The castle at Mirebeau, said to have been left by Count Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou to his second son and namesake.

Mirebeau lies between Le Touet and La Vienne rivers, and played an important part in the lives of the Plantagenet family. After the old count's death, young Geoffrey tried to keep his older brother Henry from retaining Anjou as well as Normandy. In the summer of 1156, Henry, now the new king of England came back to Anjou, put down the rebellioin fostered by Geoffrey and took over Mirebeau for himself.

Eventually the castle was to arouse another dispute between brothers; Henry II proposed that it, with two others, should be part of his son John's inheritance, while the Young King fought bitterly to retain all three castles for himself.

Mirebeau became a symbol of the problems Henry continued to have with his children, and it was mentioned by name in a song written by the troubadour, Bertrand de Born ...'between Poitiers and L'Ile-Bouchard and Mirebeau and Loudon and Chinon...'

After John became king, he fought Philip Augustus at Mirebeau in 1202. It was their first real contest and John won a clear victory, rescuing his mother Eleanor, who had been trapped in the castle by the enemy, and capturing most of Philip's allies and barons. It was a shining light in what was to be a story of lost inheritance and defeat.