1.   Angevin interests lay in the support of the Welfs as the strongest power in north Germany, who might help them to maintain the crumbling Angevin empire.

2.   Bush was also unable to name the leader of Chechnya, long one of the diciest pieces of the crumbling Soviet empire.

3.   Eagling had come across crumbling empires before.

4.   The distinction is probably lost on Francois and the dozen plainclothes gunmen guarding his crumbling empire.

5.   Backers claim it was the only way to keep the crumbling Ferruzzi empire in Italian hands.

6.   Backers claim the merger is the only way to keep the crumbling Ferruzzi empire in Italian hands.

7.   Under the treaty Spain handed over Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the last vestiges of its already crumbling empire.