History of the Germans

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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

Ep. 232: The Ottomans – From Mehmet the Conqueror to Selim the Grim (1444-1520)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:00 +0100

These last dozen or so episodes we have examined the genesis of two of the three major strategic preoccupations of the Habsburg empire, the rivalry with the French kings and the relationship with the imperial princes. Today we will look at the build-up of the third major strategic challenge to the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottomans. One can argue, and many have, that the threat of an Ottoman invasion in the 1520s and 1530s prevented the emperor Charles V from clamping down on the protestants in the empire. By the time the border had been stabilised and the Habsburgs could focus again on the religious and political changes in the German lands, it was too late to reverse events. There is an element of irony here that I will refrain from elaborating on.

When Constantinople fell in 1453, the Christian nations of Western Europe assumed that they could regain the ancient capital of Byzantium and even Jerusalem if only they were united under the crusading banner. By the time Suleiman the Magnificent appeared before Belgrade in 1521, that had become inconceivable. The Christian nations, and in particular the Habsburgs were on their back foot.

So, what had happened in these 70 years that made the Ottoman armies appear unbeatable?

As always:

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Ep. 231: Maximilian I (1493-1519) - Marrying Bohemia and Hungary

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:00:00 +0100

You have almost certainly seen the image in today’s episode artwork before. It is a family portrait showing Maximilian, his first wife Marie of Burgundy, his son, Philip the Handsome and three children. When Bernhard Strigel painted this image in around the year 1516, Philip the Handsome was already dead for 10 years and Marie of Burgundy had gone more than 30 years before. Then there are the inscriptions over the heads of these well-known and easily identifiable figures. There is a lot of Habsburg chin on show here. But they do not describe Maximilian as emperor, but as Cleophas, blood brother of Joseph, husband of the divine Virgin Mary, Marie of Burgundy is Mary Cleophas, sister of the Virgin Mary, and Philip the Handsome as James the Lesser, apostle and son of the other two. Two of the three little boys are named as Joseph the Just and Simon the Zealot, the cousin of the lord. Who are these saints? Well they do appear in the bible, so they are real, but in very minor roles. One of them was even rejected as an apostle. But they do have something special, they are Jesus’ aunt, uncle, nephews and cousin. And since he had died without offspring, his heirs. So this is a picture about succession and inheritance, not necessarily about family love.

Ok, making the emperor the brother in law of Joseph is quite odd already, but let’s talk about the three children. They were all alive when this picture was painted and roughly the age they are depicted as. The one in the middle is Charles, the future emperor Charles V. And the little boy cuddling up to Maximilian is his brother Ferdinand, the future emperor Ferdinand I., again identified as holy nephew and cousin. But who is the third child? Well, that is Louis, the future king Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia, son of king Vladislav II and his French wife Anne de Foix. So no close blood relation. What does he do in one of the most famous Habsburg family portraits? It must have something to do with succession and inheritance.

That is indeed what we are going to talk about today. Little Louis will be the key to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this agglomeration of lands centered around Austria, Czechia and Hungary that stayed or was made to stay together for nearly 400 years.

As always:

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Ep.230: Margaret of Austria (1480-1530) - The League of Cambrai

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0100

Another Thursday and another episode dealing with another epic fail of our hero, Maximilian I. But despite a military campaign that once again failed for all the usual reasons, no money, no strategy, no luck, this time he is rescued not by a marriage or imperial princes suddenly inflicted with an unlikely case of backbone, but by his daughter, Margaret, archduchess of Austria, dowager duchess of Savoy and governor of the Netherlands.

In an age that featured a number of impressive women, from Caterina Sforza to Elisabeth I, Margaret may be lesser known, but could easily hold her own amongst such illustrious company. She brought together an alliance that rescued her father’s lands, re-established imperial power in Northern Italy and brought the mighty republic of Venice almost to collapse. And then did it again, again and once more.

Meanwhile her father first made himself emperor in the least impressive ceremony ever, before throwing his hat in the ring to become – tat, tat, taa – the pope.

Ep. 229: Joanna the (not?) Mad (1504-1555) - How the Habsburgs gained Spain

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0100

“Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube" – ‘Let others wage war; thou, happy Austria, marry’ is one of the few terms that almost anyone with a cursory interest in European history knows, only rivalled by the Voltaire quote thou shall not utter in my presence ever. It evokes the image of a handsome alpine boy full of charm and apple strudel wooing some princess into peacefully handing over the richest lands is Europe. And this narrative of peaceful transition to a benign dynasty is another one of the great propaganda successes of the house of Habsburg.

The saying was attributed to Matthias Corvinus, the king of Hungary who had once occupied Vienna, then to the humanist Ulrich von Hutten, but first evidence of its use dates back to 1654, more than 150 years after the famous marriages that made an empire. From 1680 it was read out at Habsburg weddings to emphasise the peaceful nature of its rulers.

It definitely did not originate in the days of Maximilian I when all these dynastic alliances were formed and bore fruit. Talking about gentle and peaceful transition was preposterous against the backdrop of a 15 -year long war over the succession to the grand Dukes of Burgundy, and the roller coaster ride that is today’s topic, the way the Habsburgs acquired the crown of Spain.

As always:

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Ep. 228: Maximilian I (1493-1519) - The Princes and the Emperor.

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0100

If there was one group that consistently thwarted Maximilian’s grand plans for world domination, it was the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He had given in to their demands for Imperial Reform, had granted the Reichstag far reaching powers, had established the Reichskammergericht as a law court independent of imperial authority and had announced the much longed for ban on feuding. But did the princes, counts, knights and cities hold up their end of the bargain and paid him taxes to raise the armies needed to defend the borders of the empire – well you bet.

They left him hanging before Livorno, they collected berries instead of fighting in the Swiss war, and – spoiler alert – they will not raise a little finger to help Ludovioco il Moro to regain his duchy of Milan, even though Milan had been an imperial fief since the days of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. No money, no soldiers, nothing.

As always:

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Ep. 227: Landsknechte vs. Swiss Mercenaries – The Swabian (Swiss) War of 1499

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0100

Why are the Swiss called the Swiss? After all, Schwyz in only of 26 cantons, and not one of the largest ones. How did the proud and prosperous citizens of Zurich or Berne, mighty city states in their own right, decide they wanted to be named after a mountainous region largely inhabited by peasants tending to their gorgeous brown cattle, the Braunvieh. They even called their national airline Swissair, until my former colleagues at McKinsey let the air out of that one.

So, why Swiss? The answer goes back to today’s topic, a war that the Swiss call the Schwabenkreig or Swabian War. This war played a massive role in Swiss historiography, and its main battles at the Caven and at Dornach was mentioned in the same breath as Morgarten and Sempach. It was seen as the moment when Switzerland de facto exited the Holy Roman Empire and began ploughing its own furrow in European history. Meanwhile in Germany, this war that we called the Schweizerkreig or Swiss War is largely forgotten amongst the hundreds of other military conflicts.

It was also the first of many contests between the two formidable fighting forces of the Renaissance, the Swiss Reisläufer and the German Landsknechte. These soldiers of fortune have percolated the national consciousness on both sides, their fanciful dress depicted in art on both sides of the Rhine and still providing one of Rome’s most instagrammable photo opportunities.

That on top of the usual incompetence and skullduggery should be incentive enough to listen to this episode.

As always:

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Ep. 226: Maximilian I (1493-1519) - A Grand Plan for a Great War

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0100

Europe's political landscape is shifting fundamentally. No longer are wars fought between kings and their vassals, and emperors against popes - it is all about the balance of power. and this balaance is firmly out of whack. The largest, richest and most populous part of Europe, the empire that still formally included Italy, the Low Countries, the Swiss Confederation, Bohemia and Burgundy, was also its politically weakest entity, whilst the kings of France leveraged their smaller but more coherent state into European dominance.

The struggle between France and its neighbours with england looking on was to become the dominant political pattern of Western European politics for 250 or arguable 350 years.

Maximilian has a Grand Plan that could have nipped these centuries of death and destruction in the bud. But he did not...

Karl Marx once said that history repeates itself twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. he was wrong on many (not all) things. This one repeats not twice but ten, if not dozens of times, but first as farce and then as tragedy...

Enjoy the ride..

As always:

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Manchester University Press - Law, society and political culture in late medieval and Reformation Germany

The Imperial Reform of 1495 with Prof. Duncan Hardy

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0100

Prof Duncan Hardy is one of the leading experts in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and one of his main topics is the Imperial reform of 1495, making him the ideal guest for our show.

In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire he tries to define what the Holy Roman Empire was a question we will almost certainly spend quite some time discussing today.

His forthcoming book, which he had so kindly sent me an advance copy, should be familiar to you all, since I do use it as a source for the show. It is titled Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany and contains a large number of edited and translated primary sources illustrating German history circa 1350 to 1550.

As a special treat, listeners to the Hstory of the Germans can order the book at Manchester University press with a 30% discount. The discount code is mentioned at the end of teh interview, so listen out. You can order ithere:

Duncan has a PHD from Oxford University, fellowships from Cambridge, Erfurt and Bielefeld and currently teaches at the University of Central Florida.

And he is a fellow listener of the show. So this will be the time where all my mistakes and random speculations will be dragged into the glare of academic scrutiny.

As always:

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Ep. 225: Imperial Reform 1495 - The Ewige Landfrieden (Public Peace) of 1495

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0100

Let me start today’s episode with some outrageous national stereotypes. If an Englishman is disappointed with the way the affairs of state are conducted, he writes a letter to his member of Parliament. A Frenchman in that same situation rents a tractor and dumps manure outside the Palais d’Elysee. A German threatens to file a lawsuit with the constitutional court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht.

Where did the Germans pick up the belief that courts and the law will protect them against government overreach? Sure, 19th and early 20th century judges had on occasion stood up to the Kaiser’s administration and the Grundgesetz, the liberal constitution of 1949, had become a cornerstone of our national identity following the comprehensive loss of moral standing.

But there is also a long strain that goes back to the Holy Roman Empire and the two imperial courts, the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat. These courts have a bad reputation, not only because Johan Wolfgang von Goethe saw it fit to ridicule his former place of work. However, not everyone shared this negative perspective. Many social groups down to mere commoners relied on these independent judges to protect their life and property against rapacious princes.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

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Ep. 224: Imperial Reform 1495 – The Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0100

I am afraid today’s episode is not your usual swordplay and skullduggery. What we are looking at today is the Reichstag as it operated throughout the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1803. Sounds a bit like dour constitutional law, but bear with me.

We will look at a couple of classic tropes, like, whether the empire consisted of more than 300 sovereign states who could do whatever they wanted, whether the Reichstag was a talking shop hat never did anything except stopping the emperor from becoming a proper monarch. And, as usual, we will talk about money and printing, and why German politician speeches are invariably long on fact and short on rhetoric.

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Ep. 223: Imperial Reform 1495 – The Diet of Worms

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0100

We are now 7 episodes into the action-packed life of emperor Maximilian and he is only 35 years old. We still have another 24 years to go and they will be again full of wars, outlandish schemes, including one where he wants to make himself pope and of course marriages that create an empire. But if you look into German history schoolbooks, the thing that Maximilian is most famous for is what we will discuss today, the Imperial reforms that start in earnest in 1495 and will go through some iterations, before being largely completed in 1555.

Of the 1495 reforms, the Ewige Landfrieden is the most impactful. And it begins as follows quote:

“..from this moment on, no person of whatever rank, status, or condition shall make war on others, or rob, declare feud with, invade, or besiege them, or help anyone else to do so in person or through servitors; or violently occupy any castle, town, market, fortress, village, farmstead, or hamlet, or seize them illegally against another's will, or damage them with fire or in any other way, or assist by word or deed or in any other way support or supply any perpetrators of such deeds, or knowingly harbor, house, feed, or give drink, aid, and comfort to such persons.”

That sounds great. Who could possibly disagree with that? Why did it take months and months of negotiations to agree this?

Let’s find out.

As always:

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Ep. 222: Maximilian I (1493-1519) – Italian Wars and Spanish Marriages

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0100

The world is a-changing. Maximilian I may still dream of the medieval universal empire where he will lead Christendom in an epic crusade to expel the Turks from the European mainland, even reconquering Jerusalem. Meanwhile his main adversary, king Charles VIII of France unleashed the fury of war in Italy, kicking off a struggle that would last for 50 years and replaced the medieval world of popes and emperors with a system based on the balance of powers.

In the near term, this expedition to conquer the kingdom of Naples triggered not only the outbreak of Syphilis, but also the double marriage between Habsburg and Spain that Maximilian did not want, but ended up being the second of the three marriages that created an empire.

Lots to get through, none of it boring..

As always:

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Ep. 221: Maximilian I (1493-1519) – Taking Back Austria and Tyrol

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0100

After 13 years of fighting in the Low Countries, Maximilian, the newly elected king of the Roman, returns home to a rammed full inbox. There is his cousin, the dissolute count Sigismund of Tyrol who is about to sell out the family fortune to the dukes of Bavaria. The king of Hungary is still occupying Vienna – and there is a new heiress out on the market, Anne of Brittanny.

Some of the issues he tackles together with his now seriously elderly father, the emperor Friedrich III, others are very much his own tasks. In the process Friedrich creates a structurally new political entity, the Swabian League, Maximilian builds a relationship with Jakob Fugger, the money man who will grease the cogs of the Habsburg empire, and once again they fight, one battle after another.

And despite tremendous success, this period from 1489 to 1493, ends with some epic humiliation, not in war, but in love. “No man on earth has ever been disgraced as I have been at the hands of the French” is how he summarised it.

Come along and watch as the plot thickens.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

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Ep. 220: Maximilian I (1493-1519) - The Burgundian Experience(s)

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0100

In this episode the 15-year long war over the Burgundian succession will come to its end. You may have thought it was done last time, but no. The revolutionary spirit of the Flemish cities is not yet broken and their most audacious move is still to come. And this time they are not going up against an archduke and regent, but against a newly elected king of the Romans.

Maximilian of Habsburg’s experience in Burgundy swung between moments of utter delight and happiness and depths of death, destruction and despair. It shaped this young duke who arrived aged 18 full of dreams of chivalry and left, aged 31 an battle hardened general with a clear view of where he wanted to take the empire. Get ready for the ultimate roller coaster.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

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ks15.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/2/29/IMSLP271191-PMLP67213-EsIstEn.mp3

Where To Go in Germany - Part 2

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 05:00:00 +0100

One of the legacies of the Holy roman empire is that Germany does not have just one place where everything happens, where politicians, entrepreneurs, bankers, artists, and actors travel on the same underground trains and eat at the same restaurants. Berlin is the capital with its political class of members of the Bundestag, journalists and lobbyist and at the same time a major gathering place for artists, musicians and thespians of all stripes and home to many tech startups. But the bankers are in Frankfurt, the headquarters of the major companies are in Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf and spread around everywhere. Several of the major publishing houses are in Hamburg, the private TV stations in Munich, but none of these places have a monopoly on any of these activities. There are banks headquartered in Munich and major corporates in Frankfurt, there is great theater in Düsseldorf, Dresden and Schwerin, there are world leading companies headquartered in tiny towns like Künzelsau.

And that cuts through to the major cultural sites. Though the quip that there were 365 states in the Holy Roman empire is vastly exaggerated, there were once a hundred capital cities, from splendid Dresden to tiny Hohenzollern-Hechingen, each with its princely residence, cathedral, grand monastery and theater. The great artists either travelled from court to court, leaving behind their works here or there, or stayed in one of the free imperial cities, operating large workshops.

Therefore what you cannot do in Germany is to go to one city and see all the major treasures the country has “collected” over the centuries, as you can do in the Louvre or the British Museum and the National Gallery. In Germany you have to move around, see one thing at the time, always in the knowledge that its significant counterpart is a few hundred miles north, south, east or west of you. This is one of the legacies of the medieval empire that Germany has in common with Italy.

And hence we are going through each of the Bundesländer trying to pick out one absolute must-see and one place where you are likely to encounter fewer people. And as we have covered 9 Bundesländer up to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern already, the next location we will have to get to is Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany’s most populous state.

Where To Go in Germany - Part 1

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 05:00:00 +0100

As you are still awaiting your presents, mine has already arrived, which is the chance to make this show. Despite all my occasional moaning and groaning about how much work it is, I have never enjoyed anything as much this. Who could have imagined that digging through often dusty books and articles and trying to put together an interesting and compelling narrative together for a discerning audience was that much fun. And the reason I can do all this is you, the listeners and patrons of the History of the Germans Podcast. So thank you, thank you and thank you.

Now let’s get to your Christmas present. I had promised you 5 to 10 places I particularly love and that are not on the standard itinerary for a trip to Germany. But when I shortlisted the places I particularly like, I noticed a bit of a pattern. They were all within a limited range, basically near places I had lived or that have some link to my family. That is human, but not exactly helpful. Because if you want to go to Germany and for some inexplicable reason choose not to spend all your time in either Hamburg or the sunniest, most beautiful and culinarily attractive area that is Baden, then this episode would be profoundly useless to you.

I clearly needed some discipline. The plan is now to go through each Bundesland and point out two places, one that is a genuine must-see, and the other a place fewer people go and that is still interesting in its own right. That makes it 32 locations plus 2 bonus ones where I will fully indulge myself by dragging you into deepest Tauberfranken. And I know that still leaves room for enormous bias, in particular when it comes to the larger or richer Lands. But note, this is my Podcast and a choose when I want to.

Music: Es ist ein Ros ensprungen (Michael Pretorius, 1609) arranged and performed by Michel Rondeau

Ep.219: Maximilian I (1493-1519) – The Fall of Ghent

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The words High and Late Middle Ages conjures up images of fog rising up over a field where knights in shining armor are trading blows with double handed swords, mighty bishops overseeing the construction of monumental cathedrals and peasants toiling on the land as serfs.

The reason we see it that way goes back to the chivalric literature that celebrated the aristocratic lifestyle where tournaments and poetry mattered more than the humdrum world of business.

But let’s just take a look back at the High Middle Ages, the time of Richard the Lionheart, Saint Louis and Frederick Barbarossa. Who controlled access to the great endeavor of the time, the conquest of the Holy Land? Who re-opened up the connections to the wider world, from Novgorod to India and China? Who were the most ferocious fighters who neither expected norgranted any quarter? Who had all the money?

These were the great cities of Italy, of Flanders, of Picardie and Provence and of the Holy Roman Empire. Verona under the Della Scala in the 14th century generated tax revenues twice as high as those of England, Venice capacity was sixty percent of what France could generate. And these cities fielded armies that, as we know, defeated the Holy Roman Emperors, even the most capable ones like Barbarossa and Frederick II time and time again. Their absolute dedication to fight to the end was evidenced by their extremely heavy and slow war carts, the Carroccios and by the bravery of the Flemish Militia at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. And the first European since Roman times to make to India and China wasn’t a Knight errant, but a Venetian merchant, nor were the vast lands on the Eastern side of the continent linked up by military force. The crusades, the grand project of the age was as much a venetian mercantile adventure as a religious pilgrimage, culminating in the sack of Constantinople in 1204.

What happened? Where did all these city states go? And why?

That is what we are going to discuss today, when we look at the showdown between Maximilian of Habsburg, widower of the last duchess of Burgundy and father of Philip, the universally recognised heir of the Low Countries and the Flemish cities, and specifically its largest, the city of Ghent.

As always:

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Ep. 218: Maximilian I (1493-1519) – The Death of Mary of Burgundy

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 05:00:00 +0100

By 1477 the rules of war that had been enshrined in the laws of chivalry are gone. The contest between the French and the Habsburgs over the inheritance of the Grand Dukes of the West gives us a foretaste of the things to come.

This war isn’t just fought between the opposing armies lining up for the decisive battle, but include wholesale starving out of the population, funding local uprisings and using propaganda and bribery to incite rebellions on the enemy’s homefront.

No one in 15th century Northern Europe is better at this new game than the industrious spider, king Louis XI of France. But a plucky 18-year old Austrian duke who had arrived in Ghent with not much more than the clothes on his back, abundant energy and a budding military genius gave him a run for his huge amounts of money, until tragedy struck.

Lots of deception, drama and devastation today….

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Ep. 217: Maximilian I (1493-1519) – When Mary Met Maxi

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 05:00:00 +0100

How often have you heard this phrase “Let others wage war; you, happy Austria, marry". It goes back to a whole string of marriages, first Maximilian of Habsburg married the heiress of the duchy of Burgundy, then his son married the heiress of Spain and finally his grandson married the heiress of Hungary and Bohemia. And bish bash bosh, an empire is created in the horizontal.

That is nice and neat but not exactly true. Sure the marriages happened, but not in the way at least I have been told. There was a lot more drama and a lot more agency than you think. For a whole six months Maximilian, the Last Knight in his shining armour, left Marie of Burgundy to fend off invasions, revolutions and conspiracies on her own. She was imprisoned, her ministers were hanged and she was told marriage to a 7-year old hunchback was her only wayout. How she managed through that and found herself in the very first truly passionate marriage we have heard about in the History of the Germans Podcast, well, that is what we are talking about today.

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Ep. 216: Maximilian I (1493-1519) - The Youth of an Emperor

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0100

What is it like to grow up the son of the emperor? For most of the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire we have covered so far, no idea. There are scarce reports about the way the princes grew up, safe for tales like the emperor Ludwig the Bavarian being kidnapped by his pet monkey. But now, as the Late Middle Ages make way for the Renaissance, we can see the boy who would be king at play, being fed by his nursemaid and pretending to be a knight at a tournament.

And even better, this emperor is Maximilian, the last Knight, one of the most iconic rulers of his time. Come along as we descend into the delights and terrors of his epic childhood, complete with mythmaking in drawings and woodcuts.

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Ep. 215: Charles the Bold (1433-1477) - Death in the Cold

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The rise of the Habsburgs to world domination pivots on one crucial moment, the marriage of Maximilian of Habsburg to Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold, last of the Grand Dukes of the West.

The usual story is that young Maximilian one day walked down the aisle of some splendid cathedral and was handed the richest principality in Europe on an jewel-encrusted golden platter by the father of the bride. All he then had to do was lie down and think of the Habsburg-Burgundian empire.

That is not quite what happened. When Maximilian arrived in Ghent in August 1477, his father-in-law lay dead in a ditch in Lorraine and large sways of ducal authority and income had gone. Within less than 3 years, 1474 to 1477 Charles the Bold had frittered away the mythical wealth of the Burgundian dukes. And not just that.

These years between 1474 and 1477 helped turn the medieval empire into the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. So please allow me to do this episode, even though very, very few of the protagonists or parties to the conflicts are Germans in the modern sense.

Ep. 214: Friedrich III (1440-1493) - The Siege that Woke up an Empire

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The venerable city of Neuss between Cologne and Düsseldorf was founded in 16 BC as a Roman army camp, making it one of the oldest in Germany. Its history is marked by the usual mix of feuds with its archepiscopal overlord and the establishment of a trading and pilgrimage hub.

Despite its Roman remains, the impressive church of St. Quirinius, and proximity to where I grew up, Neuss may never have appeared on the History of the Germans Podcast, had it not sustained a 10 month long siege in 1474/1475.

A siege, even a brutal and prolonged one is not sufficiently unusual to be included in the show. But this one merits almost a whole episode. Tales of the heroic defense of a small town on the Rhine against an overbearing foe intent on wiping out their way of life, coalesced the empire in a way it had not come together since the days of Frederick Barbarossa.

A watershed was crossed, under the leadership of an emperor who was more surprised than anyone to be put at the head of the resistance.

And that is not all, in this episode we will also cover the very first trial for war crimes ever that took place in another small town in the same year 1474.

Ep. 213: Friedrich III (1440-1493) – Duping the Duke of Burgundy

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0100

How long can an emperor not be an emperor. The official record stands at 25 years, that is how long Friedrich III had stayed out of the core areas of the Holy Roman Empire. That meant 25 ears of Imperial Diets without the presence of an Emperor, 25 years of stasis on the challenges of the time, the reform of the empire and the defense against the Ottoman expansion.

But sometime in the late 1460s the apathic emperor Friedrich III, dubbed the Imperial Arch Sleepy head awakes and does what he had never done before, something. And that something turned into a lot of things, some related toimperial reform, but the most significant something for European history was a marriage, well, an engagement for now, followed by a flight down the river Mosel away from the intended father of the bride.

Yes, it is that famous marriage, just not in the way you may have thought it happened.

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Ep. 212: Matthias Corvinus (1443-1490) – The Library of the Raven King

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Today we will talk a lot about Matthias Corvinus, the legendary renaissance king of Hungary whose library outshone that of the Medici in Florence and whose standing army was one of the greatest – and most expensive - military forces in 15th century Europe.

Why are we talking about a Hungarian ruler in a series about the Habsburgs? Trust me, there is a good reason beyond it being a fascinating life story.

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Ep. 211: Friedrich III (1440-1493) – Hitting Rock Bottom

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0100

It is November 1462 and the emperor Friedrich III and his young family are huddling together in the cellars of the Hofburg. The citizens of Vienna are shooting cannonballs into the 13th century castle, the walls are crumbling and any moment now the angry crowds may break in. Outside, supporting the insurrection stood his own brother, calling on him to give up.

Two crowns he has already lost and a third is about to be knocked off his head as the imperial princes had ganged up on him. Friedrich III was a man who firmly believed in ancient laws and traditions and was profoundly ill suited for a world where, as Picciolomini wrote in the last sentence of his history of the emperor Friedrich III quote: “We are of the opinion that empires are won by weapons, not by legal means!”

Friedrich III and with him the Habsburgs hit rock bottom, but how and why exactly he ended up there, and w hat that tells us about the profound changes during this period of history is what we are going to explore in this episode.

