Episode 102 – The Great Divide
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.
Episode 101 – Gottschalk & Adalbert
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.
Episode 42 – A World Revolution?
Many writers have compared the Investiture controversy to the great world revolutions of 1789 and 1917 – lets look at the arguments
Episode 37 – The two Grooms
The wedding of the 60-year old countess Matilda of Tuscany to the strapping 18-year old Welf IV was organised by the Pope – for power not love
Episode 35 – To Rome! to Rome! – Henry IV takes Revenge on pope gregory VII
Suddenly the boot os on the other foot and emperor Henry IV chases pope Gregory VII out of Rome and into exile in Salerno
Episode 39 -The Final Betrayal
It is hard to believe, but the last years of Henry IV’s tumultuous reign still held one final humiliation that capped the pain this man had already endured.
Episode 38 – The First Crusade
In 1095 Pope Urban II launches the First Crusade and things get out of control almost immediately as preachers whip up crowds to set off immediately. These crowds bring unimaginable horrors to the Jewish communities in Mainz, Worms, Trier and elsewhere
Episode 36 – Henry IV is Coming Home
Henry IV returned as emperor and made his mark on Saxony, waiting for gregiry VII and his appointees to die
Episode 34 – Gaining the Upper Hand
Unperturbed by Henry IV’s release from the ban the German princes elect Rudolph von Rheinfelden as the new king, change the constitution of the empire and start a civil war that is lost when a man loses not his head, but his hand.
Episode 33 – Canossa Finally
It is time – we are finally going to Canossa. Expect imperial power to go up in smoke, greedy mothers-in-laws, frozen passes, hoisted horses and tobogganing empresses.