Episode 99 – Follow the Money
Saxons push back against church and emperor because they are hitting them where it hurts most – the economy, stupid…
Episode 28 – Three Popes with One Stone
In 1046 Henry III finally has time to go to Rome. He finds out that 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”.
Episode 27 – Peace in Our Time
Henry’s rule is not without tension. The dukes of Saxony and Lothringia are moving into opposition to the king and emperor falls severely ill in 1045.
Episode 26 – Henry III Comin’ in Smoothly
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.
Episode 29 – The Medieval Empire at its Zenith
In 1046 Henry III had reached the zenith of his rule. He had 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 lands, 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”