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Ep. 210: Ladislaus Postumus (1440-1457) - Lord of all, Ruler of No One

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Our journey today will take us away from the emperor Friedrich III who will spend most of the episode holed up in his castle at Wiener Neustadt, fretting and gardening.

Instead we look at the dramatic life of his younger cousin, Ladislaus Postumus, king of Hungary, king of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. This will take us back to Prague and its complex religious politics, to Vienna where the people fall for the alluring promises of a populist and to Hungary where one of the greatest generals of the age squares up against Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople.

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Ep. 209 – Friedrich III (1440-1493) - The First Habsburg Emperor

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Today we – and the Habsburgs – stride back on to the grand stage of European politics. Not with a titan of history or monarch whose long and fruitful reign resonates across the centuries, but with Friedrich III, better known as the Reichserzschlafmütze - the imperial arch sleepy head, Or perhaps more fittingly the imperial arch dawdler.

He ruled from 1440 to 1493, a total of 53 years - the longest reign of any Holy (or unholy) Roman Emperors (bar Constantine VIII). And yet, is also the most derided of reigns. In 1878 the Historian Georg Voigt sneered: “He was not remotely capable of handling such far-reaching politics, leaving Bohemia to its own devices, the Hungarian throne dispute to the helpless queen dowager, Austria to the arrogant dynasts, and the mercenary and robber bands.” “His light, simple hair, his long face with little movement, and his sedate gait betrayed a sluggish, deliberate nature, to which any enthusiasm, indeed any excitement, was alien. His love of peace has been endlessly mocked, but it was based on a completely dull sense of manhood and honour. No prince was so easily consoled by such insolent and repeated insults.” End quote.

Modern historians are kinder, praising his thorough education and dogged determination to preserve what was left of the majesty of the Holy Roman Emperors. But even they can’t avoid calling him flabby, underhand and happy to sell out his friends and allies.

Not exactly the kind of guy one wants to spend three or four episodes with. But this is history, not Hollywood. The nice guys do not usually win by yanking hard on the levers of destiny. More often than not tenacious men of low cunning, who weasel their way through, are the ones who are bringing the results.

And results he did get. At the end of his reign, the empire had changed profoundly. The open constitution of the Middle Ages had given way to a denser and more structured organization.

Why and how Friedrich III – despite all his many shortcomings - got to move the needle of German history is what we will look at over the next few weeks.

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Ep. 208: Albrecht II (1438-1439) - Boy Meets Princess, Boy Becomes King

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Last week we saw the family slowly climbing out of the hole that Friedrich IV of the Tyrol had dug them. But despite all these consolidation efforts, the family was still in the second league of European princely families.

Then, just 25 years after Ernst the Iron married down into minor Polish royalty, his first cousin once removed, Albrecht V became King of Hungary, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia, all in one single year, 1438.

How was that possible? Here is friend of the podcast, Eneas Silvio Piccolomini summarizing events: quote

Albrecht grew up and married Elizabeth, daughter of King Sigismund. She was a very beautiful woman, who lived with him most virtuously. After the Bohemians had turned to heresy and terrorised all their neighbours with wars, he alone, with great strength, protected Moravia and Austria, and the damage he inflicted upon the Bohemians was not less than the damage he took from them.

He was always in arms and, like the Bohemians, used waggon formations in battle. Making his soldiers undergo hard military training, Albrecht was the only one of all their neighbours whom the Bohemians feared, having been often defeated by him and put to flight.

When his father-in-law Sigismund died, the Hungarians soon called him to the kingship, and the Bohemians followed suit. Thus, in a very short time, he gained two large kingdoms. In the meantime, the electors of the Empire, having heard about Sigismund’s death, elected Albrecht as King of the Romans and sent their decree to him in Vienna.” End quote

Bish bash bosh – that is it, end of episode. Thanks for coming.

OK, maybe we have to go with Skipper from the Penguins of Madagascar and demand: Kowalski- Analysis

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Ep.207: Habsburg Dukes (1308-1437) - How the Habsburgs got their Chin

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0100

“The Habsburgs ruled half of Europe with a chin that entered the room five minutes before they did,” is one of those witticisms that made the 19th century so amusing. But by then the Habsburg jaw had long receded.

It had its heyday in the 16th and 17th century when people in Spain called out to the future emperor Charles V: “Your majesty, shut your mouth! The flies of this country are very insolent.” And when they looked at his later descendant, king Charles II who was probably the worst affected, they said, he was “more Habsburg than human”.

But where is the Habsburg Jaw from? The view repeated again and again in history books is that it came from Cymburga of Masovia, the wife of duke Ernst the Iron, but was she really responsible? Or was it something quite different that caused that deformation, and what has it to do with the prostration of duke Friedrich IV before emperor Sigismund in 1415?

That is what we are looking at in this episode.

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Ep. 206: Habsburg Dukes (1308-1437)– Division, Destruction and Degradation

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Success for a princely family in the Late Middle Ages has a lot to do with reproductive luck. Not having any offspring, in particular no male offspring is a bit of a knockout. But having too many sons that could be a major issue too.

And in 1386 the Habsburgs struggled with exactly that problem. Their territory was already divided between an Albertine and a Leopoldine line. But then Leopold had four sons, bringing the number of archdukes of Austria to six, which is five too many.

In this episode we will discuss how they managed to muck it up quite bad, in fact so bad, one of their number had to fall to his knees before the emperor, not once, not twice, but three times…

Albertiner

- Albrecht III (1349-1395)

o Albrecht IV (1377-1404)

§ Albrecht V (II) (1397-1439)

· Ladislaus Postumus (1440-1457)

Leopoldiner

- Leopold III (1351-1386)

o Wilhelm (1370-1406)

o Leopold IV (1371-1411)

o Ernst der Eiserne (1377-1424)

§ Friedrich V (III) (1415-1494)

§ Albrecht VI (1418-1463)

o Friedrich IV (1382-1439)

§ Siegismund der Munzreiche (1427-1496)

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Ep. 205: Habsburg Dukes (1308-1437) – Sempach, Birth of a Nation

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0100

On July 9th, 1386 in a field near the Sempach lake., the armies of archduke Leopold of Austria line up against the forces of the city of Lucerne and the men of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden

Much of what hads been told about this batte, the backstory of the Swiss Confederation and the objectives of the Habsburgs have been drenched in myth. Myths that are in the main debunked. That being said, the story is still dramatic and hugely important.

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Ep. 204: Habsburg Dukes (1308-1437) – Rudolf IV, Founder and Forger

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Rudolf IV of Habsburg (1339–1365), son of Albrecht “the Wise,” reigned as Duke of Austria for just seven years but left a lasting mark. Born when the dynasty seemed close to extinction, Rudolf secured Austria’s survival and prestige. Politically, he sought to elevate Vienna by founding the University of Vienna (1365) and beginning construction of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Though he fulfilled his father's ambition to gain the Tyrol, the family fell behind their rivals, namely the Luxemburgs.

Rudolf’s most audacious act was the Privilegium Maius, a set of forged charters claiming ancient Roman emperors had granted Austria near-sovereign status, primogeniture, and the unique title of Archduke. Though denounced by Petrarch as absurd, the documents shaped Habsburg identity for centuries and underpinned later power.

By creating myths of divine and heroic origins, Rudolf forged a sense of Habsburg exceptionalism. Though dying young without heirs, he truly was “the Founder.”

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Ep. 203: Early Habsburgs – From Rudolf I to Albrecht the Wise

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The Habsburg dynasty, originating from Radobot’s castle in 11th-century Switzerland, rose from obscurity to European prominence. In 1273 Rudolf of Habsburg was elected King of the Romans. Far from the later myth of a poor, humble count, Rudolf was wealthy, shrewd, and ruthless. He expanded his family’s holdings through inheritance, war, and diplomacy, eventually securing Austria and Styria after defeating Ottokar II of Bohemia—an acquisition that became the dynasty’s heartland.

Rudolf’s hopes to found a hereditary imperial dynasty failed, and his son Albrecht I was murdered in 1308. For decades, the Habsburgs teetered on decline. Friedrich “the Handsome” briefly contended for the throne but left little mark. His brother Albrecht II “the Wise” revived the family, gaining Carinthia and Carniola in 1335 and shifting focus to Austria. Near extinction due to lack of heirs, the dynasty was saved when Albrecht’s wife Joan miraculously bore sons, including Rudolf IV, who would secure the Habsburg future.

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The Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg - Trailer

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 05:00:00 +0100

"Let others wage war: you, happy Austria, marry’. Is that really it? Did this family acquire an empire where the sun never sets through just luck and longevity?

That is what we will try to find out in this season where we follow the family from the murder of king Abrecht I in 1308 to the election of emperor Charles V in 1519.

For most of that period the Habsburgs had been languishing in the wilderness. They experienced defeats, divisions and humiliations, were even expelled from their duchy of Austria just before they rose meteorically to world leadership under Maximilian and Charles V. Something must have happened in this period that forged them into the most successful European dynasty. As they say in the music industry, every overnight success was years in the making”.

That is why this season is called “The Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg” and is dedicated to the question, what made the Habsburgs so special.

Ep. 202 - Arms and Armour

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0100

In 1550 Spanish court records show that the Augsburg armorer Kolman Helmschmied was paid an advance of 2,000 ducats for a full armour for king Philipp II. The final price for this piece was 3,000 ducats. At the same time Raphael could charge at max 170 ducats for an altarpiece. Even the Renaissances’ best paid artist, Michelangelo received just 3,000 gold florins for the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Armour, along with tapestries, were the most valuable artworks of the 15th and 16th century.

That was just one set of armour made for the most powerful monarch of the time. But what about the thousands of soldiers he commanded, did they have armour? Oh yes they did. Not quite as sophisticated and certainly not as decorated, but they did. And where did these thousands of helmets and breast and back plates come from? From the same places where their prince’s fancy metalwork came from, from Nürnberg and Augsburg. Their swords came from Passau and Solingen and their firearms from Suhl.

How come these mostly southern Germn cities became the armories of Europe whose output clad the armies that fought the never-ending wars of the 15th, 16th and 17th century? How did they supersede Milan, the centre of weapons production in the preceding century in terms of quality, scale and availability, and create a tradition of metalworking and entrepreneurship that lasts until today?

That is what we will look at in this episode.

Ep. 201 – Mapping the World, or how Germans invented America

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0100

When you enter the great hall of the Thomas Jefferson building at the Library of Congress in Washington, the first exhibit you will be facing is their Gutenberg Bible. And it is one of the finest Gutenberg bibles around, one of only three surviving pristine copies on vellum. This was the kind of bible that was so expensive to produce, it bankrupted Gutenberg. When the Library of Congress bought it in 1930, they paid $375,000, roughly $7.5m in today’s money.

But this is not the most expensive piece in the library’s collection. That would a work by two Germans, Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. And it is not even a book, but a map. Not a small map, it is 2.3m or 91 inches wide and 1.3m or 50 inches tall.

And this map, printed in 1507 claimed to be:

A DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD ON BOTH

A GLOBE AND A FLAT SURFACE WITH THE INSERTION

OF THOSE LANDS UNKNOWN TO PTOLEMY

DISCOVERED BY RECENT MEN

And the authors wrote that the three continents known since antiquity, Europe, Africa and Asis, quote "have in fact now been more widely explored, and a fourth part has been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (as will be heard in what follows). Since both Asia and Africa received their names from women, I do not see why anyone should rightly prevent this [new part] from being called Amerigen—the land of Amerigo, as it were—or America, after its discoverer, Americus, a man of perceptive character." End quote.

This fourth part, they said was “surrounded on all sides by the ocean”. And indeed, in the left lower corner we find a fourth continent, a thin, stretched thing, with few place names and a western shore that hints at the Peruvian bulge, unmistakably, South America and then to north of it a very indistinguishable blob of land.

This map, proudly displayed as America’s Birth Certificate, is full of the most intriguing mysteries. How did Waldseemüller and Ringmann know that the Americas had a western shore, when it was only in 1513, 6 years later, that a European first glanced the Pacific?

How did the name America stick though Amerigo Vespucci had neverled an expedition, not even commanded a ship? But most of all, why was this first map of America drawn not by a Spanish or Portuguese navigator, but by two Germans in the employ of the duke of Lorraine, working in St. Die, which is as far away from the sea as one can get in Western Europe.

And then, more generally, what did the Germans have to do with the discoveries, the maps and globes that told the world about them? That is what we will explore in this episode.

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Ep. 200 – Divide and Lose, the Leipziger Teilung

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0100

When two brothers, Ernst and Albrecht of Saxony divided up their enormous inheritance that comprised Thuringia, Meissen and the electorate of Sachsen-Wittenberg, they not only undermined their power base as the de facto #2 amongst the imperial principalities and planted the seed for a conflict that would play a key role in the Reformation but they also laid the foundations for the modern Länder of Thuringia and Saxony.

And this division was not driven by the usual family feud but came after 20 years of largely harmonious government and a shared childhood trauma. Why they took, or had to take this fateful step, is what we will discuss today.

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Ep. 199 – How Holland was Lost to the Holy Roman Empire (Part 2 - the Economy)

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0100

So, why did Holland really leave the empire? Was it because the valiant and tragic countess Jacqueline was “hunted down from one land to the other, all of them mine”. Was it a story of misogyny, betrayal, incompetence and ruthless power politics. Yes, it was.

But it was a also a story of economic and climate change and one that links into the herring trade of the Hanseatic League, the decline of Teutonic Knights and even into the Hussite Revolt, topics that seem distant, but mattered.

This week we focus on this, the latter part of the story

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Ep. 198 – How Holland was Lost to the Holy Roman Empire (Part 1 - the Politics)

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Today begins a two part series about how the Low countries modern day Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg shifted out of the Holy Empire. These lands, with the exception of Flanders, had been part of the empire for hundreds of years, ever since Henry the Fowler acquired Lothringia for east Francia in 925 – not by conquest but through diplomacy – as was his way.

There are two ways to tell the story of the split away from the empire, one is about the dynastic machinations, the marriages, poisonings and inability to produce male heirs, the other one is about economics and the rising power of the cities.

This, the first episode will look at the dynastic story, the pot luck and cunning plans that laid the groundworks for the entity that became known as the Low Countries to emerge, whilst the next one will look at the economic realities that thwarted the ambitions of one of the most remarkable women in late medieval history, Jacqueline of Bavaria, countess of Holland, Seeland and Hainault, and why that was ultimately a good thing, not for her and not for the empire, but for the people who lived in these lands.

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Ep. 197 – The Landshuter Hochzeit – Love and War in Bavaria (Part 2)

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0100

On November 14th and 15th 1475 one of the grandest events in the history of the Holy Roman Empire took place, the Landshuter Hochzeit, the nuptials of Georg, the Rich, son of Ludwig, the Rich and grandson of Heinrich, the Rich, all of them dukes of Bayern-Landshut, and Hedwig, the daughter of king Kasimir IV of Poland and Lithuania.

The event attracted 10,000 guests, amongst them the Counts Palatine on the Rhine, the Dukes of Württemberg, the archduke Maximilian of Austria and the emperor Friedrich III himself. It lasted several days during which the eminent invitees as well as the citizens of Landshut ate, drank, danced and watched an endless row of tournaments, plays and musical performances.

The fame of these festivities reverberated through the ages, so that in the 19th century the burghers of the town decided to stage the event again, initially annually and nowadays every 4 years. The reenactment involves over 2,000 participants, and culminates in a procession through the city, complete with bridal carriage, musicians and Landsknechte, all in splendid historical costumes.

Which leaves us with more questions than answers. How come the most powerful ruler of central Europe, Kasimir King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania married one of his precious daughters to the son of the ruler of half a duchy, hundreds of miles from his capital; secondly, how such a duke became so rich he could afford to stage an event that counted amongst the grandest weddings of this already very ostentatious century; and lastly, why Landshut is today a gorgeous, but only medium sized country town, and by no means the beating heart of Bavarian commerce, culture and politics.

That is what we are going to explore in this episode.

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Ep. 196 – Agnes Bernauer - Love and War in Bavaria – (Part 1)

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0100

When I first recorded this episode, my nose was so bunged up, I could barely speak. So I cloned my voice and produced a whole episode using an Ai generated version of me. That was a cool experiment, but ultimately, a canned voice is not the same thing.

Fortunately, I am now fully recovered, and I have now re-recorded the same episode again, and this time the names of towns and cities will bear a bit more resemblance to what they are actually called.

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Ep. 195 – Engraving the German Renaissance

Thu, 22 May 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Last year I went to an exhibition at the Städel museum in Frankfurt that was entitled Holbein and the Renaissance in the North. That is the elder Holbein, the father of the Holbein who came to England. This exhibition has now ended, but there is still a great summary available on the Städel website.

Though obviously not present at the exhibition, one key focus was the Fugger chapel in the church of St. Anne in Augsburg, one of the earliest and most significant Renaissance building north of the Alps. I wanted to kick off this episode with this chapel and then move on to Holbein, Burgkmair etc. But as I dug deeper and deeper into the late 15th and early 16th century art in Southern Germany, the more connections and links emerged that I hope you will find as fascinating as I did.

Links to artworks:

Fugger chapel: Die Fuggerkapelle | St. Anna Augsburg

Riemenschneider Heilig Blut Altar: The Altar of the Holy Blood | Reliquarian

The Hare: Young Hare, 1502 - Albrecht Durer - WikiArt.org

Schongauer St. Anthony: Martin Schongauer | Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rhinocerus: Albrecht Dürer | The Rhinoceros | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ritter, Tod und Teufel and other works: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Ep. 194 – The Fuggers of Augsburg

Thu, 15 May 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans: Episode 194 – The Fuggers of Augsburg, which is also episode 10 of Season 10 “The Empire in the 15th Century”

Jakob Fugger had been dubbed the Richest Man Who Ever Lived, but there are many more contenders, my favorite being an African, Mansa Musa, the ninth Mansa of the Mali empire whose generous gifts during a visit to Mecca in 1324 triggered a currency crisis.

That is something Jakob Fugger would never have done. He never was a flamboyant banker who impressed his contemporaries with lavish displays of wealth. He was actually fairly dull. If anyone in the firm of Fugger was flamboyant, it was the chief accountant.

So if Jakob is a bit of a pale shadow, the story of what happened in the world of European Finance between 1480 and 1520 is anything but boring. Within just 40 years the heart of the banking industry moved from Florence and Venice where it had held sway since it was invented and moved north, into a medium sized Swabian city, Augsburg.

That is as if JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley closed their doors and in their stead some local players from Scandinavia or Mexico took over the financing of the Global economy.

I am not kidding, something like that really happened back in the late 15th century.

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Ep. 193 - The Trade and Tribulations of the Free Imperial Cities

Thu, 08 May 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Ravensburg, and you are very much forgiven if you cannot place it on the map, is today a town of 50,000 in the far south eastern corner of Baden-Württemberg between Friedrichshafen, home of the Zeppelins, and the city of Ulm and its majestic church tower.

If you have heard of it, it may be because of Ravensburger, the publisher of puzzles and boardgames, but you would not have associated it with any great mercantile or commercial activity.

Nevertheless, in the 15th century it housed the headquarters of a company that held a near monopoly in the trade between Spain and the empire and in certain wares, namely linen and a special cloth variously called barchent, bombast or fustian.

Before we get into Ravensburger and the Grosse Handelsgesellschaft, we need to put the whole region into the context of the free imperial cities of the 15th century.

Trading routes of the HABW_11_03_Ravensburger_Handelsgesellschaft.jpg (4957×3535)

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Can Winegrowing Cause Rural Development? Evidence from Baden-Württemberg | European Review of Economic History | Oxford Academic

Ep. 192: Duchy of Württemberg - Turning Wine into Winning

Thu, 01 May 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The counts, dukes and ultimately kings of Württemberg had risen to the top by winning the genetic lottery. Their eldest sons tended to be competent, some even extremely so, their wives brought in dowries and sometimes entire counties, and they ruled for long enough that the next generation took over when they were ready.

But all that falls apart in the 15th century. They are suddenly afflicted with the disease of dynasties, states inherited by babies and buffoons, some of them managing to be both. That would normally be the death nail for a noble House, but not this time.

The Landtag, the Estates of Württemberg step in to protect the fledgling state, deposing buffoons when necessary and ruling on behalf of the babies. This is one of the lesser known and even more extraordinary political histories in europe and well worth listening to.

And as a bonus we also investigate why the regions around Stuttgart, Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Freiburg have become hubs of technology and precision engineering, an area where there was no coal, no mining or any other natural advantage – except for the wine – no seriously, it was the wine.

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Ep. 191 – The Margraviate of Baden - Enlightened Excesses

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 05:00:00 +0100

What is it like to be a prince? Well, not quite what it is set out to be, in particular when you are a smaller prince, not in stature, but in land.

The margraves of Baden are such princes. In the 15th century their main territory, a slither of South-West Germany, just 60km long was too small to play on the European, even on the German stage, but too big to escape the need of massive palaces and warfare.

What makes Baden so fascinating is that despite its handicap, it managed to become a medium sized state, one half of Baden-Württemberg. The way there was a long one, involving friendship and loyalty to the death, piratical princesses, alchemy, someone called the Türkenlouis, a sun-shaped city and some skilled diplomacy.

Hyperlink to map of Baden: HABW_06_01.jpg (5750×6500)

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Ep. 190: A (very) brief History of the German Universities

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Between the time the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901 and 1933, a total of 31 were awarded to German scientists and politicians. To name just a few, Wilhelm Röntgen (1901), Max Planck (1918), Albert Einstein (1921) and Werner Heisenberg (1932) for Physics, Emil Fischer (1902), Fritz Haber (1918), Walther Nernst (1920) and Hans Fischer (1930) for chemistry, Emil von Behring (1901), Robert Koch (1905) and Otto Warburg (1931) for medicine, Theodor Mommsen (1902), Gerhart Hauptmann (1912) and Thomas Mann (1929) for literature and Gustav Stresemann for peace.

The UK and France received 17 and 15 respectively, whilst the US picked up just 6 during that same period.

How could German universities rise to such dominance during the 19th and early 20th century from very humble beginnings? That is what we will look at in this episode.

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Ep. 189: The Count Palatine on the Rhine

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 05:00:00 +0100

This week it is back to the political landscape of the empire. We will travel upriver from Mainz via Worms and the not yet existent cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen to Heidelberg, my old hometown.

And there we will meet the man who held one of the empire’s most confusing titles, the count Palatinate of the Rhine, Elector and High Steward of the Empire. His name is Friedrich, Friedrich der Siegreiche, Frederick the Victorious, and being victorious is barely half of what is interesting about him.

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Ep. 188: What Has Printing Ever Done For Us?

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 05:00:00 +0100

“We should note the force, effect, and consequences of inventions which are nowhere more conspicuous than in those three which were unknown to the ancients, namely printing, gunpowder and the compass. For these three have changed the appearance and the state of the world.” wrote Francis Bacon in 1620. And almost everybody agreed.

Printing changed everything, but how exactly did it change everything? That is a question nobody posed properly until Elisabeth L. Eisenstein got on the academic stage in the 1970s and the debate has not yet stopped.

In this episode I will try to take you through some of Eisenstein’s ideas on the how of the change and, in the end, attempt a raincheck on what we can learn from it for the information revolution we are living through right now. No worries, this is still the History of the Germans, so we will talk facts and dates and processes, with only occasional attempts at breaking into the ivory tower…

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Ep. 187: Johannes Gutenberg’s Pressing Matters

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 05:00:00 +0100

This podcast is now well into its fourth year and I have established my process for research, script writing and recording. As for research, that usually means going to the London Library and bend down to the lowest shelf to dig up some age-old copy of a German language book that happens to be the one and only works that goes into the kind of detail on the topic at hand you guys have gotten used to.

Imagine my confusion when I started looking into Johannes Gutenberg and found not just a few books, but whole shelves of books in English, German, French, Italian and dozens more talking about even the most intricate details of the life and works of the inventor of the printing press.

Drowning in this avalanche of material, I realized that at a minimum this story requires two episodes, one about how Gutenberg came to achieve this breakthrough and then the impact his invention had on the world and on the Germans in particular.

Hence today’s episode is about the man and his invention, though about the man we know so very little….

And here is a video that helps understnding how the machine works: How a Gutenberg Printing Press Works

And a book recommendation: The Gutenberg revolution : the story of a genius and an invention that changed the world : Man, John, 1941- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Ep. 186: Mainz and Hessen - An Origin Story

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 05:00:00 +0100

This week we are setting off on our tour of the empire for real. And where better to start than with the most senior, most august of the seven prince Electors, the archbishop of Mainz, archchancellor of the empire, and holder of the decisive vote in imperial elections.

We have already encountered a number of archbishops of Mainz in this podcast, from the treacherous Frederick who tried to overthrow Otto the Great (ep.3), to Willigis, the eminence grise of the empire under Otto II, Otto III and Henry II (ep.10-19) , Adalbert, first advisor and then adversary of Henry V (ep. 40), Peter von Aspelt, the man who put the Luxemburgs on the Bohemian throne (ep. 145) and lots more.

But this series is not about grand imperial politics, but about the grimy territorial skullduggery inside the empire. And for Mainz this is a story that is deeply entangled with the history of Hessen.

Where Mainz is ancient, tracing its’ eminence back to a saint who had come across the water, Hessen was a new kid on the block amongst the imperial princes. But a very successful one. And at its beginning stood the 24 year-old daughter of a saint holding up her baby son to be acclaimed lord by the people, or some such thing.

