This paper shifts the focus away from Paris and to the decades preceding 1259, as Plantagenet continental interests were being dramatically reshuffled. In 1242, on the banks of the River Charente, King Henry III suffered a heavy military defeat at the hands of Louis IX. The king of England, who then retreated to Bordeaux, went on to spend a full year in Gascony, only sailing back to England in September 1243.6 During this time, he actively engaged in the administration of his province, issuing mandates on a daily basis and intervening, or – from a Gascon perspective – interfering in the affairs of the duchy as never before. The following study builds on the reconfiguration of the ‘Angevin’ empire between the loss of Poitou in 1224 and the Treaty of Paris examined by Robin Studd.