In 1883, Albert Hauck wrote in the preface to his study on the elections under Merovingian kings that there was hardly a need to explain the general interest of this work. He referred to the contemporary struggle between state and church in Germany. Fifty years later, in 1933, Geoffrey Barraclough's statement on medieval ecclesiastical elections also bears the mark of his time. He declared that ‘it is striking enough that the Church had the wisdom to reject the democratic fallacy of counting heads, and to attempt an estimate of the intelligence and enlightened good faith of the voters’. In focusing on law, the work of pressure groups, and a change of regime, this study, too, represents dominant features of its time. Yet it is hoped that the following pages do some justice to the episcopal elections in Normandy and Greater Anjou between c. 1140 and c. 1230 and contribute to a better understanding of the issues discussed.

Work on this project started as a D.Phil. thesis at Oxford University in 1999 and ever since I have enjoyed the support of a great number of people and institutions. I owe the greatest debt to my supervisor, Dr Jean Dunbabin. Always supportive and resourceful in advice, she also undertook the laborious and occasionally painful work to rescue the language of this book from too much German input.