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The reign of Joanna I is considered a moment of disintegration of the Angevin state, of its administrative practices, its jurisdiction, and its control of the elites. But her methods were not new: they dated back to the time of Charles II. Since Robert’s reign, a renewal of the ties between the Angevin state and local oligarchies and a change of political perspective had taken place. The gradual and chaotic establishment of new relations with the local oligarchy, in particular the urban elites—a process which is fairly well documented for the Provençal regions (charters, registers of officers, provisions for reform, correspondence with the papacy)—should be examined more closely. In these new power relations, great officers played a central role, both for their backgrounds and for their material interests. The latter were linked to an economic and demographic situation that led this social group to reconsider its strategies concerning annuities and income supporting its hegemony. My aim is to rethink the construction of the state, beyond the taxonomies that led to a scale of values designed to measure their degree of perfection and completion.