The reigns of the first three Angevin kings – Henry II, Richard I, and John – provide the first opportunity to look in some documentary detail at the impact of the English on the countries we know as Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The story is, in part, one of military conquest and confrontation, as the English tightened their grip on Wales and for the first time (in 1169-70) began to bring Ireland under their control. But it is also a story of economic, cultural, and institutional change, as the impact of English models and practices came into contact with native societies, cultures, and polities. The results could range from close imitation (as in the governance and law of Scotland) to an entrenched duality of cultures (as in Wales and Ireland). The sources for studying these processes are exceptionally rewarding on the English side: notably the splendid accounts of the Welsh and of the conquest of Ireland by the irrepressible Gerald of Wales and a vivid and lively Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland. These English sources can be illuminatingly complemented by Irish, Welsh, and Scottish annals and poetry. The secondary reading for this subject is also now rich and approachable.