And it was a perfect time to come into this colossal inheritance. For the mid-12th century really was the springtime of the Middle Ages. Literacy and learning were spreading from the cathedral schools in Paris and Canterbury. Monasteries were being founded at a record pace, and although they were supposed to be purged of worldliness, before long they were the engines of economic power, producers of wool, masters of the mills and rivers. So if this was indeed springtime, Henry and Eleanor had just got themselves the fattest and the ripest fruit. Still, it's unlikely they ever thought of it as a true empire in the Roman sense of a single realm. Its many regions were all treated separately, according to their customs. And while Westminster was increasingly at the heart of administration, Rouen in Normandy, Chinon in Anjou and Poitiers in Aquitaine were just as important.


继承如此庞大的财富，任谁都会欢欣喜悦，而十二世纪中叶确实是中世纪的春天，文化的风潮始于巴黎，及坎特伯雷的教堂学校，迅速席卷开来，修道院如雨后春笋般建立起来。尽管它们应该是远离世俗的清静之地，而在很久以前，它们却是国家经济的带动者。羊毛的生产者，磨坊与河流的所有者。在那个春光明媚的时代，亨利和埃莉诺刚刚摘得了最为成熟饱满的果实。他们并没有如同罗马统治者那样，视其为绝对统一的帝国，根据各地的习俗，很多地方也受到区别对待，当威斯敏斯特逐渐地成为权力机构的中心。诺曼底的鲁昂，安茹的希侬，阿基坦的普瓦捷也还是同样重要。