Maps of Mainz, the Landgraviate of Thuringia and Hessen: Maps • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 185: A Time Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance -Season Opener

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 07:15:00 +0100

Many German histories skip over this period in order to get to the Reformation, which is a shame. Because the 15th century did not just shape the physical appearance of the country, but much of its geographical and mental make-up.

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Ep. 184: A German Messallina? - Empress Barbara of Celje (1392-1451)

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Barbara ist geil und ruchlos is the title of a 17th century description of emperor Sigismund’s second wife, Barbara of Celje and it goes on as follows:

“Barbara, was a German Messalina, a woman of insatiable lust; so nefarious / that she had no god / nor angel nor devil / nor heaven nor hell/that she believed in.

When her handmaidens fasted and prayed / she scolded them / that they tortured their bodies / to worship a fictitious god.

Instead she admonished them / in her good Sardanapalian way / that they should in every way enjoy the pleasures of this life / because after this there is no other to be hoped for.

This godless harlot / sought paradise on this foul earth in doglike lust / although she was already close to 60 years of age.” End quote.

But this is not where it ends. The Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu described her end, in an abandoned church in Styria thus:

The features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, one officially present, the other on the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvelous fact, that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed. Here then were all the admitted signs and proofs of vampirism. The body, therefore, in accordance with the ancient practice, was raised, and a sharp stake driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects as might escape from a living person in the last agony. Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of blood flowed from the severed neck. The body and head were next placed on a pile of wood, and reduced to ashes, which were thrown upon the river and borne away, and that territory has never since been plagued by the visits of a vampire.

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Ep. 183: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - The Aftermath of a Revolution

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0100

This week we bring the series about the reformation before the reformation to an end. It is time to take stock. What changes did 20 years of opposition to the established church and 15 years of war bring to Bohemia?

How did Jan Hus, Jan Želivský, Wenceslas Koranda and Petr Chelčický influence Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Müntzer and von Hutten? How did Zizka’s reform impact the Swiss mercenaries and the German Landsknechte?

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Genscher in Prag - ein Polit-Krimi – DW – 30.09.2019

Ep. 182: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - Sigismund Returns to Bohemia

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0100

We have a tendency to overlook the history of the smaller European nations even though they do quite often provide the laboratory where one could have seen the sign of things to come or calamities that could be avoided. One of these nations is Czechia, where events took place that could, should or did impact the History of the Germans, in 1989, in 1968, in 1938, in 1618 and in 1419-1437. Today we will talk about the very last one on this list, the moment when a complete confessional split was prevented, something Martin Luther, emperor Charles V and pope Leo X so disastrously failed to manage a hundred years later.

I will also provide links in the show notes to books or podcasts relating to the other events in case you want to read ahead:

Eyewitness to the 1968 Prague Spring – Cold War Conversations Podcast

Robert Harris: Munich

WDFpodcast.com 30 Years War Series

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Ep. 181: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - Zizka's Drum

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0100

“And anyone who would not want to keep and truly fulfill the above written pieces and articles, and would not want to help protect and defend them; such a one, without regard to person, we will not suffer amongst us and in this army fighting with God’s help, nor on the castles and in the fortresses, nor in the cities and in the towns, walled or open, nor in the villages and hamlets, no place excepted or exempted. But all persons we will everywhere admonish, advise, push, and urge toward this goodness with the help of our Lord God”

That is how the Statutes and Military Ordinance of Jan Zizka’s New Brotherhood sum up their mission. And by Jove, you do not want to be one of those who are admonished, advised, pushed and urged by this new model army. Which leaves the question, who are those who do not “keep the written articles”, and – spoiler alert -they are not just the Catholics.

From now on the “raging torrent of the revolution disgorges its quantum of corpses”

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Ep. 180: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - Adamites and the battle of Kutna Hora

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The Czech language has been a severe impediment to my storytelling this season and you may have noticed that I often avoid to name places and people, instead I talk about a major baron or a medium sized city. There are however two Czech words I have no difficult pronouncing, Howitzer and Pistol. Which may tell you what we will be talking about today, the battle of Kutna Hora, when a blind general saw an escape route that change the world irrevocably.

But on the way there we will hear about an accelerating spiral of brutality, attempts at reconciliation, about austere dress and debauched dancing in the woods. This is another one of these episodes that has it all, and some.

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Ep. 179: Sigismund (1410-1433) - Meanwhile in the Empire

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Sigismund, king of the Romans, king of Hungary and recently crowned king of Bohemia is not doing too well. Despite his long list of glittering titles he is stuck in the town of Kutna Hora, the revolutionaries have taken Prague, built strongholds, created a completely new army for a completely new form of warfare and were taking over more and more of his ancestral kingdom.

When one of his most strategic positions, the castle of Vyšehrad comes under siege, he had to take his forces into another battle with the Hussites, which will set off a string of events that will bring what every true supporter of the Holy Roman Empire must have been craving – taxes.

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Ep. 178: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - No Hill to Die On

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0100

“It is we, the followers of master Jan Hus, who are obeying the law of God, we who are the true followers of Christ. Thus therefore, who oppose us, oppress us, kill us, are themselves heretics, trying to thwart the will of God. Out of this deep, passionate conviction was born the determination not to yield, not to surrender, but to challenge if need be, all the forces of the religious and political order which had dominated medieval europe for nearly a thousand years, to fight it out against odds the like of which have seldom been seen in history”

So it is written in the “Very Pretty Chronicle of the life of John Zizka” which tells the not so very pretty story of the war against the Hussites that is now heating up. Sigismund musters his crusading army in Silesia whilst the radical Hussites take to the hills and then take a hill.

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Ep. 177: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - The Day after the End of Days

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0100

“To our great shame and sorrow, we must acknowledge how our brethren have been cleverly seduced by Satan, and how they have departed from Holy Scriptures in strange and unheard-of ideas and acts. When Satan first came to them it was not with an open face, as the devil, but in the shining garb of voluntary poverty, [..], and in the zealous work of preaching to and serving the people and in giving them the Body and Holy Blood of God. And [..] a great many people flocked to them.

Then the devil came to them clothed in other garb, in the prophets and the Old Testament, and from these they sought to confect the imminent Day of Judgement, saying that they were angels who had to eliminate the scandals of Christ’s kingdom, and that they were to judge the world. And so they committed many killings and impoverished many people; but they did not judge the world according to their words, for the predicted time has elapsed with which they terrified the people, telling them strange things.” End quote.

Strange things indeed were happening in Bohemia. Peter Chelcicky whose words you just heard reported how the radical Hussites had called the End of Days for February 14th, 1420. But when that day came, and instead of all the enemies of the faith lying dead with their noses pointing skywards, royalist forces surrounded the radical Hussites in the city of Pilzen. Now the end really seemed nigh, but cometh the time, cometh the man, even if the man is a one-eyed, gruff ex-Highwayman.

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Ep. 176: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) -A Great Idiot of History?

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0100

Revolutions are exceedingly rare in world history. And they are so rare because they require a whole host of things going wrong and going wrong all at the same time. In 1419/1420 a whole host of things are going wrong in the kingdom of Bohemia.

We did already hear about the defenestration, the first in Czech history. As dramatic an event that was, there was no reason to believe that death and destruction was inevitable at that point. After all there had been dozens, if not hundreds of bloody revolts that did not end up with a revolution.

Amongst Mike Duncan’s very many achievements, the concept of the great idiot theory of history is my absolute favorite. A great idiot of history is someone who out of incompetence, stubbornness, narcissism or other impediments created a situation where historical time accelerates and change occurs. It is the counterpart to the great man theory of history that is presumably a bit better known.

Which gets us to what we will discuss in this episode. Looking at my gradually swelling library of books about the Hussite revolt, it appears as if Sigismund, the king of the Romans and heir to the Bohemian crown was one of these great idiots of history. Many an author, not only Czechs, has blamed him for turning a simple revolt into a revolution out of bigotry, incompetence or even malice. But is that fair? That is what we will investigate in this episode, along a spot of street fighting on Europe’s top 3 backpacker destination.

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Bohemian Protest on Display | Rare Books & Manuscripts

Ep. 175: Hussite Revolt (1419-1434) - Death and Defenestration

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 05:00:00 +0100

The Bohemians had already protested against the treatment of Jan Hus when he was arrested and anger was brewing throughout his trial. Hus hadn’t come to Constance on his own. Several noblemen, including the brave knight John of Chlum had come along to support him. One these man, Petr Mladenovics returned to Prague shortly after the trial and recounted the proceedings in every little detail, complete with copies of letters and other documents.

And from that the Bohemians concluded that there had been foul play. Lawrence of Brezowa summarized the view in Prague as follows: quote “Then on Saturday,[..], 6 July, Master Jan Hus, the scholarly bachelor of Holy Scripture, a man of shining virtue in life and morality and a faithful preacher of the gospel was sentenced to death and unjustly vilified by the Council of Constance. This was based upon the false testimony of the witnesses and the relentless instigations of master Štěpán z Pálče, doctor of Holy Scriptures and Michael de Causis, parish priest of St. Voijtech,[..] representing the Czech clergy and the influence of king Sigismund. This was done despite the fact that he was not given a proper hearing in which to prove his innocence”

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John Wycliffe - a Guest Episode from the History of England

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0100

Today the History of the Germans is honoured to host David Crowther, doyen of the guild of podcasters and host of the most excellent History of England Podcast.

Wycliffe's writings were to prove controversial and proved an interesting early echo of the Reformation. They heavily influenced the view of Jan Hus and the movement in Bohemia. And his ability to develop and present those views owed a lot to Oxford University, and its desire to protect intellectual debate and investigation.

Enjoy

Ep. 174: Council of Constance (1414-1418) - The Trial of Jan Hus

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“They will roast a goose now, but after one hundred years they will hear a swan sing, and him they will have to endure.” These were allegedly the last words of a certain Jan Hus whose surname meant goose and who was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415.

Almost exactly one hundred years later a spiritually tormented monk, frightened by a vengeful God who sought to damn him, was assigned to teach the book of Romans at the new university of Wittenberg. And 2 years later this monk by the name of Martin Luther did (or probably did not) nail his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church of that same town.

As far as prophecies go, this must be one of the most accurate, assuming it was indeed true. But it wasn’t just the foretelling of the next reformer that makes the trial of Jan Hus such a fascinating account. So much is foreshadowed in this tale, it is almost uncanny. The railing against indulgences, the wealth of the clergy, the pope, a promise of safe conduct, a trial, villains and archvillains, accusations upon accusations, defiance in the face of certain death and then the big difference to the diet of Worms, actual death. Have a listen, it is fun.

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Ep. 173: Council of Constance (1414-1418) - The End of the Schism

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0100

We have talked about church reform for almost four years, the council of Constance talked about church reform for about the same amount of time and Luther will talk and write about church reform until he did no longer believe that the church could be reformed.

But what is church reform. Or more specifically, what did the delegates in Constance mean when they debated church reform, why did they fail to implement much even though they held off electing a pope and the voting system was set up to favour of the national churches and against central papal authority.

All this we will discuss in this episode plus we will hear some angelic voices that made even the most hardnosed church politician kneel in prayer.

Chapters:

00:16 - The Dawn of the Reformation
07:28 - Reforming the Church: Key Areas of Discussion
11:25 - The Council of Constance: A Turning Point in Church Authority
19:03 - The Election of a New Pope
29:59 - The Rise and Fall of the Council of Basel

Choir music by Schola Sancte Scholasticae and St. Cecilia's Abbey, UK: Veni Creator Spiritus | Gregorian Chant Hymns

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Ep. 172: Council of Constance (1414-1418) - A Gathering of the (Christian) World

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0100

In November 1414 30,000 academics and aristocrats, bishops, blacksmiths and bakers, cardinals, counts and chefs, doctors, dancers and diplomats, princes, prelates and public girls descended on a town in Southern Germany built to house 6 to 8,000 people. They planned to stay a few weeks, 2-3 months max. But 3 and a half years later most of them were still there.

What did they get up to? The great tentpole events, the trial of John XXIII, the burning of Jan Hus and the election of Martin V is what the council of Constance is remembered for, but what about all that time in between?

This world event was so much more than a papal election and the trial of a heretic. For 3 years Constance became a never-ending G20 summit, the greatest academic conference of the Middle Ages, a permanent imperial diet and the centre of the catholic church. Everybody who was anybody was there either in the flesh or had at least sent a delegation.

Issues and concerns were brought before the council that still plague people today. Is it ever right to kill a tyrant, and if so, when can it be justified? What rights should be guaranteed for indigenous groups, in this case Pagans, and how should their dignity be protected? Other attendees sought justice for crimes committed against them or their families in a world where political murder had become commonplace. Others still demanded their reward for years of service, making the house of Hohenzollern the margraves of Brandenburg.

Living cheek by jowl in tiny Constance the leading minds from across Europe, from the ancient universities of Paris, Oxford and Bologna as well as from the newly founded seats of learning in Krakow, Prague, Heidelberg and Vienna shared their ideas, opinions, books and discoveries, paving the way for the intellectual shift we call the Renaissance.

Enough, me thinks to provide 30 minutes of great historical entertainment….

Chapters:

00:13 - The Council of Constance: A Gathering Like No Other
03:31 - The Council of Constance: A Gathering of Minds
08:16 - The Gathering of Intellectuals at Constance
12:57 - The Role of Book Hunters in the Renaissance
24:23 - Political Violence in the 14th and 15th Century
29:56 - The Debate on Tyrannicide at the Council of Constance
35:21 - The Council of Constance and Its Impact

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Ep. 171: Council of Constance (1414-1418) - Removing surplus Popes

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The Council of Constance marked a pivotal moment in the history of the Catholic Church and the history of Europe in general.

One issue on the agenda was the ongoing schism that the council of Pisa had failed to resolve. Another the reform of the increasingly corrupt clergy all the way up to the pope himself. And then there were a number of individual questions this gathering of thousands had to address.

Whilst all these were crucial questions, the way the council constituted itself foreshadowed a fundamental change in the way European saw themselves.

This part 1 deals with the establishment of the council and the removal of the popes, most importantly the pope who had convened the council on the first place, John XXIII and his counterpart, the emperor Sigismund.

Chapters:

00:18 - The Unusual Procession
03:54 - The Journey to Constance
10:35 - The Council of Constance: A New Chapter in Church History
16:51 - The Arrival of Sigismund
20:15 - The Shift Towards National Identity in the Church Council
27:41 - The Turning Point: The Council's Decree
34:47 - The End of the Schism and the Rise of New Leadership

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Ep. 170: Jan Hus (1369-1415), Reformer and Rebel?

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“Master Jan Hus, preacher of the Holy Scriptures from the chapel of Bethlehem, was also present at this council, who in his preaching continuously criticized and exposed the hypocrisy, pride, miserliness, fornication, simony, and other sins of the clergy, in order to bring the priesthood back to the apostolic life. He was immensely hated by these pestiferous clerics.”

This is how Laurence of Brezova introduced the great reformer and Czech national hero Jan Hus in his 15th century chronicle of the Hussite uprising.

Why should we care about the trials and tribulations of another holy man railing against corrupt prelates and the subsequent “quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing”.

Well, that quote itself should be reason enough. It is from Neville Chamberlain speech of September 27, 1938 weighing the importance of protecting Czechoslovakia against an expansionist Nazi Germany.

But Jan Hus is interesting beyond his status as a towering figure in Czech history. When he came to Prague in 1390 he was just another ambitious young man from a modest background who wanted to rise up in the world on the back of intelligence and hard work. But by the time he leaves for his fate at the Council of Constance in 1414 he has been excommunicated, exiled and unwillingly or willingly be come he face of a brewing revolt against king and clergy. This is a story about collapsing certainties and emerging truths, about individual beliefs and institutional order. About what the community of the faithful is supposed to be and who is in and who is out. And its tentacles reach deep into the next centuries…

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Ep. 169: Sigismund (1410-1433) - The Not Yet Emperor

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The late 14th and early 15th century was a period of upheaval, the certainties of the Middle Ages, that the pope ruled the world and that knights were invincible were crumbling away, the long period of economic growth, of eastward expansion and conversion of the pagans made way for war, plague and famine. The church was split in half and the Ottomans were coming.

This was an age that called forth larger-than-life characters: Joan of Arc, fierce and holy; Henry Bolingbroke, seizing a throne; Jadwiga and Jogaila, uniting kingdoms; the audacious Gian Galeazzo Visconti and fiery Cola di Rienzo; the ever-scheming John the Fearless and Jacob van Artevelde; the tragic Ines de Castro and the unflinching Jan Žižka.

Into this glittering and turbulent lineup steps a man whose reputation has not exactly been polished by time. Despised in his kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and even Constance, the city that owes him so much, decided to remember him as a fat naked crowned guy with skinny arms and legs, worn-out face, forked beard and disproportionate genitalia balancing on the hand of a nine-meter-tall sex worker. No, I am not making this up.

Sigismund, because that was his name, was a true enigma of the late Middle Ages. He had inherited his father’s charm and ruthless cunning, his knack for negotiating compromise in impossible situations, and his unshakeable belief in his role as the head of Christendom. But what he hadn’t inherited was his father’s performative piety, his zeal for relics, his asceticism—or his wealth.

Instead, Sigismund was left with a volatile mix of ambition, enormous self-confidence, a lust for life, and, crucially, a chronic shortage of funds. Yet despite his flaws, he took on Christendom’s two greatest crises—the schism and the Ottoman threat—and in doing so, managed to create a third…This is his backstory.

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Ep. 168: Ottoman Empire (1280-1396) - From Osman to Nicopolis

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This week we delve into the transformative period of the Ottomans from Osman to the Battle of Nicopolis. It highlights how Osman, the son of an Anatolian warlord, laid the foundations for what would become one of the world's greatest empires, despite starting as just one of many Turkic beys in a tumultuous landscape. The narrative explores the cultural and military strategies that enabled the Ottomans to expand, emphasizing their approach of gradual assimilation and religious tolerance as they conquered predominantly Christian lands. The episode also recounts the dramatic Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, where a coalition of European knights faced the formidable Ottoman forces, leading to a catastrophic defeat for the crusaders. As the episode unfolds, it illustrates the lasting impact of these events on the geopolitical landscape of Europe and the Ottoman Empire's rise as a dominant power in the centuries to follow.

Takeaways:

The Ottomans emerged from a small confederation led by Osman, who successfully united various Turkic tribes.
Unlike many conquests in history, the Ottomans employed a model of tolerance and integration with conquered populations.
The downfall of the Byzantine Empire was marked by its inability to respond effectively to nomadic incursions.
Osman's victory at the Battle of Baphis established his reputation and attracted more followers to his cause.
Janissaries, elite soldiers of the Ottoman army, were originally recruited from captured Christian boys.
The catastrophic defeat of the crusading army at Nikopol in 1396 reshaped the power dynamics in Eastern Europe.

Chapters:

00:08 - Introduction to the Ottomans
00:19 - The Crusades and Eastern Expansion
00:51 - The Gathering at Nikopol
04:14 - Osman's Vision and the Birth of the Empire
13:59 - The Seljuks and Their Legacy
20:07 - Osman's Rise and Early Conquests
32:03 - The Battle of Kosovo and Its Aftermath
34:14 - The Crusade at Nikopol
41:34 - The Impact of Timur's Invasion
42:55 - Conclusion and Next Episode Preview

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Ep. 167: The Great Western Schism (1378-1417) - The Impact of the Schism

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0100

When the Great Western Schism was finally resolved at Pisa and Constance, Christendom rejoiced.

Or so we have been told. But was it really such a devastating, catastrophic event that left the papacy mortally wounded, so impaired that it crumbled when next the power of the pope “to bind and to loosen” was questioned? Or was it just an affair, a temporary misunderstanding created by some drafting error in canon law that prevented the removal of an incapacitated pope?

Me thinks that is worth investigating even if it means diving deep into theology and canon law. But do not worry we will also do a spot of fiscal policy just to lighten things up a bit.

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Ep. 166: The Great Western Schism (1378-1417) - Popes and antipopes from Urban VI-John XXIII

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0100

If you are a longstanding listener to the History of the Germans, you will already know that sometime in the late 14th century the catholic church broke apart into 2 and then 3 different obediences, three popes residing in different places and being recognised by different nations.

But what you may not know is how exactly this had happened. Why did the exact self-same cardinals elect one pope in April 1378 and another one 4 months later? Who was taking the lead in attempts to resolve the crisis and why did all these attempts fail for 40 years? How far did they go in forcing the various papal contenders to come to the negotiation table. How ridiculous were the popes’ attempts to wiggle out of that…

All that we will look into this week in part 1 of the story of the Great Western Schism.

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Ep. 165: Wenceslaus the Lazy (1378-1400) and Ruprecht of the Palatinate (1400-1410)

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“And since these especially ruinous harms to all of Christendom are not to be tolerated or suffered any longer, so we have completely agreed – with a well-considered disposition, by means of much and various discussion and counsel, which we have earnestly undertaken concerning this among ourselves and with many other princes and lords of the Holy Empire, for the assistance of the Holy Church, the comfort of Christendom and the honour and profit of the Holy Empire – that we want fully and specifically to remove and depose the above-written Lord Wenceslas as a neglectful procrastinator, dismemberer and one unworthy of the Holy Empire from the same Holy Roman Empire and all the dignities pertaining to it with immediate effect.” End quote

So concluded the Prince Electors of Cologne, Mainz, Trier and the Palatinate on August 20th 1400. King Wenceslaus IV, son of the great emperor Karl IV, king of Bohemia and duke of Luxemburg was to be deposed for his “evil deeds and afflictions [that are] are so clearly manifest and well known throughout the land that they can neither be justified nor concealed” end quote

How could that happen. Last time we looked at the house of Luxemburg, they directly held almost a quarter of the German lands, controlled two of the seven electoral votes, had manoeuvred themselves into pole position to gain the Hungarian and the Polish crown, with even a long-term option on Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Tyrol . But now, a mere 22 years later, the great second Carolingian empire lies in tatters. How is that possible? That is what we will look at today.

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Ep. 164: Council of Constance and Hussite Revolt (1378-1437) - Season Opener

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0100

On 31st of October 1517 a hitherto unknown professor at the smallish university of Wittenberg published 95 theses. And by doing so, he unleashed a sequence of events that would fundamentally change the face of Europe and still defines communities and nations.

The interesting question about the 95 theses is not why Luther rote them, but why they had any impact at all. Martin Luther stands at the end of a mile long queue of learned and sometimes less learned men who railed against the decadence of the church, called for a return to the actual text of the bible and demanded that the clergy lives like the apostles. But somehow the message on that fateful day in 1517 gained traction across the Christian world in a way no previous attempt had.

Why? That is a question I believe will be the guiding line through the coming seasons. Something about the social, political, cultural, religious and economic landscape of early modern Germany must have provided the cinder on which protestant ideas could catch fire.

You will now ask, why is Dirk talking about the Reformation. The last season ended on the 14th century, a good 150 years before “the day that changed western Christianity”. Aren’t we supposed to go through this chronologically.

Oh yes we are. But as we are moving forward at our accustomed pace we will hit the Hussite revolt that started in 1415. This religious uprising has so many common threads with Luther’s reformation, it may be seen as a dress rehearsal for the actual Reformation. Luther himself declared in 1519 “Ich bin ein Hussite” I am a Hussite.

Spoiler alert, the Hussite revolt did not lead to the fraction of the catholic church, but that makes it even more interesting. What were the circumstances that led the people of Bohemia and many other parts of the empire to take up arms to defend their convictions, how come they were successful and by what means could a reconciliation be achieved? Knowing that will help us understand why a 150 years later such a settlement failed to materialize, dividing Europe into Protestants and Catholics and spurning some of the bloodiest civil wars in history.

To explore the causes and impact of this reformation before the reformation we will take a look at the decline of the house of Luxemburg, the emergence of the Ottoman empire, the creation of Burgundy as a political entity separate from France, the defeat of the Teutonic Knights and the great western schism with its resolution at the Council of Constance where amongst other things Jan Hus was convicted and burned at the stake. We will dive into Jan Hus’ and his predecessor’s thoughts and convictions as well as the military innovations of Jan Zizka and probably a lot more things I have not yet thought about.

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here: Charles IV: Portrait of a Medieval Ruler, Žurek, Stone (uchicago.edu)

Karl IV (1346-1378) - A Portrait of a Medieval Ruler - Interview with Vaclav Jurek

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The Emperor and King Charles IV (1316-1378) represents today an untouchable monument in Czech history, carved into the marble of admiration and clichés. Although a new and thorough study of his reign is yet to be written, it is nevertheless useful to introduce Charles IV from a new perspective. In many regards, historical research has already brought new findings, and thus we are now able to shed new light on both his life and his reign.

The book will be published this autumn but is already available for pre-order

here: Charles IV: Portrait of a Medieval Ruler book by vaclav zurek, (Paperback) | Indigo

and also on Amazon:

Charles IV: Portrait of a Medieval Ruler: Amazon.co.uk: Žurek, Václav, Stone, Ian Finlay: 9788024655239: Books

Ep. 163: Karl IV (1346-1378) - Succession and Legacy

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This is the last episode of this season and it is time to say goodbye to Karl IV, Ludwig the Bavarian, Henry VII, Albrecht of Habsburg, Adolf von Nassau and Rudolf of Habsburg. These have been some eventful 138 years.

When Karl IV died in 1378 he left behind an impressive list of achievements but also a number of failures. And he left behind a son, Wenceslaus he had invested with so much hope and so many crowns, it not only broke the bank but even chunks of the political edifice he had so patiently built.

How and why is what we will discuss in this episode.

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Ep. 162: Karl IV (1346-1378) - Schisms and Deals

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 05:00:00 +0100

For more than a hundred years the Holy Roman Empire was a mess of constant infighting between and within the great princely families. But by the 1360s the consistent policies and elaborate diplomacy of emperor Karl IV had produced a degree of stability not seen by anyone alive.

