Hugh M. Thomas - Power and Pleasure: Court Life under King John, 1199-1216

I have incurred many debts in the course of researching and writing this book and it is my pleasure to acknowledge them here. Throughout my career, the University of Miami has been very supportive of scholarly research and I have greatly benefited in this project as in earlier ones. I carried out some of the earliest research and writing during a semesters teaching relief through the universitys Center for the Humanities, where the other fellows provided useful feedback on my first chapter. Later I received a sabbatical that greatly speeded work on the project. The provosts office and the College of Arts and Sciences provided money for summer research trips, the latter through awarding me a Cooper Fellowship. A&S also provided money for book production costs, including paying for the creation of maps and image reproduction rights. A Fulbright Fellowship, supplemented by yet more funds from A&S, allowed me to spend a wonderful term at Kings College, London, where David Carpenter and other members of the history department and medieval studies welcomed me warmly.

The staffs of the Richter Library at the University of Miami, the British Library, the Institute of Historical Research, and the National Archives in Kew all helped me carry out my research. Jorge Alejandro Quintela Fernandez made two maps for the book. Martha Schulman helped me tighten and improve the prose throughout. Peter Dunn, Historic England, The National Trust, The Society of Antiquaries, the provost and fellows of Eton College, and Oxford University Press all gave permission to reproduce images. Many individual scholars also helped me with this project. My colleagues at the University of Miami continue to provide a supportive atmosphere and have provided feedback on early drafts through various seminars. Nicholas Vincent provided me with transcripts of unpublished charters of John and his predecessors from the Angevin Acta project. Ralph Turner gave me helpful notes and references from his own work and allowed me to use an unpublished article on Johns illegitimate children. Jo Edge also directed me to some good references. Lars Kjr provided me with a copy of his book in advance of publication and Ryan Kemp supplied me with an unpublished article. Stephen Mileson allowed me to use a map he had compiled and directed me to a useful article I had not read. Oliver Creighton, Laura Gianetti, John Gillingham, Leonie Hicks, Ben Jervis, Frdrique Lachaud, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Joe Snyder have read parts of the manuscript. Jesse Izzo read the whole thing, as did David Carpenter, who also shared a chapter on Henry IIIs court in advance of publication. The anonymous readers of the original proposal to Oxford University Press helped set me on the right track. Bjorn Weiler, who read the final manuscript for the Press, caught errors, supplied much new bibliography, made many useful suggestions to revise the manuscript, and generally helped me make many improvements. Terka Acton first contacted me from OUP about this project and Stephanie Ireland, Cathryn Steele, Katie Bishop, and Sally Evans-Darby helped shepherd it along. All this help made this book much better than it would have been otherwise, and for that I am very grateful.