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 100 – The Saxon War (Take II)
The conflict between Saxons and the empire is now hitting the hot stage, resulting in a rebellion that precedes Henry IV in Canossa.
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 98 – The Rift
The new emperor Henry II drives a 180 degree turn in imperial policy versus Poland and versus the Slavic tribes in the Marches….
Episode 97 – Rebellion
The pagan Slavic peoples living east of the Elbe wake up one morning to find their oppressors fatally weakened.
Episode 96 – Meet the Neighbours
To get our bearings we undertake a tour de force of the history of Bohemia, Poland and Denmark before 973.
Episode 95 – Callous Kings and Murderous Margraves
There is no such thing as German history in a straight line. In this season we look at the North of the country that went on its own path
Episode 108– from Saxony to Saxonies
How first Henry the Lion, greatest of medieval dukes, and then the great stem duchy of Saxony came to fall apart
Episode 107– The House of Wettin
The House of Wettin ruled modern day Sachsen for centuries. In this episode we explore where they came from and how they became so rich..