With the home front calm, the emperor can again assume a role on the European stage, setting in train seminal events that will reverberate across the centuries…

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Ep. 161: Karl IV (1346-1378) - A Luxemburg Empire

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 05:00:00 +0100

All is well in the empire. The Golden Bull had been debated, agreed, sealed and then celebrated at the great diet in Metz in 1357.

The first time in decades that all the Prince Electors had come together and performed the ancient duties of their offices. Even the Dauphin of France had come to do homage to Karl IV for the lands he held inside the empire.

But did all the princes join in the joy? No, not really. There are always some who felt left out and they will try to upturn the new order. How they tried to do that and why these efforts laid the foundations for the future Habsburg empire is what we will discuss today…

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Ep. 160: Karl IV (1346-1378 - The Golden Bull of 1356

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“Every realm that is divided internally will go to uin, for its princes have become the comrades of thieves. The Lord has poured out the spirit of deceit among them, so that they grope about at midday as though in darkness, and He has withdrawn the light from their dwellings, so that they are blind and leaders of the blind. And those who wander in the dark run into things, and those who are blind of spirit bring about evil deeds, which occur in disunity. [..]

You, Jealousy, have soiled the Christian Empire, which was reinforced by God with the virtues of faith hope and love, just like the indivisible Trinity, and whose foundations stand firmly on the kingdom of Christ; you have soiled it with your ancient poison that you have spewed forth like an evil snake on the Empire and its members. And to shatter the pillars and to bring the whole structure to collapse, you have incited disunity among the seven electors, who should illuminate the Empire like the light of the seven lamps of the mind.

But in the name of the office which we hold as Emperor we are obliged to act against disunity and struggle among the electors [..] for two reasons: because of our Imperial office, and because of our rights as an elector.

In order to increase the unity among them, and to bring about unanimity during elections and to avoid disgraceful divisions and to close the door to the multiple dangers that arise from them, we have issued the laws written down here at our festive Imperial Diet in Nuremberg, in the presence of all the spiritual and worldly electors, and before a large crowd of other princes, counts, free lords, lords, nobles and urban delegates. From our Imperial throne, decorated with the imperial insignias and treasures, wearing the imperial crown, after ripe deliberation, we issued them on the basis of our unrestricted imperial powers, in the year of our Lord 1356, on the 10th of January, in the tenth year of our royal power and the first of our Imperial power.”

So begins one of the most important constitutional documents of the Holy Roman Empire, the Golden Bull of 1356. But what did it actually say, and even more important, what did it not say and how does it fit into the context of the history of the Holy Roman Empire. That is what we are going to discuss in this episode.

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Ep. 159: Karl IV (1346-1378) - The Rise to Imperial Power

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This season has now gone on for 22 episodes. We started with the interregnum of largely absent rulers and after a brief renaissance under Rudolf von Habsburg the empire became a sort of oligarchy where 3 families, the Luxemburgs, the Wittelsbachs and the Habsburgs took turns on the throne. Succession usually involved some form of armed conflict between the contenders and a struggle with the pope over who had precedence. Whoever emerged victorious then used the ever-dwindling imperial powers to enrich his family at the expense of the others.

When in 1349 Karl/Karel/Charles IV emerged triumphant from the latest of these conflicts, chances were that the same game would start anew, civil war between the three families, excommunication and murder. But it did not. Why it did not is what we will talk about in this episode…

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Ep. 158: Karl IV (1346-1378) - Prague - a new Rome

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“Karl, by the grace of God, King of the Romans, ever august, and King of Bohemia [ ]

We have turned over in careful contemplation, and have been diligently pondering how

our hereditary kingdom of Bohemia may flourish in all its beauty, thrive in peace, and not fear the loss of its riches to its enemies, and how the general good and benefit of the said kingdom may prosper, how its’ governance may grow from good to better, and how it could plant a new seed for the faith in god.

To soundly provide for these things, neither sparing our labours nor expenses, we have decided to extend, expand, and newly delineate the city of Prague, recently elevated to metropolitan status at our insistence and request, situated in the midst of the kingdom and in a most fertile place, frequented by peoples from various regions and parts of the world, whose houses and buildings, inhabitants, and the multitude of people surrounding it, as well as the influx of people to it, which no one can count, especially because of the general study that we have decided to establish in the said city, cannot conveniently accommodate.”

So begins the charter that founded one of the Middle Ages most ambitious infrastructure projects, the creation of Prague’s New Town, the third city to be created near the ancient castles of the kings of Bohemia, making the combined city larger in surface area than Cologne, only surpassed by Constantinople and the eternal city. A new Rome was to rise on the shores of the Vitava River, a place adorned with churches and monasteries evoking the holiest places of Christianity and squares on such a monumental scale that reminds one more of the 19th century than the 14th. Prague still today attracts “people to it which no one can count”

This is what we will talk about today. Not just what he built, but why and how….

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Ep. 157: The Black Death and other Calamities (1346-1400)

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:15:00 +0100

In around 1320 near the lake Issy-Kul in Kyrgysistan the rats started dying. Shortly after the inhabitants became affected with terrible diseases. Some started coughing up blood and all who did, died within 3 days. Others developed swellings of the lymph nodes, particularly in the groins and armpits. Roughly half of them died within five days. A small number saw their feet and fingertips turn black. All of those died.

Everyone who could still leave sought refuge in towns and villages that had not been affected. The disease travelled with them. By 1330 Chinese chroniclers recorded a plague affecting the Mongol hordes. In 1346 a Mongol army besieging the Genoese trading city of Caffa on Crimea succumbed to the disease. In their final push to cow the defenders they catapulted the diseased corpses of their comrades into the city.

The siege lifted grain transports from Caffa to Italy resumed. The disease reached Messina in Sicily in 1347. In 1348 it had enveloped most of Italy. 1349 it crossed the alps, by 1350 people died in their thousands in Northern Germany and Scandinavia. It took until 1353 before this wave of the plague petered out, leaving between 20 and 60% of the population of Europe dead. The disease returned in 1361-1363, 1369-71, 1374-75, 1390 and 1400. After that intervals became longer but the plague never went away completely and still today a couple of 100 people die worldwide of Plague every year.

Despite having lived through a pandemic only recently, we have all realised that the impact of such an event goes far beyond the gruesome statistics. It is much too recent an event to get a grasp of the impact COVID 19 had on the economy, political system and society in general, but clearly something has changed. Now imagine the plague, which in terms of death toll was between 10 and 30 times worse and crucially affected young and old equally. The fallout was exponentially greater not least because it came on the back ofseveral other calamities. It is these impacts we will mainly focus on in this episode. So let’s dive in..

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Ep. 156: Karl IV (1346-1378) - What Price a Crown

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The year is 1346 and we have, yes, another succession crisis. Without checking through my 1500 pages of transcripts, I have counted a total f 14 contested imperial elections in the 427 years we have covered so far. Henry the Fowler, Herny II, Henry IV, Henry V, Lothar III, Konrad III, Philip of Swabia, Otto IV, Frederick II, Konrad IV, Richard of Cornwall, Adolf of Nassau, Albrecht of Habsburg and Ludwig the Bavarians all had to contend with anti-kings or severe opposition to their ascension to the throne.

I guess you are bored with these and so were the citizens of the empire. But here is the good news. From Karl IV’s reign onwards these succession crises will become fewer and fewer. Why? One reason is of course the Golden Bull we will discuss in a few episodes time. But there is another one, which had to do with the way Karl IV overcome the opposition. He claimed it was divine providence, but modern historians point to a much more temporal force that tied the imperial title to the heirs of the house of Luxemburg…

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Ep. 155: Karl IV (1346-1378) - Youth of an Emperor

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 05:00:00 +0100

You have heard me complaining regularly over the last 154 episodes that what we report as political ambitions or strategic plans of the kings and emperors was pure conjecture derived from their actions and public statement. But we could never know what they were really thinking because none of them kept a diary, or if they did they did not survive to today. The subject of today’s episode however did write an autobiography, which is believed to have been written by the emperor himself, at least in large parts. So, for the first time we hear an emperor telling his own story. Do you want to hear it?

Well, here he describes what he called the most seminal moment of his youth:

That night, as sleep overcame us, a vision appeared to us: an angel of the Lord stood beside us on our left side, where we lay, and struck us on the side, saying, "Rise and come with me."

We responded in spirit, "Lord, I do not know where or how to go with you." And taking us by the hair of the front part of our head, he lifted us into the air over a great line of armed knights who were standing before a castle, ready for battle.

Holding us in the air above the line, he said to us, "Look and see." And behold, another angel ascending from the sky, holding a fiery sword in his hand, struck one in the middle of the line and cut off his genital member with the same sword, and he, as if mortally wounded, agonized while sitting on his horse.

Then the angel holding us by the hair said, "Do you recognize him who was struck by the angel and mortally wounded?" We said, "Lord, I do not know him, nor do I recognize the place."

He said, "You should know that this is the Dauphin of Vienne, who, because of the sin of lust, has been struck by God in this way; therefore, beware and tell your father to beware of similar sins, or worse things will happen to you." [..]”

There you go, the emperor Karl IV has divine visions. Not quite what you were expecting, but as it happened a good window into his way of thinking. But do not worry, Karl wasn’t just an excessively devout collector of relics, he was at the same time an astute and often ruthless politician who gave the Holy Roman empire its constitution and placed his heirs on the throne for the next centuries.

So let’s talk about Karl’s journey from his youth to becoming the King of the Romans.

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Ep. 154 - The Blind King John of Bohemia (1296-1346)

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The noble and gallant King of Bohemia, also known as John of Luxemburg because he was the son of the Emperor Henry of Luxemburg, was told by his people that the battle had begun. Although he was in full armour and equipped for combat, he could see nothing because he was blind. He asked his knights what the situation was and they described the rout of the Genoese and the confusion which followed King Philip's order to kill them. Ha,' replied the King of Bohemia. 'That is a signal for us.' […] 'My lords, you are my men, my friends and my companions-in-arms. Today I have a special request to make of you. Take me far enough forward for me to strike a blow with my sword.

Because they cherished his honor and their own prowess, his knights consented. [..] In order to acquit themselves well and not lose the King in the press, they tied all their horses together by the bridles, set their king in front so that he might fulfil his wish, and rode towards the enemy.

There also was Lord Charles of Bohemia, who bore the title and arms of King of Germany, and who brought his men in good order to the battlefield. But when he saw that things were going badly for his side, he turned and left. I do not know which way he went.

Not so the good King his father, for he came so close to the enemy that he was able to use his sword several times and fought most bravely, as did the knights with him. They advanced so far forward that they all remained on the field, not one escaping alive. They were found the next day lying round their leader, with their horses still fastened together. "

Anyone with even a passing interest in late medieval history will remember this scene from Froissart’s description of the Battle of Crecy on August 26th, 1346. The Blind King of Bohemia, the epitome of chivalric culture riding into the midst of a battle striking at an enemy he cannot see, relying on his comrades to guide him.

This deed made such an impression on the Edward, the Prince of Wales, known as the Black Prince that he honored his foe by adding the Bohemian ostrich feathers and the dead king’s motto “Ich Dien”, to his own coat of arms. So to this day the Blind King’s heraldic symbols and German motto features on Prince William’s coat of arms, the Welsh Rugby Union Badge, some older 2p coins and various regiments in Britain, Australia, Canada and even Sri Lanka.

But this death, call it heroic or foolish, was only the end of an astounding life. John Of Bohemia, very much against his own intentions, played a crucial role in the establishment of the key counterweight to French hegemony in Europe. No, not England, but a power centered on Prague, Vienna, Buda and Pest.

Let’s dive into this story…

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Ep. 153: The Rise of the City of Nürnberg in the 14th Century

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“In the same way that Jerusalem is the navel of the world, is Nurnberg the navel of Germany” is how Matthäus Dresser described the city in 1581. The astronomer Johannes Regiomontanus moved to Nurnberg in 1471 because there" ...one can easily associate with learned men wherever they live. Because of the cosmopolitanism of its merchants, this place is regarded as the center of Europe”.

How did this city grow within 200 years from an imperial castle far from the main transport links, without a harbour and on famously poor soil into one of the three most important urban centres in Germany whose merchants were well regarded in all corners of the world, whose printers published the works of Europe’s leading intellectuals, whose artists were and remain of global renown and whose engineers produced breakthrough after breakthrough.

Let’s find out

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Ep.152: Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347) - The (not so) Ugly Duchess Margarete Maultasch

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 05:00:00 +0100

“The twelve-year-old Margarete, Princess of Carinthia and Tyrol, was travelling from her seat near Meran to Innsbruck for her wedding with the ten-year old Prince Johann of Bohemia. [..]

Still and serious she sat, in ceremonial pomp. Her bodice was so tight that she had had to be laced into it; her sleeves of heavy green satin, in the very extreme of fashion, fell to her feet ; she wore one of the new jeweled hair-nets which an express courier had had to bring from Flanders, where they had recently appeared. A heavy necklace sparkled on her bosom, and large rings on her fingers.

So she sat, serious and perspiring, weighed down with magnificence, between the peevish, grumbling women. She looked older than her twelve years. Her thick-set body with its short limbs supported a massive misshapen head. The forehead, indeed, was clear and candid, the eyes quick and shrewd, penetrating and sagacious ; but below the small flat nose an ape-like mouth thrust forward its enormous jaws and pendulous underlip. Her copper colored hair was coarse, wiry and dull, her skin patchy and of a dull greyish pallor.”

That is how the author Lion Feuchtwanger described Margarete, the countess of Tirol who is better known as Margarete Maultasch, the ugly duchess. This historic novel that became a huge bestseller in the 1920s describes how a bright and ambitious, but monstrously ugly woman is crushed by society’s habit to judge the inside of a person by its appearance.

I still have a copy of this book from the 1980s when I first read it, and on its cover is the same image I used for this episode’s artwork. The picture was painted by Quentin Matsys in 1513 and according to the National Gallery’s catalogue is called a Grotesque Old Woman.

It is not a portrait of Margarete Maultasch who had died 150 years earlier. The identification of the sitter as Margarete Maultasch goes back the idea of a postcard seller in Meran in the 1920s. Matsys picture also made its way into the depiction of the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland.

But it is all hokum. Chroniclers who knew Margarete personally, like Johann von Viktring either do not mention her appearance at all, or call her beautiful, if not extremely beautiful. So, as much as I love Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel, which btw. is available in an English translation, its premise is simply false.

The truth is much more interesting. Her actions to defend her inherited county of Tyrol were the changes that tilted the complex equilibrium between the Habsburgs, the Wittelsbachs and the House of Luxemburg out of kilter with unpredictable, violent results.

So, let’s find out why and how and what…

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Ep. 151: Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347) - The Kurverein zu Rhens

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This week we look at the central intellectual debate of the 14th century, did Jesus own property? If yes, then it was right and proper that the church owned land, privileges, entire counties and duchies, yes that the pope was not just the spiritual but also the secular ruler of all of Christianity. And if not, then the pope as a successor to the apostles should rescind all worldly possessions and all political power. The follow-on question from there was even more hair raising: if indeed power does not come from the grace of god as determined by the Holy church, then where does it come from. One thinker, Marsilius of Padua goes as far as stating the obvious, power comes from election by the people…

This is what pope John XXII, Michael of Cesena, William of Ockham and the cast of Umberto Eco’s the Name of the Rose discuss. But there was also a politician, Ludwig IV, elected emperor who took these ideas – and put them into actions….let’s find out just how radical this ruler they call “the Bavarian” really was.

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Ep. 150: Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347) - The Last Chivalric Battles – Morgarten and Mühldorf

Thu, 30 May 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The 14th century is a time of fundamental change in practically all areas of social, political and economic life. It is a time when the certainties of the Middle Ages are replaced by a process of trial and error, sometimes successful, but almost always violent. We see new frameworks of how society and in particular the religious authorities should operate, how political power should be distributed and how economic growth could be preserved at a time when the climatic benefits of the medieval warming period has come to an end. Ah, and then there was the Black Death.

In this episode we will talk about the political dimension of this change. First how the conflict between the three dominating houses, the Habsburgs, the Wittelsbachs and the Luxemburg pans out, though whilst the mighty lords believe it is all about marriage alliances and knights dominating the battlefield, the ground on which their mighty warhorses are galloping is shifting….

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Ep. 149: Ludwig the Bavarian (1314-1347) - The Real Ludwig of Bavaria

Thu, 23 May 2024 05:00:00 +0100

A few months after emperor Henry VII had died in the Tuscan village of Buonconvento and before a successor had been elected, a young man, Ludwig, second son of the duke of Upper Bavaria made his name defeating a much larger Habsburg force. This success could not have come at a more opportune time as it propelled him into contention for the title of King of the Romas and ultimately, emperor.

His rule, constantly contested but lasting 33 years would become a major turning point in German, if not European history as it triggered the modern notion of the separation of church and state.

I know that I cannot always maintain a completely unbiased position in this podcast, but I rarely succumb to my personal bugbears. But this time I will have to expose you to one of my biggest, and that is the weird romanticization of Ludwig II of Bavaria, the mentally ill recluse who built the three kitsch palaces of Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof in the deluded hope of resurrecting an absolutist regime in a kingdom he had sold to Prussia. Don’t get me wrong. The three palaces are worth visiting, if not for their somewhat morbid charm, but what irritates me is that this politically and artistically inconsequential monarch overshadows the more interesting, more complex and more consequential Bavarian rulers, chief amongst them his namesake, Ludwig IV the Bavarian.

Let’s see whether HotGPod cannot right this misconception…..

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Ep. 148: Henry VII (1308-1313) - Imperial Swansong

Thu, 16 May 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The year is 1312 and Henry VII is finally embarking on his journey to Rome that will bring about the first imperial coronation in almost a century and hence the formal end to the Interregnum, the time without emperors.

Becoming emperor is hard enough, but being emperor is even harder, as the first Luxemburger to ascend the throne of Charlemagne will find out. Hope for an end to the never ending civil wars in Italy lay buried under the rotting corpses before Brescia. Henry VII is no longer a unifying figure in Italy, just simply the leader of the Ghibelline faction. And as such he has to tackle the Guelphs led by the commune of Florence and king Robert of Naples. Doing that triggered a domino effect that not only left him dead but also reopened the ancient struggle between the pope and the emperor, now with a new “je ne sais quoi” mixed in. Sounds ominous – come along and find out..

Here is the link to Dan and Spencer's excellent podcast I mentioned: Podcast | Not So Quiet On The Western Front! (battleguide.co.uk)

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Ep. 147: Henry VII (1308-1313) - Brescia or Bust

Thu, 09 May 2024 05:00:00 +0100

Henry VII had gained control of most of Northern Italy in less than three months. It will take him 9 months to lose it all again. How did he go from bringer of peace and justice and all out saviour of Italy to brutal conqueror and godless tyrant? Let’s find out.

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Ep. 146: Henry VII (1308-1313) - The Return of the Emperor to Rome

Thu, 02 May 2024 05:00:00 +0100

In the winter of 1310 the emperor elect Henry VII not yet 40 years of age and every inch a king appears in Italy. An Italy torn apart by incessant violence, between and within the cities. Allegedly it is a struggle between the pro-imperial Ghibellines and the pro-papal Guelphs, but 60 years after the last emperor had set foot on Italian soil and seven years after the pope has left for Avignon, these designations have become just names without meaning, monikers hiding the naked ambitions of the powerful families.

The poet Dante Aligheri projects the hopes of many desperate exiles on Henry when he prays that “we, who for so long have passed our nights in the desert, shall behold the gladness for which we have longed, for Titan shall arise pacific, and justice, which had languished without sunshine at the end of the winter's solstice, shall grow green once more”.

A lot to get done for our Luxemburg count and his army of 5,000 men. Certainty of death, small chance of success, what are we waiting for?

Here is the link to Syrom‘s article:

https://generativeai.pub/knowledge-graph-extraction-visualization-with-local-llm-from-unstructured-text-a-history-example-94c63b366fed

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Ep. 145: Henry VII (1308-1313) - How to make Friends and Influence People

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 05:00:00 +0100

Henry, the new king of the Romans, just 30 years of age, tall and blond, every inch his forebearer the great Charlemagne had a one track mind. There was one thing he wanted and that was the imperial crown.

It is now 60 years since there last had been a crowned emperor. We had such an interregnum before, in the 10th century between the death of emperor Berengar of Friuli, yes, me neither, and the coronation of Otto the Great in 962. This, even shorter gap, had resulted in the transfers of the imperial honour from the Carolingians to the rulers of the German Lands.

It was high time to go to Rome and be crowned emperor. Otherwise more people will ask as John of Salisbury had: Who appointed the Germans to be judges over the peoples of the earth? Who gave these brutish, unruly people the arbitrary authority to elect a ruler over the heads of the people?

But to get to Rome for a medieval imperial coronation requires more than just picking up a plane ticket. First our new Barbarossa needs to assert his position in the empire, gather followers for the journey and establish peace and justice. He needs to convince the pope to send an invitation and the king of France not to send an army to stop him. Most of all he needs to calm down the Empire sufficiently so that it does not fall into anarchy whilst he is away.

And whilst he is busy making peace between the warring factions, convincing them that all he cares about is being semper Augustus, always augmenting the empire and reassuring everyone that he is not just enriching his family as his predecessors had done, that is when he walks away with the most valuable prize of them all, the kingdom of Bohemia.

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Ep. 144: Henry VII (1308-1313) -The Rise of the House of Luxembourg

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 05:00:00 +0100

On November 27th, 1308 the prince electors chose Henry VII, count of Luxemburg to be their new king of the Romans and future emperor. Little did they know that this decision will give rise to a dynasty that will rule the empire for as many decades as the Ottonian, the Salian and the Hohenstaufen had. A dynasty that featured such emblems of chivalric pride as the blind king John of Bohemia, builders of cities and empires like Charles IV and finally, in a faint mirror image of the height of medieval imperial power, an emperor who engineers the deposition of three popes and the appointment of a new one, whilst foreshadowing the wars of religion by murdering the reformer Jan Hus.

Today’s episode explores the backstory of the house of Luxemburg who have been around since Carolingian times. They were the “Where is Wally“ of the rich tapestry of High Medieval History, always somewhere in the picture, but never really in the foreground. Two women feature highly, the empress Kunigunde, wife of emperor Henry II and Ermesinde, who successful ruled the county for 47 years.

But the real step up came when Henry VII, barely 30 years old and running a county much diminished after the disastrous battle of Worringen became the only viable candidate to kingship. How that happened is what we will talk about in this episode..

As always:

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Ep. 143: Albrecht I (1298-1308) -The Murder of a King

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The late 13th century was the sniper’s alley for many a powerful family. The disappearance of great dynasties, the Arpads of Hungary, the Premyslids of Bohemia, the Zaehringer, Babenbergs, the counts of Holland to name just a few wasn’t down to lack of fertility but down to violence. Murder became so common, even those who did not have swords sticking out of their chest were presumed poisoned. To save them, some were suspended from the ceiling to flush out harmful substances. Violence was not limited to temporal princes, even the pope was getting slapped down for declaring that every Christian ruler was subject to the Roman Pontiff.

The fact that Albrecht I von Habsburg the new King of the Romans is murdered is therefore not the most interesting thing about him. What is astonishing is how far this man “with only one eye and a look that made you sick” got in his ambitions. Pressured from all sides, the Prince Electors, his own vassals in Austria, the Pope, the Bohemians, still he ploughed on, picking up principalities like others picking daisies. And a wrath of daisies is what did for him in the end…

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Ep. 142: Adolf von Nassau (1292-1298) - A Shadow of a King

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 05:00:00 +0100

After the death of Rudolf von Habsburg the Prince Electors chose another, now truly impecunious count, Adolf von Nassau to be king. They chose him over Rudolf’s son Albrecht and over the overwhelmingly most powerful prince in the empire, King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia.

This cultured and competent man became known to German history as a Schattenkönig, a shadow of a king, unable to wiggle out of his ties to the overbearing Electors. Acting as mercenary in the pay of king Edward of England and failing to create his own Hausmacht in Thuringia, many history books skip over his six years on the throne.

Nevertheless, the events of his election and deposition form another crossroads in the history of the German lands that set the Holy Roman empire further down the path to become neither Holy, nor Roman nor an Empire.

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Ep. 141: Rudolf of Habsburg (1273-1291) - Semper Augustus / Allezeit Mehrer des Reiches

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 05:00:00 +0100

Martin Rady in his highly amusing and exceptionally well written book on the Habsburg said: “The remainder of Rudolf’s reign up to his death in 1291 was a failure. He did not manage to have himself crowned emperor by the pope and had to make do with the title of king…it was a false dawn, both for the Holy Roman empire and for the Habsburgs”

I most humbly disagree. The 13 years following the battle of Durnkrut are some of the most transformative for the Empire and the fledgling concept of German and Germany. This episode will try to make the case for Rudolf I, founder of the house of Habsburg and one of the most impactful medieval rulers of the empire.

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Ep. 140: Rudolf of Habsburg (1273-1291) and the Golden King Ottokar of Bohemia

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will look at what the poor count Rudolf of Habsburg does once he had been elected King of the Romans. This is not the first time the electors have chosen a man of much more modest means than themselves. William of Holland and Hermann von Salm had failed to leverage their elevated status into tangible gains. But Rudolf is different.

Through a combination of charm, cunning and fecundity he managed to wrestle the duchies of Austria, Styria and Carinthia from its current owner, the immeasurably rich and profoundly vain king Ottokar II of Bohemia. A story of political acumen, personal bravery and dishonourable tactics on the Marchfeld.

