 ......................... 57 5 Richard's accession and preparations for the Third Crusade .......... 72 6 Richard's governance of England prior to departure on crusade 7 The government of England during the Third Crusade and German captivity ...................................................................... 110 8 The government of England under Hubert Walter and Geoffrey fitz Peter ............................................................................ 141 9 The duchy of Normandy ................................................................. 163 10 Greater Anjou .................................................................................. lƒ$