The pleasantest part of a book to compose is indubitably the preface in which one has the opportunity to thank people for the help which they have given. Since this volume has been several years in the making, my thanks span a considerable period of time and more than one country. Latterly, it was accepted as a dissertation by the Freie Universität Berlin and I should like to thank most heartily Professor Wolfgang von Stromer, both for his help and advice and for the stimulus provided by the pages of his Oberdeutsche Hochfinanz, a study of finance and politics in the same period in Germany. I am most grateful, too, to the Dean, Professor Kurze, and the History Faculty, for the trouble which they have taken in accepting this work. In its early stages, when we were together researching in the Public Record Office, Dr Seymour Phillips and Dr J. Maddicott were most generous in help and advice. In reading the completed manuscript I am obliged to Dr Brian Howells, whose criticism of an early draft was most helpful, to Professor P. Wolff of Toulouse for his pertinent remarks on the chapter relating to France and, above all, to Professor R. R. Davies, who greatly improved both its English and its clarity and saved me from falling into many pit-holes in Wales and elsewhere. I wish also to thank my husband for his endless enthusiasm for this book and for his aid as critic and corrector.