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Ep. 139: Rudolf of Habsburg (1273-1291) - The End of the Interregnum

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 05:00:00 +0100

On October 1, 1273 seven princes elected a new king of the Romans. Their choice was a momentous one that set European history further down its path away from a universal empire to separate kingdoms and principalities.

The pope had demanded that they come to a unanimous decision so that the empire could again participate in a crusade to stop the remains of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to be swept away for good.

So why did they chose a modest count from what is now Northern Switzerland called rudolf von Habsburg and not any of the kings, dukes and princes who had been vying for the job and who could count on support from Naples, Rome, Prague and Paris is what we will look into in this episode, the first of our new season “from the Interregnum to the Golden Bull – the Holy Roman empire 1250-1273.

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Ep. 138: The Holy Roman Empire from 919 – 1250: Catch-up and Season Opener

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This episode is something I never thought I would do, it is a run through the history of the Holy Roman Empire from 919 AD to 1250, pretty much most of the periods I have covered so far. Why do it? If you’re one of those who have listened religiously to all 137 episodes so far and feel completely up to date with what happened in the past, this will not contain much news. However it has been a year since we last talked about the emperors and you may like a refresher about the Ottonians, Salians and Hohenstaufen. Just to get your bearings.

Or if you have only recently joined the HotGPod family – welcome. These next 40 minutes or so should give you a solid rundown of “The story so far”. And if you follow by reading the transcript on my website historyofthegermans.com, you can find links in the text that connect you to episodes that go deeper into the stories behind the short summaries you find here.

Here is the link to the epsisode webpage: https://historyofthegermans.com/2024/02/29/hre-919-12150/

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Ep. 137: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The Conversion and the End

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will talk about the end of the rule of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. Instead of a land ruled by a chivalric order answering to the pope, Prussia became a secular state, ruled by a protestant prince and run by a newly created class of land-owners, the famous Prussian Junkers whose impact on German history stretched well into the 20th century.

But the conversion of the last Grand Master and his submission to the Polish crown wasn’t the end of the order. In fact the order still exists to this day, though on a fundamentally different form, which is another fascinating history we will explore in this episode.

Episode Website with transcript, maps and lots more: Episode 137– Conversion • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 136: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - 13 Years of War

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 05:00:00 +0100

The theocratic state of the Teutonic Knights had survived the devastating defeat at Tannenberg with most of its territory intact. But underneath the foundations of the edifice are crumbling. The economy is in tatters, the theological justification for their existence has disappeared and their power as a military force has failed to keep up with the changing times. The order needs a new business model for absence of a suitable term. How well or badly it did in this attempt is what we will be looking at in this episode.

For the episode website with transcripts and links to maps, book recommendations etc. go here: Episode 136– 13 years of war • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 135: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - After Tannenberg

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0100

Last week we ended with the famous battle of Tannenberg or as the Poles would call it Grunwald and the Lithuanians Zalgiris. This battle is not just famous for its outcome but also for the various accounts of what happened. There is a Polish version there is a Lithuanian version and there's obviously a German version, actually 2 German versions. Though the one German version that blames the defeat on betrayal by Polish vassals is now debunked.

With that exception I find it rarely matters who did what during the battle but what the outcome was and what happened afterwards.

And afterwards the Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and all his major officers were dead as well as hundreds of Knights brothers and thousands of secular knights, crusaders, squires and mercenaries. What was also lying there prostrate on the battlefield was the notion of the invincibility off the Teutonic Order. As the Polish and Lithuanian troops pursued what remained of the order’s forces, the Prussian cities and castles opened their gates to the winners.

A complete victory? Well as it happened it would take another nearly 60 years before Poland would regain control of Pomerelia and its capital Gdansk. And even that wasn’t the end of the Teutonic Knights. Despite the devastating defeat, the loss of its purpose, and the fundamentally changed political structure inside their state, the Teutonic order soldiered on, how they managed is what we will explore in this episode.

Episode Website with transcript, maps and lots more: Episode 135– After Tannenberg • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 134: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - Tannenberg / Grunwald / Žalgiris

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This week we look at the reasons the golden age of the Teutonic knights came to an abrupt end at the beginning of the 15th century. It is a sequence of events that involve some remarkable Polish and Lithuanian princes, the Templars, and of course – The brothers of the house of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem. Ah, and a very famous battle.

Episode Website with transcript, maps and lots more: Episode 134– Tannenberg • History of the Germans Podcast

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BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Podcasts on Poland:

Poland Is Not Yet Lost — WDFpodcast.com

The History of Poland Podcast (libsyn.com)

Ep. 133: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The Order of the Order

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0100

In the century that followed the last of the Prussian and Livonian uprisings the states of the Teutonic Order in the Baltic experienced a period of economic growth and internal and external stability that is almost unique in the chaotic 14th century. Whilst Europe was in the grip of the Hundred-Years War, an incessant merry go round of internecine feuds, the Black Death, Papal Schisms and a deteriorating climate, this theocracy on the Northern Baltic shore became a beacon of prosperity and peace.

How was it possible that a religious order became an astute manager of its estates, a de-facto member, if not by its own claim head of the Hanseatic League and the organizer of the greatest chivalric adventure holidays for Europe’s aristocracy?

That is what we try to find out in this episode..

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Bibliography:

Werner Paravicini Die Preußenreisen des europäischen Adels : https://perspectivia.net/receive/ploneimport_mods_00009997

Eric Christiansen: The Northern Crusades

Ep. 132: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The Battle on the Ice

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 05:00:00 +0100

This week we look at the activities of the Teutonic order in Livonia during the 13th century. The situation in Livonia was profoundly different to Prussia and posed a number of new challenges for the brothers. In Livonia there were the powerful bishops of Riga to contend with who had led the crusade there since its inception in the 1180s. The Hanse merchants who have settled in Riga, Reval and Dorpat are no pushovers. Like in Prussia, the Lithuanians are a formidable force able to inflict painful defeats on the brothers as are some of the Baltic peoples who didn’t enjoy conversion at swordpoint as much as the planners back in Bremen, Marburg and Acre had hoped. And let’s not forget some new neighbors, the Danes in Northern Estonia and the great republic of Novgorod.

In 1240 a great effort gets under way to forcibly convert the orthodox Rus’ian states, including Novgorod that are already under pressure from the Mongols. In their distress the boyars of Novgorod make the second son of the grand duke of Vladimir becomes their military leader, a man we know as Alexander Nevsky. On April 5, 1242 Alexander Nevsky and his men stand on the shore of Lake Peipus staring at a squadron of heavily armored cavalry thundering across the ice towards them…

Whilst the riders almost certainly weren’t accompanied by Prokofief’s amazing soundtrack, they may have brought an organ, but that, like everything else about the Battle on the Ice is subject to intense debate, a debate we will examine in this episode.

Epsiode website: Episode 132– The Battle on the Ice • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 131: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The Conquest of Prussia (Part II)

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Last week we left the action after the Teutonic Knights had signed the peace of Christburg in 1249 to put an end to the first Prussian revolt. The local population had risen up with the help of duke Swantopolk of Pomerelia who feared for the commercial success of his main city, the city of Danzig/Gdansk. After 7 years of war and devastation the pope had forced both sides to the negotiating table and made them sign a peace agreement intended to be a long term settlement. It constrained the Teutonic Order and gave the converted Prussians civil rights on par with the settlers who had come from the German lands.

Things should therefore be calm and peaceful from here – well they weren’t. The fighting continued as the order expanded further north and inland and soon the Prussians and Pomerelains rose up again, and again…

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Ep. 130: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The Conquest of Prussia (Part I)

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Last week we heard about Konrad of Masovia’s offer of the Kulmer Land to the Teutonic knight. This week we will talk about what they did once they had accepted the offer. The first knights arrived in 1226 but it would take almost 6o years before their new principality of Prussia was fully established.

The Prussians, despite initially being lightly armed and disunited were no pushover. Rarely successful in open battle they disappeared into the dense forest or swampy marches before they could be routed. Again and again they rose up, reclaiming their freedom and again and again did the Teutonic Knights and the German and Polish crusaders pushed them back into submission.

Do not worry, this will not be an endless litany of battles and raids, but we will look at the relative military strength, the political structure they established and as you would expect, the economic underpinnings of the effort.....

Episode Website with transcript, maps and lots more: EPISODE 130 – The Conquest of Prussia (Part I) • History of the Germans Podcast

For Book recommendations, go here: Book Recommendations • History of the Germans Podcast

The translation of Nicolaus of Jeroschin is here: Jeroschin N. The Chronicle of Prussia (2016), OCR.pdf

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Ep. 129: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The First Grand Master - Hermann von Salza

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 05:00:00 +0100

“.. the far-sighted planning of Grand Master Brother Hermann von Salza had so strengthened the Teutonic Order that it had many members and such power, riches and honour that word of its fame and good reputation had spread the length and breadth of the empire.” So describes the chronicler Nicolaus von Jeroschin the role of the fourth and arguably most influential of the grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights. His role in promoting and expanding the order is hard to exaggerate. Without his skill and energy, the Teutonic Knights would have ended up like the Order of the Knights of St. Thomas. Have you have never heard of the Knights of St. Thomas, a English chivalric military order founded as a field hospital during the siege of the city of Acre in 1191? Well, that is the difference one man can make, at least very occasionally.

Episode website with transcript is here

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Ep. 128: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - Season Opener - A Chivalric Order

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Hello and welcome to a new season of the History of the Germans, the Teutonic Knights or to give them their full title, the knights of the hospital of St. Mary of the House of the Germans in Jerusalem.

Even though the state they had created in Prussia has been wiped off the map with all its cultural markers, the Teutonic Knights are not forgotten. Less shrouded in nonsense than the Templars, less devoted to social causes than the Knights of St. John they still loom large not just in German history but even more so in Polish and Russian history. Both of these nations have placed victories over the Teutonic Knights at key junctions of their national narrative.

But were the Teutonic knights these near invincible, cruel faceless war machines that Sergei Eisenstein had charging over the ice to the sound of Prokofiev brilliant score? That is what we will try to find out over the next few episodes. Expect your fair share of heroic battles, chivalric entertainment all intermingled with twisted theology and astute commercial activity. I hope you will enjoy it.

Episode website with transcript is here

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03044181.2022.2098528

Here is the link to the article by Cory Doctorow: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

Bibliography:

Steven Runciman: A history of the Crusades

Eric Christiansen: The Northern Crusades

William Urban: The Teutonic Knights - A mlitary History

Jurgen Sarnowsky: Der Deutsche orden

The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - An Interview with Carsten Jahnke

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Professor Carsten Jahnke, one of the leading historians on the Hanse has kindly granted us an interview where we discuss how the Hanse network functioned and how the perception of the Hanse has changed dramatically over the last 200 years, a story that almost as interesting as the history of the Hanse itself.

As listeners of the last season of the History of the Germans might have noticed, I have been relying heavily extensively on Carsten Jahnke's work. many of the episodes discussing the economic structure and the way money transfers worked in the network are based on his research. So if you liked those episodes, you will certanly enjoy this interview. Listen in!

And here are some links to research Carsten recommends for those of you who want to follow up further:

Christian Manger,

Behind the scenes: Urban secretaries as managers of legal and diplomatic conflicts in the Baltic region, c.1470–1540:

Carsten Jahnke,

Von Mandeln, Narde, Curcuma und Kümmel. Herkunft, Handel und Verbrauch von „exotischen“ Gewürzen und Lebensmitteln im nördlichen Europa, in: Die Ausgrabungen im Lübecker Gründungsviertel II. Archäoparasitologie, Handelsgeschichte, Paläopathologie und Anthropologie, ed. by Dirk Rieger, Lübeck 2022, s. 131-164

Carsten Jahnke,

Hansische Kaufleute und deren Religiosität ausserhalb ihrer Heimat, i: Zapiski Historyczne, Tom LXXXIV, Rok 2019, Zeszyt 1, s. 7-41.

There is also a lecture Cartsen gave at the German Historical institute in London on teh perception history:

https://www.ghil.ac.uk/publications/podcasts/the-hanseatic-league-as-a-national-project

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Ep. 127: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Art and Culture of the Hanse

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Our history of the Hanse has come to an end, not with a bang but with a whimper. Of the things that have remained we have already talked a lot, the ideal of the honourable Hanseatic merchant, the cultural and political links to Scandinavia and the stories. The stories of the famous pirates, Klaus Störtebecker and Hans Benecke, the heroics of the wars fought with Denmark and the antics of Jurgen Wullenwever.

But there is something that reminds us of the days when traders speaking low German fed Europe fish, beer and grain. And that are the cultural achievements, the town halls, weighing houses and stores that became symbols of civic pride, the artists whose works adorn churches and palaces across the Baltic sea and last but not least the brick churches that shaped the way these cities still appear..…let’s have a look.

And since podcasting is a most unsuitable medium to talk about visual art, I have added a few images to the episode webpage which you can find at Episode 127 - Art & Culture of the Hanse • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 126: A Brief History of Bremen

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Bremen was geographically and politically quite different from the other cities, ploughing its own furrow. In response the other Hansards did not trust the citizens of Bremen. There is also the minor issue that Bremen sheltered a lot of pirates. Still as the Hanse declined politically, Bremen took on an ever-larger role until becoming one of the last three Hanseatic Cities that kept that long-dead medieval relic plodding along until the late 19th century.

A story of rebellion, stubbornness, piracy and emigration to America, I thought worth telling.

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

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Ep. 125: The Rise of Hamburg in the 16th century and beyond

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0100

The last two episodes may have left you with a sense of gloom and foreboding about the great Hanseatic cities. But here is the counterintuitive fact, the Hanse may continuously loose political power and economic relevance, but the cities that make up the association are flourishing. Not all of them but some, Hamburg and Danzig in particular.

Why it is that the Hanse declines, but the Hansards are doing mightily well is what we are looking into this week. So let’s see….

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Bibliography:

J.K. Dunlop, Hamburg 800-1945, Published by the Anglo-German Club E.V.

Philippe Dollinger, Die Hanse, 6. Auflage, 2012

Ep. 124: The Hanseatic League - Decline and Fall (Part 2) - Jürgen Wullenwever's and Lübeck's last stand

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0100

1531-1535, a period of just 4 years is enough to capsize Lübeck’s position as the diplomatic heart of the Baltic Sea, general secretary of the Hanse, ally of both the king of Denmark and the king of Sweden and early member of the Schmalkaldic League. How can that happen?

As Edward Gibbon would say: History, in fact, is no more than a list of crimes of humanity, human follies and accidents”.

As always:

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

OPAC (regesta-imperii.de)

Bibliography:

Rainer Postel: Der Niedergang der Hanse

in Hanse, Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos: RI

Jahnke, Carsten: Die Hanse | Reclam Verlag

Philipp Dollinger: Die Hanse

Ep. 123: The Hanseatic League - Decline and Fall (Part 1)

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0100

1474-1531 was a time of immense change and upheaval for the Hanseatic League, and not just for them. The Habsburg empire is bedded into being, England’s war of the Roses is over, in the North the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth stretches all the way from Kyiev to Gdansk. The kingdoms and princes are getting stronger. Columbus tries to sail to India and Vasco da Gama actually sails to India. Luther nails his 95 theses on the doors of the churches of Wittenberg. All is in flux, and so is the Hanse and Lübeck, its most important city.

Well, is it still the most important city? What about Danzig/Gdansk and Hamburg who take advantage of shifting trade flows whilst Lübeck finds itself on the sidelines. Who do they blame? The Dutch and the Danes. Cometh the time, cometh the man – his name is Jürgen Wullenwever and he has all the solutions, or does he?..

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 122: The Hanseatic League - 15th century Politics - Calamitous Victories

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 05:00:00 +0100

In 1435 the Hanse can look back at a string of successes. Another war with Denmark won, the patrician regime in Lübeck and elsewhere restored, conflicts with Burgundy and England settled in their favour. But as Winston Churchill once remarked,

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”

And these problems are raising their ugly heads….

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 121: The Hanseatic League - 15th century Politics -A Constitutional Crisis

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 05:00:00 +0100

By the end of the 14th century the Hanse is at the top of its game. The Cologne Confederation had shown that they could act in unison if the need arises, can defeat the largest and best run kingdom in Scandinavia. And even the mighty duke of Burgundy had to yield to the power of the merchant cities.

But just 10 years into the new century the association faces a mortal crisis. Not because of retaliation from the outside but due to internal tensions. Not everyone in the great trading cities is happy about the war efforts and the impressive infrastructure projects…

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 120: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - Economics - Money, Money, Money

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This was supposed to be an episode where we talk about the challenges the Hanse was facing after the victory over the Danes and the Peace of Stralsund. But that is not to be. Listeners Mehmet and Nina pointed out a few gaps in what I had been talking about last week and now these need to be filled.

It is all good talking about the trading network and the flow of goods across the Baltic and northern Germany. But what about the opposing flow, the flow of money? How do the Merchants get paid? How can they pay for all the goods they, or their agents, are buying way down in Flanders and England? How do they cope with the sometimes erratic monetary policies of late medieval rulers?

After all, it is money that makes the world go round!

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Jahnke, Carsten: Die Hanse | Reclam Verlag

This episode relied heavily on:

Jahnke, Carsten: Netzwerke in Handel und Kommunikation an

der Wende vom 15. zum 16. Jahrhundert am Beispiel zweier Revaler Kaufleute. Netzwerke

(hansischergeschichtsverein.de)

Stuart Jenks: War die Hanse kreditfeindlich? on JSTOR

Historical documents of Hanseatic League added to UNESCO archival heritage list | Tallinn

Ep. 119: The Hanseatic League - 14th century Politics -What is the Hanse?

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 05:00:00 +0100

That was the question king Edward IV asked the representatives of the Steelyard in 1469. And he had a good reason to ask, because tensions between the English and the Hansa had escalated, ships were captured, and people got killed. He wanted to know who to negotiate with and in particular, who could sign a binding agreement that would put an end to this.

The answer he got was not very satisfactory....

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Carsten: Die Hanse | Reclam Verlag

And finally, bibliography. I would like to add a few works

to our usual list, in particular:

Jahnke,

Jahnke, Carsten: Netzwerke in Handel und Kommunikation an

der Wende vom 15. zum 16. Jahrhundert am Beispiel zweier Revaler Kaufleute. Netzwerke

(hansischergeschichtsverein.de)

Justyna

Wubs-Mrozewicz and Stuart Jenks, eds. The Hanse in Medieval and Early Modern

Europe. The Northern World: North Europe and the Baltic c. 400–1700 AD:

Peoples, Economies and Culture 60. Leiden: Brill, 2013. vi + 296 pp. $171.

ISBN: 978-90-04-21252-7. | Renaissance Quarterly | Cambridge Core

The

Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans The Boundless Sea

(wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk)

Ep. 118: The Hanseatic League - 14th century Politics -Pirates

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 05:00:00 +0100

In 1878 workmen building the Speicherstadt, the magnificent city of warehouses in the harbour of Hamburg made a gruesome discovery. In the mud of the Grasbrook, an island at the entrance of the medieval harbour of Hamburg emerged two piles of wood connected by a wooden bar. An ancient beacon guiding ships. What made it so special was what was nailed on to the bar, human skulls. Whoever these men were, they had been decapitated and their heads displayed as a warning. One of these skulls was quickly identified as that of Klaus Störtebecker, the notorious pirate.

The skulls were brought to the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, the Museum for the history of Hamburg. There they reconstructed the facial features of Klaus Störtebecker so that vistors can get a better picture of what Hamburg’s greatest nemesis looked like.

If you leave the museum and turn right you quickly get to Simon von Utrecht Strasse, named after the man who captured Störtebecker on his agile small cog, the Bunte Kuh, the painted Cow.

Störtebecker was brought to the Grasbrook where he and his 72 companions were beheaded on October 20, 1401. As his last wish, Störtebecker asked that all the men he could walk past after his head had fallen should be freed. That wish was granted, but when the headless pirate had passed 11 of his shipmates, one of the members of the city council tripped him up and in the end all of his men were killed, including those he had walked past.

Hundreds of books have been and will still be written about Störtebecker and Simon von Utrecht. Some of those I have devoured as a child and this is why it hurts so much to have to tell you – all a lot of nonsense. Störtebecker lived and robbed until 1413, 12 years after his execution, which is a long time for a headless corpse. And Simon von Utrecht was just a lad when he allegedly seized Hamburg’s greatest adversary.

The story may be a tall tale, but piracy and the Victual Brothers were real and they were a real threat to the Hanse, or at least I believe it was.

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

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Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 117: The Hanseatic League - 14th Century Politics -Embargoes

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:00:00 +0100

The Hanseatic League undergoes a fundamental transformation in the second half of the 14th century. It turned from a guild of merchants trading across the Baltic and the North Sea into an alliance of trading cities. An alliance that has proven that it can fight and win wars against major territorial powers. That sits quite uncomfortably with the existing European rulers who wonder what to do with this alien inside their body politic.

The Hanse had acquired a wide range of trading privileges in their main Kontors in England, Flanders, Norway and the Republic of Novgorod. These privileges did not only disadvantage the locals who were unsurprisingly hostile but also challenged the authority of the princes. That was just about bearable as long as this was just a community of grubby merchants from the Empire. Now that these merchants had built formidable cities, commanded great navies and toppled kings, it became an entirely different ballgame.

Furthermore, the legitimacy of the Hansa was fragile. The Hanseatic Cities, apart from Lübeck and Dortmund weren’t free imperial cities, making them at least formally subject to their territorial lords. As such they could not form an actual league of cities as the Northern Italian republics had done a hundred years earlier. Nor were they allowed to conduct foreign policy against their territorial lord, though they sometimes did.

These fault lines will become ever more apparent as we go forward with our history. This week we will get a first glimpse at what will lead to the ultimate demise of the League as we get into the year 1388, a year when the cities face off against three of the most powerful political entities in Northern Europe, the kingdom of England, the county of Flanders and the Republic of Novgorod.

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

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So far I have:

Ep. 116: The Hanseatic League - 14th century Politics -The War with Denmark Part II

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 05:00:00 +0100

The Hanseatic League is first and foremost an organisation driven by commerce and commerce rarely sees the necessity of war. But in 1360 the organisation that had only just transitioned from a community of merchants to an alliance of cities found itself in gridlock with Waldemar Atterdag, Waldemar Dawn, king of Denmark.

Waldemar’s objective throughout his 35-year reign was to rebuild the kingdom of Denmark that had virtually disintegrated under his predecessors. And for that he needed money. That money he got from the two sources of wealth of the state of Denmark, taxing the trade in herring and the tolls for passing through the Oresund. The Hansards who dominated the herring trade and the traffic through the Oresund were the ones who were supposed to pay for that.

If that had not breached the tolerance levels of even the most sober Hanseatic merchant, the attack on Gotland and occupation of the Hanseatic city of Visby did. A fleet leaves Lübeck in 1362 to put the Danish tyrant back into his box…

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

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So far I have:

Ep. 115: The Hanseatic League - 14th century Politics - The War with Denmark Part I

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 05:00:00 +0100

By the end of the 13th century the key foundations of the Hanseatic League are laid. The trade routes that connect the Baltic to Western Europe are largely under the control of merchants who had come from Northern Germany and settled along the Baltic shore. Four great Kontors in Novgorord, Bergen, Bruges and London have been set up. The cities that make up the League, from Tallin to Cologne have gained city laws, built their walls and selected their city councils.

We are now entering the Calamitous 14th Century, a time of war, spiritual disorientation, plague and deteriorating climate. These four riders of the apocalypse devastate formerly flourishing lands and cities across Western Europe, delivering a sucker punch that brings 300 years of economic expansion to a screeching halt. But, as they say in Asterix, “all of Europe is occupied with the challenges of the 14th century. Well not entirely. There is a corner of the world where a league of merchant cities is heading for the zenith of its economic, financial and military power…”

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

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Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 114: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Economics - The London Steelyard

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 05:00:00 +0100

If like many of you, you are listening to this podcast on your morning or evening commute and you happen to live in London, you may be one of the 20 million souls going through Cannon Street Station every year. Few of them will be aware that under their feet lay the vestiges of the great Hanseatic Kontor in London that goes back to 1176. If people know about the Steelyard, it is mainly through the portraits of merchants painted by Holbein between 1532 and 1536 at a time when the Kontor had only about 60 years left.

But there is a lot to tell about this now vanished building, its inhabitants and trade. It is a story of infighting between the various cities that were still to officially form the Hanseatic league, of trading privileges granted to fund first a crusade and then the hundred year’s war, andit is also a great opportunity to introduce the oldest, largest and richest member of the Hanseatic League, the city of Cologne.

As promised here are my favourite German winemakers (and there are lots and lots more..)

Nahe Valley (exc. value for money)

Rheingau (top quality but expensive)

Moselle/Ahr

Baden

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 113: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Economics - Bergen and Bruges

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Today we will talk about the Bryggen, the famous Hanseatic Kontor or trading post in Bergen in western Norway. Bergen itself was never a member of the Hanseatic League, but like The St. Peter’s yard in Novgorod, the steelyard in London and the Kontor of Bruges, the Bryggen in Bergen was a key element of the Hanseatic trading network.

The trade in stockfish from Bergen was never on the same scale as the herring trade off Scania or the trade in beeswax and furs from Novgorod, but it was an important springboard for members of the lower classes to join the long-distance merchants. And the way the Hanse was able to gain a stranglehold over the proud Vikings of Norway is a cautionary tale of failed macro-economic policies.

If you think the Norwegians are unique in falling prey to aggressive Hanseatic trade policies, think again. Even the mighty Bruges, the warehouse of the medieval world” was made to grant these merchants from the Holy Roman empire far reaching privileges.

