As the previous chapter has shown, the aspirations of the frontier dynasties could be very diverse, and relations with the dukes of Normandy varied considerably from lineage to lineage. Relations between the Norman rulers and neighbouring princes were also liable to fluctuate. Consequently, any attempt to understand the history of the Norman frontier regions requires an examination of the changing circumstances which the local magnates confronted and to which they had to adapt. The next four chapters are devoted to the course of political events in the duchy's outermost regions, where ducal power rubbed shoulders with other princely and magnate interests, concentrating upon four main periods: the reign of Henry I, the precursor to the Angevin conquest; the establishment and maintenance of Angevin rule under Geoffrey and Henry Plantagenet; the erosion and collapse of Angevin power under Henry's sons; and the impact of the Capetian conquest upon the Norman borderlands.

THE CONTEXT OF HENRY I'S REIGN

On 1 December 1135, as he lay dying at his castle of Lyons-la-Forêt, Henry I of England might well have reflected that he was fated to spend his final moments close to the unruliest parts of all his broad dominions. Even in the last months of his life the troubles of the Norman marches, which had lain dormant since Henry's brutal repression of Waleran of Meulan's rebellion in 1124, had returned to haunt him, as the king's son-in-law Geoffrey of Anjou conspired with Talvas and Roger de Tosny against him.