ABSTRACT
The historian of the Gapetians, Robert-Henri Bautier, observes that there was never an Angevin 'empire', only 'an odd conglomeration of diverse powers over territories of widely differing status'. The Angevin block of lands lacked an attribute associated with a successful pre-modern 'hegemonic' empire, to use the language of modern military historians. The Angevin 'empire', had no central zone in a geographical, economic or administrative sense from which to overawe outlying subject states. England's unity, assured by geography and history long before the Angevin kings' accession, enabled them to rule in an authoritarian, if not absolutist manner even when absent for long periods. Much of the Angevin monarch's might came from exploitation of their tenurial relationship with the English baronage, imposing ever heavier financial burdens as 'feudal' obligations. The Angevins exercised control over inheritance of baronies, and they loaded down the barons with feudal payments, often assessed arbitrarily, that left them heavily in debt to the king.