Some have considered these events as the beginnings of a long process of specialisation in Europe that condemned the East to become the giant breadbasket that fed the industrialising West. I doubt things are that simple, but let’s have a look at the different arguments….

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

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Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Ep. 112: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Economics - Grain and Beer

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will kick off with the string of cities along the Baltic Coast from Lübeck up to Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad). Who founded them and why? And why so many? Who were the people who came to live there, how did they organise themselves and most importantly, what did they produce and what did they trade?

We will dwell on the most splendid of those, Gdansk or Danzig in German, the one city in the Baltic that could give Lübeck a run for its money, a place that developed as six separate cities and only became one entity in the late 15th century. And as we talk about Gdansk, we will also talk about the Vistula River, Europe’s nineth longest that connected Gdansk not just to many of Poland’s great cities, but also to the agricultural wealth of the Prussia of the Teutonic Knights, to the Ukraine and to ancient Lithuania.

And all that foodstuff is put on ships and goes to the growing cities of Flanders, the Rhineland, England, Northern France and even Spain. For the first time since the fall of the Roman empire do we hear about large scale grain shipments that sustain urban centres, urban centres that couldn’t otherwise exist.

But grain is not the only thing that the Hansa become famous for. The other is Germany’s most popular drink and best-known export, beer. The economics there are even more fascinating, since people did not only drink vast quantities of beer in the Middle Ages, they also cared a lot about where it came from, and Einbecker was Europe’s favourite beer.

The episode webpage with transcripts and further links is available here

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

For this episode I again relied

heavily on:

Philippe Dollinger: Die Hanse –

definitely my go-to-book for this season

Die Hanse, Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos, herausgegeben von Jürgen Bracker,

Volker Henn and Rainer Postel

Rolf Hammel-Kieslow: Die Hanse

Ep. 111: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Economics - The Copper Mines and Fisheries

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 05:00:00 +0100

“on its eastern side the sea breaks through and cuts off the western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly yields each year an abundant haul to the nets of the fishers. Indeed, the whole sound is apt to be so thronged with fish that any craft which strikes on them is with difficulty got off by hard rowing, and the prize is captured no longer by tackle, but by simple use of the hands.” So writes the the late 12th century Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus about Zealand, the island he believed to be the most delightful province and heart of Denmark.

In the year 1400, 550 ships arrived in Lübeck, bringing 65,000 barrels of salted Herring to the city at the mouth of the Trave River. But that was only a fraction of the total that is estimated to have been as much as 300,000 barrels of herring a year that were caught in the narrow sound between Copenhagen and Malmo and then processed in a giant temporary market town on the Skanör peninsula. All these vast quantities of fish were needed to feed the European population who had not only acquired a good dose of piety but also as many as 140 fast days per year when the consumption of hot-blooded animals was banned.

How the trade in Baltic Herring became a monopoly of the Hanseatic league and the backbone of its trading network is what we will discuss in this episode. No worries, it is not just about salting techniques and the difficulties of shipping a load of fish over thousands of miles. There will be a battle with knights and everything…..and an extended detour into the largest copper mine in Europe that funded the 30-years war. I hope you will enjoy it.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

For this episode I again relied

heavily on:

Philippe Dollinger: Die Hanse – definitely my go-to-book for this season

Die Hanse, Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos, herausgegeben von Jürgen Bracker, Volker Henn and Rainer Postel

Rolf Hammel-Kieslow: Die Hanse

If you want to know more about the story of the Swedish copper mining have a look at the Falu Gruva website Falu Gruva - Upptäck tusen år av historia or go to the Unesco world heritage site about Falu Gruva and look through the application for the inclusion on the World heritage List which gives a very detailed account of the mining activities there: Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun (unesco.org)

And finally I have to thank the Scandinavian History Podcast which helps me understanding the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian perspective on these events: https://podfollow.com/1536322900

Ep. 110: The Hanseatic League (1143-1669) - The Economics - Riga, Tallinn, Dorpat, Narva

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 05:00:00 +0100

“In the monastery of Segeberg there was a man of worthy life, and with venerable gray hair, Meinhard by name, a priest of the Order of Saint Augustine. He came to Livonia with a band of merchants simply for the sake of Christ and only to preach. For German merchants, bound together through familiarity with the Livonians, were accustomed to go to Livonia, frequently sailing up the Daugava River.”

So begins the chronicle of Henry of Livonia, a German missionary who tells about the foundation of the bishopric and city of Riga, the conversion of the pagan population of what is today Latvia and Estonia, and the cruel antics of the Livonian brotherhood of the sword.

In this episode we will touch upon the Livonian Sword brothers and we take a first glimpse at the Teutonic knights, but this is the history of the Hanseatic League and so what we really focus on are the merchants, specifically the merchants from the “Society of German merchants who frequently travel to Gotland”, the Gotlandfahrer who we have met last week.

Because the tale we hear today adds the other important streak to the structure of the Hanseatic League, its willingness to use military force in the pursuit of profits.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

For this episode I relied heavily on:

Philippe Dollinger: Die Hanse

Die Hanse, Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos, htsg. von Jürgen Bracker, Volker Henn und Rainer Postel

Rolf Hammel-Kieslow: Die Hanse

Eric Christiansen: The Nordic Crusades

And since we are at it, I came across a really interesting article about the trade in beeswax in the Middle Ages by Dr. Alexandra Sapoznik titled “Bees in the medieval economy”. I have put a link in the transcript that you can find on the History of the Germans Website. A bit niche and geeky but quite fascinating: Bees in the medieval world: economic, environmental and cultural perspectives - King's College London (kcl.ac.uk)

Ep. 109: The Hanseatic League (12th century) - The Economics - Gotlandfahrer

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 05:00:00 +0100

If I put the word Hanseatic into Google Search I get as result number 4 “Hanseatic King’s Lynn -Visit West Norfolk”. I can say with absolute confidence that there is not a single German individual, place or organisation that a small town in England would choose to not just associate with but incorporate itself into its history, safe for the Hanseatic League. They may play Zedoch the Priest at the coronation but that is because both Handel and Price Charles are considered English with German roots. Kings Lynn calling itself a Hanseatic city is a different thing. And it happens in many other places, Bergen is proud of its Hanseatic past as is Visby in Gotland or the Dutch former members of the League.

The love of all things Hanseatic goes so far that it even overrides the German fascination with all things car related. As you may know, the German system of numberplates is strictly hierarchical. The first 1, 2 or 3 letters indicate the place where the vehicle is registered at the time. The more letters, the smaller the town or county of registration. For instance, WES stands for Wesel and STD for Stade, two of the smaller members of the Hanseatic League. The two-letter cities are plentiful and some, like LG stands for Lüneburg and BS for Brunswick. Only the largest cities get to proudly display just one single letter – for instance K for Cologne, B for Berlin and F for Frankfurt.

But what about Germany’s second largest city, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg? Does your honourable Hamburg merchant drive round in a car ostentatiously displaying a proud single H? No, of course he doesn’t. His numberplate is HH, standing for Hansestadt Hamburg, leaving the single H to the inland Hanoverians. Other Hanseatic cities like Bremen, Lübeck, Wismar, Rostock, Greifswald and Stralsund also proudly carry an additional H on their numberplate, a subtle reminder to everyone that their hometowns are different and dare one say, superior to other cities.

How can an organisation that had hardly any permanent institutions traded rather pedestrian commodities like grain, Hering, furs and beeswax and ceased to exist in 1669 still stir so many peoples’ hearts with pride, that is what we will try to figure out in this podcast series.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have:

Bibliography:

Philippe Dillinger: Die Hanse

Die Hanse, Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos, curated by Jürgen Bracker, Volker Henn and Rainer Postel

Rolf Hammel-Kieslow: Die Hanse

And special thanks for the translation of the Artlenburg Privileg to Dr. Jenny Benham.

And special thanks to Dr. justyna Wubs-Montzewicz whose research I found eye-opening

Ep. 108: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - From Saxony to Saxonies

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 05:00:00 +0100

These last few episodes you may have wondered how all this hangs together. This week we will try to resolve this question. What we will talk about is how the great stem duchy of Saxony fell apart. And there are two stories about that. One is the story of Henry the Lion and his fall in 1180. That story has been repeated over and over again and put into a context of rivalry between the Welf and the Hohenstaufen, between Guelfs and Ghibellines. It makes for a great story of betrayal and revenge. But it is also partly wrong and more importantly, not the whole story. The whole story is one about princely opposition against centralising tendencies, about an antagonism between the south and the north and about a broad trend of fragmentation of power that engulfed not just the empire but also Italy, Poland, Denmark and others.

It is the resulting environment of warring mid-sized principalities that allowed alternative structures like the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Knights to emerge. So let’s get straight into it.

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Ep. 107: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - The House of Wettin

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 05:00:00 +0100

If you ever come to Dresden, and if you like art, architecture and history, you very much should, you may want to turn into Augustusstrasse right by the Residenzschloss. What you fnd there is the largest porcelain artwork in the world, 102 metres long and made from 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles. This is the “Fürstenzug”, the procession of princes.

It was made to celebrate 800 years of the House of Wettin who ruled over what we now know as the land of Saxony. It portrays 35 margraves, electors, dukes and kings from 1127 to 1904. Being essentially a 19th century artwork, it depicts all these Saxon rulers as powerful military leaders surrounded by their fighting men and important nobles, all in contemporary costume.

There are 94 depictions and only one female figure in the whole procession. So, was the lasting rule of the House of Wettin built upon their martial prowess? Well they did fight a lot, but the true source of their power is depicted in one of the very last figures of the procession coming after the princes, the army, the intellectuals and the artists and largely obscured by the images of the carpenter and the builder involved in the project. What that figure represents and what lay at the heart of the Wettiner success, we will find out…

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Ep. 106: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - How to make a Mark in Brandenburg

Thu, 25 May 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we continue our walkabout of the major centres of power in the North of Germany that emerged during the 12th and 13th century. We talked about Holstein and Lübeck and now it is time to talk about the march of Brandenburg which means we need to talk about a character that had bit part roles on the podcast for quite some time, Albrecht the Bear. He was one of the longest lasting protagonists in the story of the German Middle Ages, playing a role in the reigns of Henry V, Lothar III, Konrad III and Frederick Barbarossa, though his lasting impact was on the Eastern European stage where he founded the March of Brandenburg, the political entity that through a lot of twists and turns becomes the Kingdom of Prussia and the heart of the Second Empire. So, let’s see what he was up to.

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Ep. 105: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - The Foundation of Lübeck

Thu, 18 May 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will look at one of the great mysteries of German medieval history, how Lübeck could become the second largest City in the Holy Roman empire within just 100 years from its foundation. Lübeck lies on a small river, the Trave that goes into a small Sea, the Baltic. Not only is the Baltic comparatively small, the peoples who live on its shores are no slouches. They have been famed for travelling as far south as Constantinople and as far north as Greenland for centuries. So how did the future capital of the Hanseatic League manage to grow so fast? We will go through the different theories and maybe we can find out…

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Ep. 104: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - The Making of Holstein

Thu, 11 May 2023 05:00:00 +0100

In today’s episode we finally get closer to the history of the Hanseatic League. We will take a look at some of the fundamental changes in the Saxon policy towards the east that were ushered in during the reign of Lothar of Supplinburg and shaped events for a long period thereafter.

It is in these decades that the Saxon magnates will realise that raiding and plundering of the lands east of the Elbe is no longer the financially most attractive option. A great organised migration from the overpopulated Rhineland, Holland and Flanders into Northern Germany begins.

What we will look at specifically is the county of Holstein and its brand-new counts, the lords of Schauenburg. These ambitious and proactive family will develop these lands and found or re-found two of the most significant cities of the Hanseatic League, Lubeck and Hamburg.

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Ep. 103: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - Lothar III gets things going for real

Thu, 04 May 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we talk about what happens after the fight for independence is won. As had happened countless times before in history, precious freedoms gained in bloody struggles can be lost easily in the subsequent peace, not to the old adversary, but to new, homegrown usurpers. That is at least one way of telling the story, the other being, that every major political upheaval is followed by a period of consolidation that embeds the gains made and truncates the excesses that appeared during the revolutionary period.

Something like that happened following the Saxon wars when Lothar of Supplinburg, a hitherto minor count from Westphalia is raised to ducal authority in 1106. Before he took the reins of the duchy, Saxony had turned into a free for all. Whenever a rich count or margrave fell victim to the various dangers a civil war generated, his cousins and peers would race to first seize his wife or daughter and then use their claim to grasp as much of his property as possible. A process not much more dignified than the opening of the doors on a Black Friday pre-pandemic.

Lothar established a central authority for the duchy that calms things down considerably. It is during this time that four of the five great princely dynasties in the North get established, the Welf, the Wettins, the Ascanier and the counts of Holstein. The rise of these four was however not a given. There were others, like the counts of Stade and Wiprecht of Groitzsch whose burning ambitions came to nought as they stumbled in the race between reproduction and their near inevitable violent death.

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Ep. 102: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - Investiture Controversy and its impact on the East

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will hit the arguably most important set of events in medieval German history often summarised under the banner of the Investiture Controversy. The Investment Controversy came about through a confluence of three major strains, the rise in piety in the wake of improving economic conditions, the establishment of the papacy as a power separate and superior to temporal rulers and thirdly, the opposition of the German magnates against centralising tendency of the emperors, led by the Saxons. And it is the latter part this episode focuses on. If you are interested in the whole story, the episodes 30 to 42 can give you the overarching story. I actually listened to them again and am a little bit proud of what I have done there. So much for self-aggrandization and let’s find out.

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Ep. 101: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - Mecklenburg - Gottschalk and Adalbert

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will follow the history of two men who could not be more different. On one side is Gottschalk, leader of the pagan Abodrites, who first comes to prominence as a brutal raider killing Saxons all across Holstein in revenge for his father’s killing. The other is Adalbert, son of a count, brother of the count palatinate of Saxony, friend and confidant of Henry III, a man who refused the offer of becoming pope for his ambition to convert all of Scandinavia and the Baltic. These two men formed an alliance against the Saxon magnates in general and the Billungs, dukes of Saxony in particular.

It is a story of greed and violence, of Christian conversion and attempts to break out of strategic gridlock…

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Ep. 100: Colonisation of the East(700-1200)- The (second) Saxon War

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 05:00:00 +0100

As we go through the story of the Saxon Stem duchy in the 10th

and 11th century, two or maybe three main strains of the story

emerge, the gradually drifting away of Saxony from the empire, the relationship between Saxons and Wends and the antagonism between the archbishop of Hamburg and the magnates. As for the first part of the storyline, the conflict between Saxons and the empire we are now hitting the hot stage.

I did cover that already a long time ago in Episode 31 “The (second) Saxon War”. I had at some point thought of simply dropping the old episode into the feed as it quite neatly summarises the events of the great Saxon rebellion that precedes the journey of emperor Henry IV to Canossa. But then I thought I should at least put these events more into the context of the history of the North. So, most of what you hear now is recycled material with just a few artfully designed segues –as Wilhelm Busch used to say “wovon sie besonders schwaermt, wenn es wieder aufgewaermt”....

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Ep. 99: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - Follow the Money

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we stumble into the next imperial succession where the Saxons are again standing on the side lines. On paper the new guy, Konrad II was a man after their own heart, fearsome warrior untroubled by bookish learning, but he was also a sponsor of the church. His son, Henry III was even more so, and there are many reasons why the Saxon magnates did not like the ecclesiastical princes. And it is not just about them greedily gobbling up lands and privileges, but they are also hitting them where it hurts most – the economy, stupid…

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Ep. 98: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - The Rift between Emperor and Saxon Princes

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we are talking about the rift that is opening up between the Saxons and the Empire. For 80 years Saxony had been the centre of imperial power and the Ottonians had been supportive of the Saxon nobles’ policy vis-à-vis the Wends and Poland. All that Is about to change. The new emperor Henry II, though a direct descendant of Henry the Fowler, was no Saxon. For three generations his family had been dukes of Bavaria and all that exposure to the despised southerners had rubbed off. The Saxons were too divided to field their own candidate, but that does not mean they wanted Henry II.

And for good reason. The new administration drives a 180 degree turn in imperial policy versus Poland and versus the Slavic tribes in the Marches….

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Ep. 97: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - Rebellion!

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Now that we know the lay of the land it is time for action, and quite some action it will be. The Wends, the pagan Slavic peoples living east of the Elbe who found themselves ever more squeezed by their now Christian neighbours wake up one morning to find their oppressors fatally weakened. Events 2000 km south of Brandenburg create the once in a century opportunity to throw off the yoke of the Saxons. The newly built churches go up in flames and their tormentors flee back across the Elbe. Any plans for retaliation are thwarted by a succession crisis. This loss of control will have a major impact not on German history, but will reset the relationship with Poland and Bohemia as well. In the year 1000, emperor Otto III will manifest this new relationship when he visits one of Poland’s most remarkable monarch, Boleslav the Brave in Gniesno. Let’s find out…

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Ep. 96: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - The Neighbours - Poland, Bohemia and Denmark

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week we are still getting our bearings. Last week we saw the emergence of the Stem duchy of Saxony and the Eastern marches. This week we take a look at the most important neighbours to the East and North, the Bohemians, the Poles and the Danes.

It is right around this time, the middle of the 10th century that these coalesce into political entities. As always none of this happens smoothly, so expect all sorts of battles and betrayals, including a legion of thieves…

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Ep. 95: Colonisation of the East(700-1200) - Callous Kings and Murderous Margraves

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 05:00:00 +0100

I have to start with an admission. I promised you a History of the Germans but I am afraid there is no such thing. All I can give you is the histories of the German people. The last 94 episodes you have heard one of the histories of the Germans, the one about the mighty emperors and their political, military and spiritual struggle with the papacy. It is a great story, and it was fun to tell it.

But today we kick off another of the histories, the history of the North of Germany, the part that looked east, rather than south. It is a story of a frontier culture where an estimated 7% of the population of the western part of the empire pack up their belongings and move east, sometimes under the cover of expansionary princes or knightly orders, sometimes invited by local potentates looking to grow their economies. It is a story about the creation and expansion of trade networks, the foundation of cities, some that will remain modest in size, others that turn into important European capitals. It is the story of a periphery that will in time become the centre.

And because it is an almost independent history, we start at the beginning, in the year 772, the year when Charlemagne takes his troops into Saxony hell bent on turning these pagan tribesmen into good Christians and subjects of his emerging empire. If things work out as I hope, we should end this episode with the life of Hermann Billung and Margrave Gero, the first of a wave of chancers and warlords that seek their fortune in the east.

And to all of you who may be new to the History of the Germans Podcast, do not panic. You do not have to catch up on all the previous episodes; you can just start right here, and the narrative should make sense in itself – at least I hope it will. However, some say that the previous three seasons weren’t completely shoddy and may be worth listening to.

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Ep. 94 - Questions and Answers

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0100

Here we are. 2 years of the History of the Germans Podcast. 93 main episodes and 102 when we count bonus episodes, interviews and the like. That makes 3,223 minutes or 2d, 5h and 43minutes of recorded history. At the last count you have downloaded 914,413 episodes which means if you had all listened to all of the episodes, you would have spent a cumulative 20,000 days listening to me!

Wow! It is only fair that I listen to you for once! And that is what this episode is all about.

Thank you all for all your questions and comments. It was great to see how much you care about the story we have gone through. I really enjoyed reading them and I think I will attempt to answer all of them.

I did organise them by topic going from general to specific, so the podcast in general, the Sources, German history in general, the Hohenstaufen and then Frederick II and his sons.

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Ep. 93: Frederick II's Afterlife - from Fake Emperors to Ernst Kantorowics

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0100

On July 7th, 1285, a sunny day in the city of Wetzlar, a day’s ride north of Frankfurt acrid smoke rises from a mighty pyre built up just outside its walls. The pyre was for an emperor, or at least a man who claimed to be the emperor Fredrick II. This man had shown up in the Rhineland, gathered followers, set up a court and sent letters to prince and cities across the realm. Envoys had come from Italy to find out whether the Stupor Mundi had indeed returned. King Rudolf of Habsburg had to turn up in person at the head of an army to sort things out. Just before the fires were lit the (fake) emperor called on to his followers to proceed to Frankfurt as planned where he would re-appear in three days’ time.

He did not reappear in Frankfurt but in Utrecht, where the imposter was hanged. The next sighting was in Lübeck in 1286, where he was killed again. In 1295 he was again captured and burned at the stake. The myth of the emperor who lives and does not live persisted over the centuries. Sometime in the 15th or 16the century the myth transfers from Frederick II to Barbarossa who now dwelt in the Khyffhaueser mountain waiting to be called.

Frederick II was relegated to a secondary role amongst the great medieval emperors until in 1927 a hitherto unknown writer, Ernst Kantorowics published his biography of Frederick II. This book became the most intensely discussed and most controversial biographies of a medieval ruler – full stop. Its view of the emperor was suffused with the right-wing ideology of the George Kreis. Hitler allegedly read it twice, it was on Goebbels’ bedside table, but at the same time Claus von Stauffenberg, the leader of the July plot to assassinate Hitler was a friend of Kantorowics and Admiral Canaris, another key conspirator asked for the book to read before his execution. Its Jewish author disliked the Nazis despite his extreme right-wing views. He fled Germany in 1938 and distanced himself from his most famous work. In the US he got caught in the nets of McCarthyism when he refused to swear an oath to fight communists. A rare case where the biographers biography is almost as fascinating as his subject, well worth exploring.

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Ep. 92: Pope Boniface VIII - Showdown with the Papacy - Papal Epilogue

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0100

The popes have won the 200-year fight with the emperors, first the Salians and then the Hohenstaufen. A total war that ended in total victory. The imperial family of the Henrys of Waiblingen has been annihilated either in battle, through illness or at a last resort by execution. The empire is reduced from dominating power in Europe to coordinating mechanism for the princes. How could anyone deny that, to use the words of pope Boniface VIII, “it is altogether necessary for salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff”.

Well, someone will deny that and six years after these words were uttered the church will march north into its Babylonian Captivity in Avignon. How did that happen? That is an even more intriguing question than how the Hohenstaufen could be wiped out.

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Ep. 91: Konrad IV, Manfred and Konradin (1250-1268) - Hohenstaufen Epilogue

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0100

When Frederick II died in 1250 there were four legitimate male descendants of the emperor, his son Konrad IV, elected king of the Romans, his son Henry, a mere six years old, but from most noble blood, his son Manfred from his relationship with Bianca Lancia who had married on her deathbed. And there was a grandson, the child of his unlucky oldest son Henry (VII). 18 years later when this episode ends, the House of Hohenstaufen will be wiped from the face of the earth. Lets find out how that could happen..

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Ep. 90: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Showdown with the Papacy - Things Are Falling Apart

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week things will indeed be falling apart. The never-ending war is exactly what it is, a never ending, unwinnable war against an enemy that hides on the other side of the Alps and cannot be attacked. Money is running seriously low, and Frederick II is getting concerned about the loyalty of his closest associates. And those he will lose, one due to the vagaries of war, the other through a bout of paranoia.

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Ep. 89: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Showdown with the Papacy - Holy War against the Emperor

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0100

This week the epic struggle between empire and papacy goes into its final stretch. The pope has fled to Lyon. There he calls a church council which Frederick is now unable to forestall. Pope Innocent IV deposes Frederick, and – for the first time in history – calls a crusade, not against the Muslims, not against pagans, not against heretics or Greek orthodox rulers, but against a Latin Christian monarch who for years had tried to find an amicable solution to what was a political, not a religious disagreement. And all that against the backdrop of Jerusalem having fallen into the hands of the Turks, and the Mongol armies on the march.

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Ep. 88: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Showdown with the Papacy - A Road to Peace

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week our story kicks off with the death of pope Gregory IX, nonagenarian impeccable foe of emperor Frederick II. Peace is in the air. Of the 11 cardinals getting together in the dilapidated Septizonium once built by emperor Septimus Severus, half wanted a more conciliatory vicar of Christ, but the other half did not. The very first papal conclave followed as the senator Matteo Orsini locks the cardinals up in horrible conditions. When finally one of them is chosen, he died just 17 days later from the exertions.

By now all the cardinals have fled and the church remains without a head for almost 2 years. At the same time the descendants of Genghis Khan descend upon Europe. Jerusalem falls to the Turks, the Latin empire of Constantinople is on its last leg..

Is it time for the emperor and the pope to bury the hatchet and face the real enemies of Christendom…..?

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Ep. 87: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Showdown with the Papacy - The Beast out of the Sea

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0100

“Out of the sea rises up the Beast, full of the names of blasphemy who, raging with the claws of the bear and the mouth of the lion and the limbs and likeness of the leopard, opens its mouth to blaspheme the Holy Name and ceases not to hurl its spears against the tabernacle of God and against the saints who dwell in heaven. With fangs and claws of iron it seeks to destroy everything and to trample the world to fragments beneath its feet. It has already prepared its rams to batter down the walls of the catholic faith. . . . Cease ye therefore to marvel that it aims at us the darts of calumny, since the Lord himself it doth not spare. Cease ye to marvel that it draws the dagger of contumely against us, since it lifts itself to wipe from the earth the name of the Lord. Rather, that ye may with open truth withstand his lying and may refute his deceits with the proofs of purity: behold the head and tail and body of the Beast, of this Frederick, this so-called Emperor. . .."

Such wrote Pope Gregory IX in 1239. How did we get there? Is there a way back from this? Let’s see…

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Ep. 86: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Showdown with the Papacy - Oops, we did it again

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0100

Emperor Frederick II has knocked the Milanese for six at Cortenuova. Their war cart, symbol of communal freedom has been captured and taken into Cremona in triumph. The Lombard league that once defeated his grandfather Barbarossa is falling apart and pope Gregory IX is cowering in the Lateran Palace. What shall he do now? Negotiate peace or go for complete submission? This decision will seal his fate and that of his entire family…

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Ep. 85: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Showdown with the Papacy - Cortenuova

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we are back to action stations. We resume our narrative in 1235 when Frederick II gathered his vassals in Mainz to implement his grand plan to regain the imperial rights in Northern Italy. He picks up where his grandfather Barbarossa and his father Henry VI had to leave things, trying again, but this time with the resources of Southern Italy behind him….and it’s déjà vu all over again.

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Ep. 84: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Stupor Mundi - The Art of Hunting with Birds

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This is a whole episode about a book, a book called "De Arte Veneri cum Avibus" the Art of Hunting with Birds. Hunting books are similar to books about fishing, riveting for those who do it, crushingly boring to those who do not.

But this book is not about hunting in the same way as the The Old Man and the Sea is about fishing. But this book is not about hunting, it is about nature about the beginnings of science and the awakening of the critical mind. It is about someone who acts and thinks very differently to his contemporaries, the Stupor Mundi. Come and take a look...and listen to me getting into a rant.

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Ep. 83: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Stupor Mundi - The Court of Frederick II

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0100

Near the town of Andria in Puglia rising from a rock that makes it visible for miles stands entirely on its own a stone structure we call the Castel del Monte. Its ground plan is unique, and like many other of the Emperor's buildings it was probably sketched by Frederick himself: a regular octagon of yellowish limestone; its smooth perfectly-fitting blocks showing no joins and producing the effect of a monolith : at each of the eight corners a squat octagonal tower the height of the wall; two storeys identical in height, each containing eight large equal rooms, in the shape of a trapeze; an octagonal central courtyard adorned with antique sculptures and imitations of the antique, in the centre of which a large octagonal basin served as bath. Every fraction of the structure displays the mental make-up of the Hohenstaufen court: oriental massiveness of the whole, a portal foreshadowing the Renaissance, Gothic windows and rooms with groined and vaulted roofs. The defiant gloom of the tiny-windowed rooms was mitigated by the furnishings; the floors were of mosaic, the walls covered with sheets of reddish breccia or white marble, the groined vaults supported on pilasters with Corinthian capitals, or by delicate clustered columns of white marble. Majesty and grace were fused in one.

Of all that remains of Frederick II nothing epitomises the personality of the great emperor more than this building, which may have been a fortification or a hunting lodge or an enormous marble crown celebrating the concept of universal imperial power. In this and the following episode we will look not at the emperor’s deeds but how he lived and what he did away from the world of power politics that made the English Chronicler Matthew Paris call him Stupor Mundi, the Wonder of the World.

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Ep. 82: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Stupor Mundi - The Mainzer Landfriede on 1235

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0100

What do you do once you have condemned your eldest son and heir to life imprisonment? Exactly, you have a party, or more precisely you have two parties. But as always with Frederick II, these are not just knees-up for entertainment, but elaborately staged political events. The first is a wedding, the second a grand get-together of the whole realm and then there is a third, a funeral of a kind you would not have expected from our rational, seemingly agnostic hero. Lots to unpack as always…

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Ep. 81: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Stupor Mundi - Henry (VII), son of the emperor and rebel

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:00:00 +0100

If you have only listened to the last 5 episodes or so, you may be wondering whether this is really the History of the Germans or whether you have accidentally stumbled into A History of Italy minus the eloquence and humour of Mike Corradi. So today we will leave the shores of the Mediterranean to travel up north, though not with a train of mules carrying gold and silver, camels, dromedaries, leopards and apes as Fredrick II did in 1235. The reason for that journey was nowhere near as joyous as the display of wealth and exotic animals suggests. It is a tale of a father and son relationship that went disastrously wrong…

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Ep. 80: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Stupor Mundi - The Constitutions of Melfi

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 05:00:00 +0100

A medieval ruler that has a Muslim fighting force at his back and call and who negotiates Jerusalem out of the hands of the Sultan of Egypt is not what you expected when you began listening to the History of the Germans Podcast. I am afraid you aint seen nuttin yet!

This week we come to what was long believed to be his masterpiece, the Constitutions of Melfi. Even if It isn’t the creation of a modern state in the 13th century as Kantorowicz had believed there is still something fundamentally different here. The Middle Ages is a world where progress comes from people moving forward whilst looking back. They ask questions about the world and seek the answers in the past, in the Bible, the Church Fathers, Aristotle, Averroes etc. Only where the ancients are silent will great minds like Albertus Magnus look at the real world, undertake experiments and collect observation to derive their answers.

Frederick is different. He does turn around and look at the natural world first and at dusty books second.

Let’s see what that means when it comes to organising his kingdom.

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Ep. 79: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Stupor Mundi - Return to Sicily

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we look in a bit more detail how Frederick II regained his beloved kingdom of Sicily. For 30 years after the death of the last Hauteville king in 1190 the institutions of that kingdom had been eroded, the crown estate squandered, and powerful local forces had been riding roughshod over the royal administration. Fredrick will bring this land back under his firm control. That is however not your usual return of the king story, because the way he does it is no longer typically medieval…..

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Ep. 78: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Sixth Crusade - A Crusade without Crusaders

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This is a story I was looking forward to telling for quite some time. It has everything – crossed wires, stubbornness and vitriol as well as diplomacy, cultural awareness and stunning success. It is the story of the crusade of Frederick II, that has no parallel, for one because Frederick did undertake it whilst banned by the pope and further, because he brought Jerusalem back under Christian control for one last time, without a shot being fired. The latter had not been achieved since the Frist Crusade and will not be repeated in the Middle Ages

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Ep. 77: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Becoming Emperor - A Nail in the Coffin

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we take a look at the reign of Frederick II in Germany from 1212 to 1220. Most of what he did was putting a nail in an actual coffin whilst also putting the metaphorical nail into the carcass of imperial rule in Germany.

And was that such a bad thing? What happens when the emperor just hands out what is left of the royal demesne? Cathedrals go up, princes hold splendid courts and none of them think about disturbing the peace in Italy. If you are the king of Sicily, that is a near perfect result.

And if you are the pope, even more so, in particular when Frederick II throws in a brand-new crusade and swears on all that is holy that he would never pursue a link-up between Sicily and the empire.

Everybody happy? Let’s see..

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Ep. 76: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Becoming Emperor - From Urchin to Emperor

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will go back 20 years and pick up the other strain of our history of the Hohenstaufen. The last three episodes we focused on events in Germany and the struggle between Philipp of Swabia and Otto IV.

Today we take a closer look at the early years of Frederick II, before he came up to Germany and took over. Little is known but much has been written about the youth of emperor Frederick II, not only because it was exceedingly turbulent, but also because it forged a man who burst on the European stage aged 14 already displaying many of those personality traits that would make him known as the Stupor Mundi, the Astonishment of the World. How did he become who he became?

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Ep. 75: Frederick II (1196-1250) - Becoming Emperor - Wet Pants and other Miracles

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0100

Otto IV, scion of one of the oldest and most aristocratic families in the world had achieved what so many of his ancestors have craved, ruling the empire. This week we will follow him to his coronation and the sequence of errors that will leave him back home in Brunswick, alone and forgotten. At the same time his nemesis, the child of Pulle, the impoverished 15-year-old king of Sicily and son of emperor Henry VI, young Frederick II rises to the imperial crown on a wing and some very potent prayer.

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Ep. 74: Otto IV (1198-1215) - The War that Broke the Empire

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0100

The kingdom is in turmoil. Two pretenders fight for supremacy. On the one side, Philipp of Swabia, son of the emperor Barbarossa, brother of Emperor Henry VI. and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. In the opposite corner stands Otto IV., son of Henry the Lion, protégé of king Richard the Lionheart and preferred candidate of pope Innocent III. protagonists are the imperial princes who play the two kings against each other for their personal gain, swearing fealty one day and breaking it the next. It only ends with murder most foul.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 74 - A Breaking of Oaths • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 73: Philipp of Swabia (1198-1208) - One Pope, Three Emperors

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will see the reverse of 1046 when there was one emperor choosing between three popes. Today, we have one Pope, given the choice between three emperors. How could that happen? Last time we looked we had Henry VI. at the peak of his reign, being king of Sicily, having pushed through the inheritability of the imperial title and de-facto encircled the pope militarily. But now, just 2 years later the picture is reversed. There is a reason the wheel of fortune is one of the favourite subjects of high medieval art..

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Ep. 72: Henry VI (1189-1197) - Conquest of Sicily - Clouds on the Horizon

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 07:45:00 +0100

This week we will watch Henry VI’s attempts to make the papacy comfortable with the fact that their neighbour to the south is now the same as their neighbour to the North. Pope Celestin may see it as encirclement by a family whose track record as sons of mother church had been to say it politely, a bit patchy. But Henry VI thinks there is a way to make this work.

Let’s see…

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 72 - Clouds on the Horizon • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 71: Henry VI (1189-1197) - Conquest of Sicily - To Catch a King

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 14:30:00 +0100

There is one story from the Middle Ages that most people know, the imprisonment and ransom of King Richard the Lionheart of England. The chivalric knight and hero of the Third Crusade is cowardly set upon by a gallery of villains, his brother, John Lackland, the King of France, Phillippe Auguste and the money grabbing emperor Henry VI, ably assisted by duke Leopold of Austria. We will look at this story from Henry VI. perspective which make Richard look a lot less compelling.

And we throw in one more great story - the birth of an emperor in a tent in the centre of a town witnessed by the matrons of the town....

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 71 - To Catch a King • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 70: Henry VI (1189-1197) - Conquest of Sicily - From Father to Son

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 18:30:00 +0100

When Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph in 1190 the crown transfers to his eldest surviving son, Henry, known to History as Henry VI.

This is the first time since the accession to personal rule of Emperor Henry III in 1039 that the imperial crown moves from father to grown up son without a glitch. In the previous 150 years, the passing of an emperor had been a dramatic event where all the cards were dealt anew. Just remember, Henry IV came to the throne as a child, Henry V by rebellion against his father, Lother III wasn’t in any meaningful way related to the imperial family, Konrad III came in by a coup against the named heir, as did Barbarossa. The French meanwhile had five transitions from father to son, with only one 6-year regency. This consistency in reproduction is one of the key reasons the Capetion dynasty was so much more successful than their German counterparts, though the greatest of the Capetions has only just appeared, Phillipp II Augustus (1180 to 1223). More, and a lot more about him later.

Talking about famous protagonists, the other contemporary of Henry VI is of course Richard the Lionheart (1189 to 1199). Of him we will hear even more.

But today’s episode is mainly about the lay of the land and the first attempt to achieve the main aim of his reign, control of the kingdom of Sicily.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 70 - From Father to Son • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 69: Germany in 1200 Medieval Faith

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 13:30:00 +0100

Way back when, in Episode 30 we identified three drivers of the Investiture Controversy. These were: the conflict between the emperor and the princes, the conflict of the emperor with the popes and the rise and rise of piety amongst the lay people. These last 38 episodes we did talk at length about the how the princes established their own territorial lordships against the imperial central power and man did we talk about the conflict between popes and emperors.

But that third element we only touched in passing. We covered the Paterna uprising in Milan and later the emergence of the scholastic method, the role of Bernhard of Clairvaux and the crusading movement. But that did not mean at all that lay piety had gone away. Absolutely not. It was the most crucial development in what Jacques le Goff called the “Birth of Europe”. Now is the time to talk about it in context.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at https://historyofthegermans.com/69-2/

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Ep. 68: Germany in 1200 - The Cities

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we take a tour of how cities in Germany worked around 1200 with a brief detour to look at what happened later and how they differ from Italian and French cities.

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Ep. 67: Germany in the Year 1200 - The Peasants

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 06:30:00 +0100

This is about the peasants, no kings, emperors, popes, bishops at all. Ok one brother of a duke at the end because I simply cannot help myself. But yes, peasants. What was the life of a peasant in Germany in around 1200 really like? How much do we actually know about their living conditions? Did it differ much from country to country?

The correct answer to all of these is – we are not really sure. These sections of the podcast are always the hardest ones. Following some king or emperor around is fairly straightforward. That s what the sources are focused on and you can compare them as well as the different interpretation and you get a half decent picture of what is likely to have happened. But nobody has written a chronicle about the poor Michel, sharecropper on the lands of the count of Pfullendorf. Let alone a second one from the perspective of the count.

Still we try.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 67 Germany in the year 1200 - The Peasants • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 66: The Myths of Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190)

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 05:00:00 +0100

We have just spent 15 episodes talking about the life and times of the actual Frederick Barbarossa. Exciting as his life was, his afterlife is almost as interesting. Don’t panic I will not go on for 15 episodes talking about the perception of the great emperor. Just give me 30 minutes and I promise it is worth it.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at https://historyofthegermans.com/66-2/

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Empires of the Normans with Dr. Levi Roach

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 05:00:00 +0100

We had the great pleasure to interview Dr. Levi Roach, Prize-winning author and Associate Professor at the University of Exeter about his new book, The Empires of the Normans..

We have encountered the Normans many times in the History of the Germans. This is the chance to get the whole story.

It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten - until now.

'In this fascinating, panoramic account, Levi Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy to the telling of their extraordinary story' Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves

'A fresh retelling of the story of the Normans . . . written with enthusiasm and brio' Marc Morris, bestselling author of The Anglo-Saxons

Publisher: John Murray Press

ISBN: 9781529398465

Number of pages: 320

Weight: 540 g

Dimensions: 236 x 158 x 30 mm

Ep. 65: The Third Crusade (1189-1192)

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 09:30:00 +0100

This week, after 15 episodes we will finally leave the emperor Barbarossa behind, though it is almost impossible to ever get away from him. No other medieval ruler is still so present in the national psyche, not as the man he was but as the myth he was turned into. So today we say goodbye to the man and next time we will take a look at the myth..

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at https://historyofthegermans.com/65-2/

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Ep. 64: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Consolidating Power - The Heirs of Troy

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will discuss how Barbarossa attempts to rebuild a new ideological underpinning of his role and how that leads to renewed conflict with the popes. But then one of the most devastating events of the Middle Ages solves all his issues and presents him with an opportunity to turn the mythmaking up to 11.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 64 - The Heirs of Troy • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 63: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Consolidating Power - Peace and Recovery

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 05:00:00 +0100

Following the Peace of Venice and the Fall of Henry the Lion, our great emperor Barbarossa has reached the end of the road. Being a man of infinite resource and sagacity he climbs out of the hole, resets his political allegiances and recovers some of his previous standing.

As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at Episode 63 - Recovery • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 62: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Consolidating Power - The Fall of Henry the Lion

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This episode deals with, guess what, the fall of Henry the Lion from his position as duke of Saxony and Bavaria. The interesting bit is not so much whether it happened, that is pretty obvious, but why it happened. When I learned about it in school, it was seen as the greatest moment of Barbarossa’s career, taking down the eternal rival of the Hohenstaufen family, but today, historians see it very differently. Follow along and make up your own mind. Talking about following along, there is an episode website at Episode 62 - The Fall of Henry the Lion • History of the Germans Podcast where you can find the transcript, maps and images that makes it easier to check places and names as you listen to the podcast.

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Ep. 61: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - The Peace of Venice

Thu, 26 May 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we will talk about the great peace conference in Venice where Barbarossa is finally reconciled with the papacy, the Lombards and the Sicilians.It is also the time he has to bend the knee before his implacable foe, Pope Alexander III in a grand ceremony before all of Europe.

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Ep. 60: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - Battle of Legnano

Thu, 19 May 2022 13:00:00 +0100

1176 This week we talk about the next leg in this the fifth Italian campaign Barbarossa undertakes. It involves an aborted battle, attempts at peace, a mediation award, a refusal of support and the most significant battle of not just his reign but one that reverberates into the present day

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Ep. 59: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - The City of Straw

Thu, 12 May 2022 05:00:00 +0100

(1168-1174) This week we talk about Barbarossa’s next moves after his disastrous fourth Italian campaign. It takes him a few years to come to grips with the failure of his great imperial programme before he makes one last attempt to resurrect it.

The siege of Alessandria turned into a nightmare...

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Ep. 58: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - The Lombard League

Thu, 05 May 2022 05:00:00 +0100

(1162-1167 again) This week we will talk about the second part of the pincer movement that brought that Hohenstaufen construct of imperial power crashing down to earth. The first was the schism in the Latin church and the second was the link-up of almost all northern Italian communes in a coalition against Barbarossa, the Lombard League.

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Ep. 57: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - Siege of Rome 1167

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we do what we have done so many times and seem to be unable to avoid, talk about the conflict between pope and emperor. And that always means trouble, bad decisions and a siege of Rome. But boy, this time is not another standard schism, this time it is showdown.

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Ep. 56: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - The Fall of Crema

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 19:00:00 +0100

1159-1162 This week we will see how the Italian Communes take the Laws of Roncaglia. Not well is the understatement of the 12th century. Prepare for some epic sieges and harsh imperial justice.

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Ep. 55: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - The Laws of Roncaglia

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 05:00:00 +0100

By September 1158 Barbarossa had completed one of the shortest and most efficient Italian campaigns of the medieval period. He had set off from Augsburg in mid-July and by early September Milan had capitulated. By October, most troop contingents both those from north of the Alps and those of the communes were on their way home and all of Italy was his.

Barbarossa meanwhile is not going home. He takes a tour of Lombardy, visits Monza where his uncle had been crowned king of Italy and then calls an Imperial Assembly on the fields of Roncaglia for November 11th.

For the Italians this whole thing starts to look a little bit odd. Why is he still here? Milan has fallen, imperial honor has been restored and the army has returned home, so surely the emperor is going home too. There must be some domestic issue or feud or something that requires his presence up north. But it can’t be helped; they show up as requested, hoping that all he wants is a last knees-up before going home.

They are in for a shock. Barbarossa is going to unleash on them a new and unexpected weapon, more devastating than a trebuchet and more cunning than a Bohemian king, I talk of course of the professional lawyer and the Roman Law.

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Ep. 54: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Wars in Italy - A Bohemian Bluff

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 05:00:00 +0100

(1158) This week we will see Barbarossa try using his freshly minted army to take down the city of Milan, a city of 150,000 and the one commune that he needs to defeat if he really wants to establish imperial rule in Italy

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Ep. 53: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Unification of the Empire - Sacrum Imperium

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0100

(1155-1158) This week we will see how Barbarossa addresses the big issue he had in his first Italian campaign, the size of the army and how he creates the Holy Roman Empire in the process.

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Ep. 52: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Unification of the Empire - The Honour of the Empire

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0100

1153-1155

This week we finally get our narrative going. Barbarossa will boost the honour of the empire by burning cities, hanging heretics, slaughtering rabble-rousing Romans and inventing the concept of the university.

With an introduction by Robin Pearson from the History of Byzantium. Check out his website here: https://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/

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Ep. 51: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Unification of the Empire - The Barbarossa

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0100

1152

In this episoe we examine Barbarossa's background, childhood and education. What is it that made him so exceptional? And we investigate whether the Cappenberger Head is indeed an individual likeness of the emperor, or just another image of what an emperor is supposed to look like.

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Ep. 50: Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) - Unification of the Empire - Barbarossa Begins

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0100

(1149-1152)

In his last few years the ill and exhausted king Conrad III relies more and more on his nephew, Frederick, the duke of Swabia called Barbarossa because of his ginger beard.

Barbarossa forms the cornerstone linking the warring houses of Welf and Waiblingen. His military capabilities and diplomatic skills propell the barely 30 year old to the top of domestic and international politics.

When Conrad III died suddenly, he sees his chance. Pushing aside his cousin, the 8-year-old son of Conrad III, he gains support from both the old family allies as well as from its archrivals, Henry the Lion and Welf VI. He had to promise a lot, but it was enough for him to be elected and crowned in a record 24 days.

But that is where the hard work starts. Conrad had left a realm in anarchy. Can Barbarossa calm it down?

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Ep. 49: Second Crusade (1147-1149) - Konrad's Catastrophe

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0100

1147-1149 The title is a bit of a spoiler. Suffice to say that Cornad III's great crusade does not go quite as planned.

He had set off with an army of between 20,000 and 60,000 from Regensburg in June 1147 making his way doen to Constantinople via Hungary and the Balkans. Ever eager for glory he had set off a month before his rival, king Louis VII of France and he presses on towards Jerusalem.

Before the year is out he will find himself in Ephesos, severly wounded, his army broken and spread across the four winds. But being a man of infinite- resource-and-sagacity, he keeps going, trying to gain at least one small bit of glory in the Holy Land.....

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Ep. 48: Welf vs Staufer - Konrad III (1137-1152) - Konrad's Conundrum

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0100

1144-1147 - King, not really Emperor Conrad III may have signed a precarious peace with his greatest opponent, Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. But the kingdom remains in turmoil. Feuds are everywhere, devastating the land. His half-brother bishop Otto of Freising sees all that death and destruction as a clear portend of the imminent arrival of the Antichrist.

Though Conrad is methodically addressing his underlying weaknesses, he needs a boost to his authority and he needs is quick. The traditional route of an imperial coronation in Rome is a no go for a long list of reasons. In this desperate situation news arrive that the most fragile of the crusader states, the county of Edessa had fallen to the Muslims. Is this the opportunity Conrad had been praying for?

All that plus the usual accoutrements of mad saints, power crazy popes and treacherous nephews...

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Ep. 47: Welf vs Staufer - Konrad III (1137-1152) - Konrad's Coup

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0100

1138-1142 This week we will watch another candidate having the royal title snatched from his fingers. Henry the Proud, duke of Bavaria, duke of Saxony, Margrave of Tuscany and Este, richest landowner in Germany and Italy, son-in-law of the previous emperor and his designated successor is a shoo in for the imperial title.

Only Conrad of Hohenstaufen, failed anti-king and hero of the Italian campaign together with his friend, Albero, archbishop of Trier and James Bond of the 12th century dare to disagree.

Will it be the German nobles or again the church who will be deciding the election? We know where the pope stands who had fallen out with Henry the Proud over some ransom money two years earlier...

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Ep. 46: Welf vs Staufer - Lothar III (1125-1137) - A Topsy Turvy World

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0100

1130-1137 - Emperor Lothar III is getting embroiled in the schism between popes Innocent II and Anaclet II. Anaclet II is properly elected and holds Rome whilst Innocent II enjoys the support of the most influential church leader of the time, St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

Fear of St. Bernard drives Lothar into the camp of Innocent II which means he has to go down to Italy and conquer Rome for the Pope. Not only that but it also means a conflict with Roger II by now king of Sicily and master of a large Norman /Saracen army.

And hat is in it for him? A rewriting of the Concordat of Worms? Ownership of the lands of the great countess Matilda? or something entirely different?

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Ep. 45: Bernard of Clairvaux - Lothar III (1125-1137) - Triple Division

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0100

This week we take a little detour to catch up with our friends in Rome, the popes. Do not worry, the popes are no longer all goody two shoes, we are back to the usual shenanigans of murder, backstabbing, betrayal and the Normans.

The church is divided three ways, between the two rival Roman clans of the Frangipani and the Pierleoni, between the old school Gregorian reformers and their more radical successors, led by Bernard of Clairvaux and between mystics and scholastics.

Everyone has to take sides as papal candidates are cut down, get tortured and flee the eternal city. But we are not back to the days before the council of Sutri. No longer can the ruling families put thugs or debauched adolescents on the throne of St. Peter. Popes need to be respected to keep the Roman economy going.

But the real head of the church is an abbot from Burgundy, Bernard of Clairvaux who is longing for an ecstatic union with the heavenly bridegroom - hence the picture (Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Ecstasy of Santa Teresa, 1647-1654)

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Ep. 44: Welf vs Staufer - Lothar III (1125-1137) - A Saxon Emperor

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 05:00:00 +0100

With just a 24h delay here is Episode 44.

Lothar III being duly elected and crowned declares a 12 month peace for the whole realm., only to break it himself a few months later.

Frederick of Hohenstaufen, his rival for the crown is unwilling to hand over the crown lands he is still holding. And after gentle insistence did not achieve much, cold hard steel need to be put to work.

In the first 5 years, Lothar is beset with a spot of bad luck. Sieges fail and he even gets beaten by the duke of Bohemia. The Hohenstaufen elect Frederick's younger brother Konrad to be king. Konrad rushes off to Italy to be crowned King of Italy and even makes a bid for the imperial crown.

Being king isn't what it was made out to be. Follow us as Lothar extracts himself from the malaise and even kicks off a new policy arena that will drive Eastern European history for 300 + years.

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Ep. 43: Welf vs Staufer - Lothar III (1125-1137) - All Change, All Change

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 05:30:00 +0100

Hello and welcome to Season 3 of the History of the Germans Podcast - The Early Hohenstaufen 1125-1189.

Between March and June of 1977 675,000 people visited the Alte Schloß in Stuttgart to see an exhibition entitled “Die Zeit der Staufer” (the Time of the Hohenstaufen in English). Over 1,000 items from 17 countries were on display, with the Cappenberger Kopf, the image of emperor Frederick Barbarossa, this episode’s artwork as its star exhibit.

Nobody expected these numbers of visitors for what was just 3,000 square meters of exhibition space. At peak times there was barely a square meter per person. People fainted in the low and badly ventilated rooms. They sold 150,000 copies of the enormous four volume exhibition catalogue, one of which to my father who proudly displayed it in his office for 40 years and is now in a box en route over to mine.

Whilst most other medieval German rulers are all but forgotten, interest in the Hohenstaufen never completely disappeared. Why is that? They were by no means the most successful emperors, that crown has to go the Ottonians nor was their reign the most fateful, that was the reign of the later Salians.

Frederick Barbarossa and his grandson Frederick II have been such fascinating personalities that almost any age could project their own perceptions and expectations onto them, from champion of national unity to modern man before his time. Time to find out what really happened, who they really were. As always a great many things keep happening, some good, some bad.

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Ep. 42: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - A World Revolution?

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 18:15:00 +0100

In this episode we will come to the end of the Investiture controversy, the end of the Salian dynasty and the end of Season 2 – and ask the question, what was all that about?

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Ep. 41: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - The Concordat of Worms

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0100

In this week’s episode the last of the Salians will find that despite all his efforts, the tide of history cannot be stemmed, almost leaving him in exactly the same place his father ended up in 1076.

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Ep. 40: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Henry V has a Cunning Plan

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 04:30:00 +0100

In this episode we will see whether young Henry V will do any better at ending the conflict between Pope and Emperor, featuring one of the most audacious political moves seen in this conflict.

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Ep. 39: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - The Final Betrayal

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:00:00 +0100

This week we will talk about the last years of Henry IV, which, as hard as it is to believe, holds a final humiliation that capped the pain this man had already endured.

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Bonus - Matilda of Tuscany

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 04:30:00 +0100

I did promise you an episode on Matilda of Tuscany, and here it is.

But, it is not mine. This episode is from the fantastic podcast "A History of Italy" by Mike Corradi. I cam across it when I was researching the Matilda Episode and I realised in horror, that if I wee to create a Matilda Episode, it would be very much like this one, only worse. So I asked Mike whether I could borrow his work.

Listening to Mike will give you a great though different perspective of the same events and I get the chance to lounge about the house, watch Netflix and eat crisps.....

If you enjoy Mike's work, why don't you subscribe to his podcast. His website is here: https://ahistoryofitaly.com/podcast/

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Ep. 38: The First Crusade (1096-99)

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 04:30:00 +0100

In 1095 Pope Urban II launches the First crusade. Emperor Henry IV and his allies would rather be strung up below a beehive covered in honey than join a scheme devised by the Gregorian Pope.

The lack of support by the high aristocrats did not stop the common people most of whom perish before the crusade had really begun. And some turn their religious fervour into a very different endeavour, bringing untold pain to the Jewish communities in Germany..

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Ep. 37: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - The Marriage of Matilda of Tuscany

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0100

The wheel of fortune turns again, tumbling our antihero Henry IV down from the heights he had so recently scaled. We will see him sink to the point of utter despair. And all that because a 43 year old woman marries an 18 year old.

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Ep. 36: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Henry IV Coming Home at Last

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 04:30:00 +0100

His coronation barely two months hence, Henry IV leaves Rome without capturing Gregory VII. The Pope's powerful vassal, Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and greatest of Norman warlords was approaching with an army of 36,000. Henry no longer needs Rome, what he needs to do is get back to Germany and bring peace to the war-ravaged country. A u-turn in his policies helps to gain support amongst bishops and magnates so that by 1089, the country is largely pacified for the first time in 17 years.

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Ep. 35: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Taking Revenge on Gregory VII

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 10:00:00 +0100

The Rebellion in Germany under control Henry can finally go after his true nemesis, Pope Gregory VII. He sets out for Rome on a journey he thought may just take four months but ended up taking four years..

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Ep. 34: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Gaining the Upper Hand

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 04:30:00 +0100

Henry IV departs from Canossa having been released from the ban. But does that mean all his troubles are over? Far from it. His enemies in Germany gather to elect a new king and the war of words turns into a war of swords.

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Ep. 33: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Canossa Finally!

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 04:30:00 +0100

It is time - we are finally going to Canossa. Expect imperial power to disappear in smoke, greedy mothers-in-laws, frozen passes, hoisted horses and tobogganing empresses. All that ends with the enduring picture of a king first kneeling before a woman and then before a pope.....

That is the the episode you have to listen to!

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Ep. 32: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Hildebrand, not Pope but False Monk

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 04:30:00 +0100

The rise of the papacy since 1046 is almost linear. The popes throw off the chokehold of the roman aristocracy, they take over leadership of the church reform movement from the emperors, and by the end of the pontificate of Alexander II the Holy See has become universal with kings hailing the pope and not the emperor as their overlord.

In 1073 Hildebrand, the eminence grise of the last 20 years ascends the throne of St. Peter. His view of the role of the papacy goes even further than his predecessors. We know this because he laid it out in one of the most remarkable documents of the middle ages, the Dictatus Papae.

This ever expanding role of the papacy had to collide at some point with the other universal power, the emperor Henry IV. Letters are exchanged and words are spoken that set events in motion that will destroy them both.

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Ep. 31: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - The (second) Saxon War

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:00:00 +0100

In 1065 king Henry IV begins his personal rule. After 9 years of regency., the last 3 of which under a government of barons headed by archbishop Anno of Cologne, imperial power is much diminished. Prelates and lords are raiding the imperial purse, when the barons force the young king to dismiss his main adviser, he realises that the previous model of kingship no longer operates. He cannot rely on the oaths of fealty sworn by his counts and dukes, nor can he put faith in the Imperial Church System his predecessors could draw on.

He chooses the royal lands around the rich silver mines of Goslar as the nucleus for his new, territorial power base. He builds mighty castles on the tops of mountains that project royal power, he installs a governor, rather than a count as the head of his administration, and most of the castles’ garrison and administrators are ministeriales, unfree men trained in war.

This new policy clashes with the Saxons, the stem who had already stood in opposition to Henry's father and had plotted to murder him when he was only a child. In 1073 the Saxons gather in an assembly to hear Otto of Northeim 's famous speech that turned disaffection into outright rebellion. In 18 months, Henry IV's Saxon War will become a rollercoaster where he goes from unconditional surrender to triumph - but is the triumph going to last?

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Ep. 30: Investiture Controversy (1065-1122) - Three Roads to Canossa

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 04:30:00 +0100

Emperor Henry III is dead. The realm is now in the hands of his widow, Agnes of Poitou who rules on behalf of the six-year-old king Henry IV. Agnes is no Theophanu and no Adelheid. Not that she is incompetent, she just isn't absolutely brilliant, and absolutely brilliant is the baseline necessary to manage this fragile situation.

The relationship between the central imperial power and the magnates has flipped, and instead of all-powerful emperors, the dukes, counts and bishops do what they like. And Henry III's bête noire, Godfrey the Bearded is more powerful than ever.

The laity calls for a church that is more like the church of the apostles, pious and dedicated to the poor. They demand an end to simony and the licentiousness of priests.

And the papacy asserts its independence. Not that they necessarily intend to throw off the imperial yoke, but the reformers need protectors against the Roman aristocracy that literally used popes as footstools and ATMs.

All this culminates in a situation where the young king Henry IV sees no other way to escape from his opponents than by jumping into the cold and fast flowing River Rhine, choosing death over captivity..

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Ep. 29: Henry III (1039-1056) - The Medieval Empire at its Zenith

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 06:30:00 +0100

In 1046 Henry III reached the zenith of his rule. He deposed three unworthy popes and replaced them with serious churchmen who will bring the necessary reforms about. Domestically he is in control of the three Eastern European states, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary and the restless Lotharingians seem settled.

How did it come about that by 1056 the chronicler writes that "both the foremost men and the lesser men of the kingdom began more and more to murmur against the emperor. They complained he had long since departed from his original conduct of justice, peace, piety, fear of god and manifold virtues in which he ought to have made progress"

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Ep. 28: Henry III (1039-1056) - Three Popes with One Stone

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 06:30:00 +0100

In 1046 Henry III finally has time to go to Rome and claim the imperial crown. All he wants is get in, get crowned and get out before the Malaria season. He encounters a problem when he finds out that the current pope Gregory VI has bought the papacy for cold hard cash, a sin that could invalidate his coronation. Henry III gets involved, deposes all three competing popes and inadvertently starts a chain of events that ends in what Norman Cantor calls "the first of the three world revolutions".

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Ep. 27: Henry III (1039-1056) - Peace in Our Time

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 06:30:00 +0100

The main role of a medieval monarch is to bring peace to his subjects. Peace is not so much absence of major international conflict, but protection from feuding lords. Whilst in France central power is far too weak to maintain any semblance of order giving rise to the Peace of God movement, the empire under Henry III can rely on its monarch to fulfil his role.

But his rule is not without tension. The dukes of Saxony and Lothringia are moving into opposition to the king and emperor who falls severely ill in 1045.

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Ep. 26: Henry III (1039-1056) - Comin' in Smoothly

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 06:30:00 +0100

For the first time in almost 70 years the transition from one king/emperor to the next is smooth. Konrad II was not only one of the most successful medieval rulers, he also managed to live long enough for his son Henry III to grow up to adulthood before taking over.

Henry III is outwardly quite different from his father, well educated, deeply immersed in the concepts of sacred kingship and immensely powerful even before he had become king. But at the same time he shares Konrad's steely determination and aggressive nature.

Items 1-3 on his agenda are Poland (a mess), Bohemia (a pseudo-Boleslav) and Hungary (an old grudge).

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Ep. 25: Speyer Cathedral - Konrad II builds the Largest Church in Europe

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 06:45:00 +0100

In his last years Konrad tries to further strengthen his power, first by fighting the Hungarians, unseating the duke of Carinthia and a second Italian expedition. Al three of these endeavours backfire. The Hungarians win the war, the duke of Carinthia gets unexpected support from Konrad's son Henry III and the Italian campaign ends in a fiasco entirely of Konrad's making.

Despite these setbacks Konrad leaves a well ordered kingdom when he finally dies in 1039 after 15 years of rule. His kingdom is booming, the creation of Ministeriales and the growth of the cities create opportunities for peasants who find themselves under increasing pressures from their landlords. Castles and churches are being built on an unprecedented scale, culminating in the Cathedral of Speyer, the largest building in Europe at the time (together with the Abbey Church of Cluny)

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Ep. 24: Konrad II (1024-1039) - The Acquisition of Burgundy

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 07:45:00 +0100

The event looming over Imperial politics since around 1000 is the Burgundian succession. King Rudolf III is childless leaving several contenders with varying degrees of blood relations. If Henry II who was a nephew of Rudolf III had outlived the king of Burgundy, thigs would have been easy. But the old codger outlived the sickly emperor. His successor, Konrad II had no real inheritance right to Burgundy, apart from what came from the tips of spears. Follow the epic fight against Odo of Blois over the ultimately modest riches of the Burgundian Kingdom…

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Ep. 23: Konrad II (1024-1039) - Duke Ernst, Rebel and Legend

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 08:45:00 +0100

In this episode Emperor Konrad II (1024-1039) consolidates his reign adding a secular leg to his control of the imperial church by placing his son Henry on the ducal throne of Bavaria,. This is the first of many ducal and royal titles he will acquire.

This push for centralised control leads to a rebellion, led by the emperor's 16-year old stepson, duke Ernst II of Swabia (1012-1030). Ernst fights bravely but when his vassals put the oath to the emperor above the fidelity they owe the duke, he has to succumb. Konrad first locks him up but is prepared to reinstate him if he hands over his friend and loyal vassal Werner of Kiburg. When Ernst refuses he becomes an outlaw and - in the legend - has great adventures in weird and foreign lands where the Flat Hoofs and the Grippians live...

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Ep. 22: Konrad II (1024-1039) - Who Would Have Thought

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:30:00 +0100

On July 13th, 1024 Emperor Henry II died without an heir. not only that, but his family has so comprehensively died out, there is not a single descendant in the male line left. Fear of unrest and civil war grips the inhabitants of the empire.

An election is called for early September, as quickly as such things could be organised in the 11th century. The upper echelons of society debate a long list of candidates before agreeing on a shortlist of just two, both named Konrad, both from the same clan of Salian Franks.

Medieval imperial elections have little in common with today's elections. there are no set rules about the electors, the purpose is not to determine the will of the people but to unveil the will of God. Decisions are unanimous, mainly because dissenters leave before the votes are cast.

Ultimately Konrad the elder (1024-1039) a giant of a man at 2m tall is elected. He appears in all and everything the opposite of his predecessor. But that may be just appearance...

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Ep. 21: Questions & Answers

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 09:30:00 +0100

In this episode I answer your questions about the Podcast in general, specific topics relating to the Ottonian period, languages spoken and German history more broadly. Thank you so much for a really exciting and diverse set of questions.

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Ep. 20: What People thought about the Ottonians - A Blank Canvas

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 21:15:00 +0100

The Ottonian period (919-1024) has been a key reference point in German history ever since. Having only very few and not necessarily very enlightening documents to work from the period became a blank canvas on which historians and the population as a whole projected their own hopes, political beliefs and expectations. In the 19th century the German speaking people who felt humiliated by the defeats against Napoleon and disenfranchised by the political rearranging of their homelands and so latched on to the few unifying historical heroes to refer to - the mighty emperors of the early and high middle ages. Viewing them – depending on political belief – into either mighty rulers of a coherent state who wasted blood, treasure and the whole empire in a fateful entanglement in Italian affairs, or were they benevolent managers of a supranational polity ruling by consent. The falsification of history peaked when the Nazis turned Henry the Fowler into their poster boy. Now, after nearly 200 years of scholarship we aim to see them in the context of their own times, but are we really?

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Ep. 19: Henry II (1002-1024) - The House of God

Thu, 27 May 2021 20:15:00 +0100

To understand Henry II you have to start at the end. When he died, he had made no succession plan whatsoever. He was convinced that he had moulded the kingdom into a House of god run by pious monks and observant bishops. If the House of God pleased the lord, he would appoint a new successor, and if not, well the good riddance.

Though his policy of strengthening and dominating the church could be looked at as a political ploy to expand the royal prerogative, the more likely truth is that it was only a side effect of Henry's spiritual mission.

The actions of early medieval monarchs often appear alien to us, and none more so than Henry II.

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Ep. 18: Henry II (1002-1024) - The War with Boleslaw the Brave of Poland

Thu, 20 May 2021 12:00:00 +0100

1002-1018 AD Once king Henry II has established his rule, he has to face up to a new and increasingly powerful rival. Duke (later King) Boleslav the Brave of Poland has created a large and coherent polity to the east of Germany. When he takes over the counties of Meissen and Lausitz and even Bohemia, war becomes inevitable. Hampered by his own barons being tied to Boleslav by political interest and family ties, Henry II shocks the world by getting into an alliance with the pagan Slavs.

In the meantime the Italian nobles have elected one of their own, Arduin of Ivrea to be king, defying Henry's rule. Henry fights his way to Pavia but after the coronation the locals rebel leading to a massacre and the burning down of the capital of the Lombards.

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Ep. 17: Henry II (1002-1024) - The (not yet) Holy Emperor

Thu, 13 May 2021 11:30:00 +0100

As Otto III's dead body is brought home by his friends, all his dreams and policies collapse behind him. The Emperor had died aged 22 without an heir and he had no brothers or even uncles left. So who should be king? Will it be Hermann of Swabia, from the eternally loyal Konradiner family, Otto of Worms, the dead emperor's closest relative, Count Ekkehard of Meissen, the mighty warrior, Count Ezzo, the nouveau riche husband of Otto III's sister, or Henry of Bavaria, son of a rebel, grandson of a rebel but great-grandson of king Henry the Fowler and therefore the male heir of the dynasty. How do you become emperor?

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Ep. 16: Germany in the year 1000 - The Imperial Church System

Thu, 06 May 2021 06:30:00 +0100

This is part 2 of our rundown of the economic and social situation in Germany around the year 1000. The third and highest social strata were the "Oratores", those who pray, the priests, monks and bishops. We look at how a village priest is educated, why monasteries became so rich (spoiler, it is not about piety alone, money is key) and the role of bishops in the Imperial Church System that made the German emperors the most powerful rulers in Western Europe in the 10th and 11th century. How does an emperor rule in the absence of bureaucracy, how much tax matters and why there is no tax in Germany but there is tax in England, why the Normans were more successful in their theocratic leadership approach and how you become emperor....again lots to get through but fun.

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Ep. 15: Germany in the year 1000 - Climate, Agriculture, Economy and Medieval Hygiene

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 15:00:00 +0100

In this episode we talk about the economy, society, infrastructure and art at the turn of the first millennium. We will look at changes in climate, agriculture, monetary system and warfare. We will take a look at towns and cities, take a deeper dive into Cologne and Magdeburg, muse about the trade in Eunuchs and medieval bathing habits. It is the 10th century when society splits into those who pray (Oratores), those who fight (Bellatores) and those who do all the useful stuff (Laboratores). We discuss the beginnings of castles, 20,000 of which will rise up in Germany during the course of the middle ages...lots to get through!

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Ep. 14: Otto III (983-1002) - The End of a Dream

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 06:30:00 +0100

After part one of Otto III's "Restoration of the Empire of the Romans" had been a bloody affair, he now embarks on a strenuous display of religious devotion. That includes a trip to Gniezno, the grave of his friend and mentor Saint Adalbert, a trip that has huge consequences for the development of Poland as an independent nation.

His excessive ascetism, long periods of prayer and devotion may look incomprehensible to us today, but are they part of an overall concept of a new "Empire of the Romans", one led by an emperor who is both secular and spiritual ruler? And, did it work?

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Ep. 13: Otto III (983-1002) - The Wonder of the World

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 06:30:00 +0100

Otto III is one of the most controversial emperor in German medieval history. Was he just an uncontrollable teenager with dramatic mood swings? Or did he plan the Restoration of the Empire of the Romans as his propaganda stated? Was he cruel man who executed and mutilated his opponents or was he a deeply spiritual man torn between his piety and the demands of the office?

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Ep. 12: Otto III (983-1002) - The Regency of Theophanu and Adelheid

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 18:00:00 +0100

Having rescued the reign and possibly life of 4-year-old king Otto III his mother, the byzantine princess Theophanu and later his grandmother Adelheid continue Ottonian policies. This time gives birth to the election of the French dynasty that will rule until 1789 (1830), a length of reign only surpassed by the emperors of Japan. It also witnesses the emergence of Poland as a sovereign nation under the pope.

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Ep. 11: Otto III (983-1002) - Woe the Land that is Governed by a Child

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 11:45:00 +0100

When 4-year-old king Otto III is crowned king riders bang on the door of Aachen Cathedral with news that his father, Otto II had died 16 days earlier. Immediately the archenemy of the family, Henry the Quarrelsome is released from prison where he was held for treason and is made guardian of the child. Otto III's chance of survival is bleak and his only hope is his mother, the Byzantine princes Theophanu who musters an odd assembly of ladies and geeks to rescue her son...

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Ep. 10: Otto II (973-983) - The Misfortunes One Can Endure

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 09:30:00 +0100

Having suppressed the customary early reign rebellion, Otto II makes some poor appointments that result in war with France and estrangement from his mother. Once that has been patched up, he embarks on his major project, incorporating the south of Italy into the empire and thereby bottling up the popes.....

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Ep. 9: Otto II (973-983) - A Matter of Habit

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 11:30:00 +0100

When Otto II succeeds his father Otto the Great he inherits a strange construct of interwoven rights, relationships and privileges. He might rely on the church's resources to a degree but to succeed he needs military skill, charisma, proof of the grace of god and luck. With his father being the luckiest man in German history is there any of that elusive substance left for his son...

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Ep. 8: Otto the Great (936-973) - An Imperial Bride

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 11:45:00 +0100

Otto's final desire is to be recognised as a fellow emperor by the Basileus in Constantinople. When the Byzantines refuse him the purple-born princess Anna he wages war. The new emperor, John Tzimiskis comes up with a better solution and sends across the most glamorous figure of German medieval history - Theophanu Skleraina...

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 7: Otto the Great (936-973) - Crowning A New Caesar

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:00:00 +0100

955-963 AD After the battle on the Lechfeld Otto has reached the zenith of his career. All he lacks is the formal recognition of his imperial position within the ancient realm of Charlemagne. For that he has to travel to the malaria-infested swamp that is 10th century Rome where a 23 year old promiscuous and duplicitous pope awaits him...

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 6: Otto the Great (936-973)) - The Battle on the Lechfeld (955)

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 17:15:00 +0100

The devastation of the civil war lures in the largest Hungarian army anyone had ever seen anywhere. Enticed by the disinherited sons of former Bavarian dukes, the mighty host makes for Augsburg, a city whose walls are as weak as their defender is steadfast. This time they are here to conquer not just to plunder. Otto has to run hell for leather south gathering an army from wherever he can get his hands on soldiers to face the most amazing military of the times on a battlefield of their choosing.....

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 5: Otto the Great (936-973) - The Father, the Son and the Uncle

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 10:30:00 +0100

Adelheid's rescue creates tension not only in the family of king Otto but across the realm. Younger members of the powerful families feel cheated out of the gains of the Italian campaign and worry about their prospects. And Otto makes again one of these mistakes he is so adept at, resulting in much bloodshed and pain...

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 4: Otto the Great (936-973) - A Foe Wherever You Go

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 18:00:00 +0100

After the civil war with his brother Henry Otto gets to reorganise the kingdom and focuses on foreign policy. There is conflict on all borders, with the Slavs, the Bohemians, the Hungarians, and the French. Great opportunities for the fine sports of pointless sieges, burning of crops as well massacring peasants. But what do you say to a magnate who offers to swallow seven Saxon lances in one go?

The most interesting story plays out in Italy where we find a beautiful young heiress with the key to a kingdom languishing in a jail....

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 3: Otto the Great (936-973) - A Series of Fortunate Events

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:30:00 +0100

His brother and his biggest vassals are rebelling, the kingdom remains under threat from Hungarians and Slavs - and now the king of France comes in on the side of the opposition. Only a series of very fortunate events can rescue king Otto, or a man of short stature, fierce temper, extraordinary bravery and a dislike of apples and women?

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 2: Otto the Great (936-973) - A Dog's Breakfast

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 14:00:00 +0100

Henry the Fowler ended the tradition of splitting the kingdom amongst the male heirs.

So far, so wise. But, and there is always a but, what he did not work out was what to do with the spares. And there were quite a few spares about, three in total. How will Henry's designated heir, Otto I manage?

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Ep. 1: Henry the Fowler (919-936) - A New Beginning

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 09:03:00 +0100

The year is 919 AD and things are not going well. The mighty empire of Charlemagne has splintered into a multitude of puny kingdoms. Its feeble rulers are being pushed around by their formidable barons. The frontiers are breached. In the north the Vikings and Danes are ransacking towns and villages along the coasts and even deep inland. In the east the Slavs are burning Hamburg. And in the south the most terrifying of them all, the Magyars, a steppe tribe like the Huns and the Mongols, are marauding all the way from Bavaria to Northern Spain.

Cometh the time, cometh the man/woman?

Takeaways:

The podcast introduces the tumultuous historical context of East Francia in 919 AD.
Henry, Duke of Saxony, was elected king amidst a fractured political landscape.
Henry's strategic alliances with other dukes significantly strengthened East Francia's unity.
The Holy Lance was obtained by Henry, believed to provide divine support in battles.
Henry's military reforms transformed the peasant infantry into a professional fighting force.
The victory against the Hungarians in 933 marked a pivotal moment for Henry's reign.

Chapters:

00:04 - Introduction to the History of the Germans
00:27 - The Crumbling Kingdoms of 919 AD
04:24 - The Election of Henry the Fowler
06:16 - Unifying the Kingdom: Henry's Strategy
27:07 - The Battle Against the Hungarians
30:42 - Henry's Legacy and Final Reforms
32:23 - Outro and Next Episode Preview

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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Charlemagne and all that - Prologue (Part 3)

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 09:02:00 +0100

Part 3 of the Prologue is dedicated to Charlemagne, one of Europe's greatest rulers. and less because he conquered most of Europe and became the first Roman emperor for 325 years, but because he saved many books from antiquity, increased literacy and numeracy and made it possible for you to read this text comfortably.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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From Romulus Augustulus to Pippin the Short - Prologue (Part 2)

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:01:00 +0100

Part 2 of our Prologue to the History of the Germans kicks off with the last western emperor, Romulus Augustulus handing over the insignia of his reign to his German general Odoacer. The next two centuries are dominated by hair-obsessed crime lords, some long-haired gingers, others bearded Lombards. Clovis, first "King of France" and descendant of sea monster, chooses the correct faith to be baptised in. His descendants wade through blood and incest until replaced by Charles "the Hammer" Martel whose son Pippin strikes a bargain with the ~~devil~~ Pope.

Again, speed was of the essence so forgive me the occasional simplifications and omissions (Don't be angry Theoderic, we know you were the one good one!)

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

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From Julius Caesar to the end of the Roman Empire - Prologue (Part 1)

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 18:10:00 +0100

Germany was invented by Julius Caesar who also believed Moose had no knees. Herman the German was an officer in the legions, ritual car washing dates back to the 1 century BC and Constantine relied on Frankish soldiers to gain control of the Roman empire. These and other stories about the first 500 years of German(ic) history are part of the Prologue in which I attempt to run through the first 1000 years of German history before 919 AD when the main narrative of the History of the Germans Podcast really starts.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

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History of the Germans - Trailer

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:45:00 +0100

Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans Podcast, the podcast that does exactly what it says on the tin. What you get here is a narrative history of the German people from the early Middle Ages to German Reunification in 1991 in 35-40 minute episodes coming out every Thursday.

We are 200 episodes in, but do not worry, you do not need to listen to all 200 for it to make sense. The show is now split into seasons which are almost stand alone. So you can listen to any one of theose and skip the rest. Let me tell you a little bit about these season....

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod

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Twitter: @germanshistory

So far I have: