#OTD, December 23rd, 1493 the German version of the Schedelsche Weltchronik (known as the Nuremberg Chronicle in English) was first published.

Similar to other medieval chronicles, the Weltchronik covers the entire history of the world since its creation to the then present day. Like medieval chronicles, it comprises not just political history but saint’s miracles, sensational gossip and geographic information about the cities and lands covered. The sixth book ends in 1492 and is followed by the 7th that talks about the coming of the antichrist and the final judgement.

The book was a massive tome, Each page is 325mm by 480mm, i.e., a bit larger than A3. The Latin version had 326 sheets, the German version 297. It contained 1804 illustrations, though many have been used multiple times.

The woodcuts were made by the workshops of Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wohlgemut. For a while art historians contemplated an involvement of Albrecht Dürer in the creation of the Weltchronik, though this seems now largely debunked.

The greatest of these woodcuts is the two-page view of Nuremberg which I show here.

The project was the brainchild of two Nurnberg merchants looking to cash in on the book trade that had kicked off since Gutenberg published his first printed bible in 1455. The text was written by Hartmann Schedel a medical doctor, humanist and book collector. Schedel had studied in Padua and settled in Nuremberg.

If you have been following the History of the Germans Podcast you may have noticed that I often use the woodcuts from the Weltchronik to illustrate the location of events – because they are simply gorgeous.

If you want to leaf through a copy of the Weltchronik, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has digitised one for us. see here

#OTD, December 22nd, 1530 negotiations to forma protestant league began in the town of Schmalkalden in Thuringia.

Led by Landgrave Phillip of Hesse and Elector John of Saxony several territories within the Holy Roman Empire agreed to support each other following the Diet of Augsburg in June 1530. At the Diet the emperor Charles V had rejected the Confessio Augustana, a summary of the key articles of the protestant faith written by Melanchthon and approved by Martin Luther. That opened up the possibility for the emperor to persecute the protestant states for breach of the peace, resulting in military action against them.

The Schmalkaldic League comprised several princes, the Landgrave of Hesse and the Elector of Saxony most prominent, but many signatories were cities like Bremen, Lubeck, Konstanz, Magdeburg, Strassburg, Ulm, Braunschweig, Gottingen, Goslar and others. They agreed to defend each other against any interference in matters of the faith by the emperor.

Charles V was initially unable to break the resistance of the Schmalkaldic League as he was preoccupied with concern about an invasion by the Turks. He also had to take into account that his archenemy, Francis I, King of France would ally with the league against him.

Therefore Charles had to sign the Nurnberg Peace in 1532 that was some sort of time-limited mutual recognition, effectively ending the persecution of protestants as heretics. That allowed the protestant faith to spread more easily across the German lands.

Charles V saw the need of substantial reform of the church and at the same time wanted to maintain religious unity across his lands. He tried to bring the parties together to thrash out their theological differences during the 1540s. These talks made some progress on issues of doctrine but could not resolve several core issues. Effectively the debate had moved on from theological differences to hard politics.

By 1546 Charles V had signed a peace agreement with France and an armistice with the Sultan, allowing him to go after the League. The league had grown in the meantime having added Württemberg, Pommern and a few more cities and princes. Nevertheless, they were not capable to withstand the might of the Habsburg empire that comprised not just Austria but also Spain and its American colonies.

Military actions were fought mostly by mercenaries and in many aspects foreshadowed the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) with its constant sieges and unpaid soldiers plundering the countryside. At the Battle of Mühlberg in May 1547 the Elector John of Saxony and his allies were comprehensively beaten, bringing the war to its de facto end.

Charles V held another Diet at Augsburg in 1548, the so-called “Geharnischte Reichstag” (=martial Diet). Charles wanted to force all German states to agree on a temporary religious compromise, the Augsburg Interim, that would last until a full settlement had been agreed by both sides. That proposal satisfied nobody, and even Charles’ Catholic allies rejected it, making it dead on arrival.

The protestants rebelled again in 1551, ending in the religious peace of Augsburg of 1555 whereby each local prince was free to determine the faith in his state “Cuius Regio, eius religio”. Charles resigned shortly after his dream of religious unity for the empire had collapsed.

Charles inability to enforce one common religion in his state contrasts with his contemporary Henry VIII, who enforced the Protestant faith in England and Francis I who was equally able to maintain religious unity in France during his reign. As a consequence, Germany remained for centuries one of the few countries split almost 50/50 between Protestants and Catholics, which aided political fragmentation.

Charles’ relative weakness within Germany dates back to the time of the Salian emperors, subject of Season 2 of the History of the Germans Podcast available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Castbox, Podbean and wherever you get your podcasts from (check short link here: https://history-of-the-germans.captivate.fm/listen).

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#OTD, December 21st, 1140 the women of Weinsberg saved their HaBs (Husbands and Boyfriends) from certain death by cunningly misinterpreting a royal command.

Weinsberg was a possession of the immensely powerful House of Welf whose leader, Henry the Proud contested the election of Konrad III, of the House of Hohenstaufen as King of the Romans and future emperor. Konrad III reacted by putting Henry the Proud into the imperial ban and deposing him as duke of Bavaria and Saxony. This kicked off the long struggle between Welf and Staufer or Guelfs and Ghibellines as they were called in Italy.

In the ensuing civil war the Welf could hold on to Saxony but had a much harder time in Southern Germany. One of their key strongholds was the castle of Weinsberg near Heilbronn. In 1140, King Konrad III besieged the castle. When an attempt by Henry the Proud’s brother to relieve the siege failed the defenders were prepared to accept terms of surrender.

One of the concessions the king offered was for the women of Weinsberg to take as much of their personal possessions out of the castle they could carry on their shoulders before the place was to be sacked. The women, fearful for their partners’ lives decided to carry them down the hill to safety, leaving their worldly goods behind.

Konrad III saw the funny side of that and even though his brother suggested to stop them, let the women go ahead. The castle of Weinsberg has been called “Weibertreu” (~wifely loyalty) ever since.

Schloss Weinsberg was finally destroyed during the Peasants War of 1525. After 1819 a local group of women began collecting funds for the renovation of the castle that stabilised the existing structure.

In 1855 the architect of the famous Schloss Lichtenstein suggested the construction of a Pantheon of famous German Women. That failed due to opposition of the Wuerrtemberg authorities.

Joseph Goebbels picked up the idea and planned a great Walhalla of the German woman to be inaugurated in 1940. The outbreak of WWII prevented this.

The ruin of Weinsberg is still owned and managed by the Frauenverein (Women’s Association) founded in 1819.

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On this day, December 20, 1046, Emperor Henry III calls the Council of Sutri that removes a total of 3 popes. The next time this happens is in 1417 at the Council of Constance.

The run-up to the council is quite unremarkable. King Henry III had planned to cruise down to Rome, get crowned emperor during the now traditional winter months and be back across the Alps before the malaria season starts in spring. That is what his predecessors Konrad II and Henry II had done. Neither of these had had any interest in getting embroiled in Roman affairs. They all remembered Otto III and how that had ended.

In November 1046 Henry III meets the current pope, Gregory VI in Piacenza to hammer out the details of the upcoming coronation. Things are fine and both pope and emperor treat each other with the respect their offices afford.

Sometime after this meeting Henry III has concerns. The more he hears about the way Gregory VI has been elevated to the throne of St. Peter, the more he wonders whether his coronation would be valid. Since 1012 the papacy was in the hand of the counts of Tusculum. Other than their predecessors as rulers of Rome, the Crescenti, the Tusculani did not appoint pet churchmen to be popes, but decided to do the job themselves. Benedict IX was the first of these soldier-popes, followed by his brother, John XIX. He was followed by Benedict IX, his nephew.

Benedict IX was quite young, probably 18 or 20 when he became the leader of Christianity. There are some chroniclers who claim he was only 12 when he was elevated, indulged in rape and murder and displayed homosexual tendencies, though all that is likely imperial propaganda. But even 20 is not really an age when one should become pope. I guess his personal conduct fell somewhat short of the moral demands the office is usually associated with.

Things get complicated for Benedict IX in 1044. A “new aristocracy” in Rome is emerging that challenges the traditional mafia oligarchy that had ruled the city since the 9th century. The upstarts throw Benedict IX out and bring in a new pope, Sylvester III. By 1045 Benedict IX is back. For reasons that are somewhat unclear Benedict IX decides that the papacy is not really for him, and he sells it to a gentleman called John Gratian for cold hard cash. That sale is not propaganda, that actually happened.

John Gratian takes the title of Gregory VI and it is this pope our friend Henry III encounters in November 1046 in Piacenza.

News trickle through that Gregory VI has paid to become pope, which constitute the sin of Simony. That causes a serious problem for Henry III. If Gregory VI had indeed acquired the papacy in such a crass manner, then what is any of the sacraments worth he will be conducting? Could he, Henry III be taking part in a sinful act if he had himself crowned by a pope whose foul act condemns him to eternal hellfire?

He is on theologically thin ice. And to say it in German “Wenn ich nicht mehr weiter weiss, gruende ich einen Arbeitskreis” which loosely translates as “if I am at a loss, I will form a taskforce”. That task force was the Council of Sutri in December 1046.The assembled bishops easily dismissed antipope Sylvester III as uncanonical. When Gregory VI admitted having bought the papacy in order to bring an end to the travesty that was the reign of Benedict IX, that argument did not cut it and Gregory VI resigned. Benedict IX did not even show up and was deposed in absentia. Henry III in one fell swoop deposed all three popes.

He now needed a new one. And this time it had to be a proper churchman who cleans up the mess the papacy has become. Henry III knew a lot of proper churchmen, all of whom were members of the German Imperial church. He first asked Adalbert archbishop of Bremen/Hamburg and eternal scorn of the Saxons but he refused. Bishop Suitger of Bamberg was more amenable and is made Pope Clement II on the spot. Clement II crowns Henry III and sends him back on his way home to avoid the Malaria. Unfortunately for Clement II, he has to stay behind in Rome where he dies of the disease within 10 months.

The next “volunteer” was Poppo, bishop of Brixen, who as Damasus II lasts just 30 days before being taken down by the Malaria. In 1048 Henry appoints his cousin, Bruno, bishop of Toul to become pope as Leo IX.

Leo IX lasts almost 5 years. These five years are a crucial time for the papacy and ultimately European history. He brings the papacy’s reputation back from the brink, establishes the College of Cardinals staffed with competent administrators and theologians. All that sets in motion a series of events that Norman Cantor described as “the first of the three world revolutions”.

Having lured his father into a trap and then deposed, we now have a new king. Last week you heard the story from the father’s perspective, this time we look at it from Henry V’s perspective. Maybe he was not as much of a rotten apple as it looks?

For five years Henry can maintain the peace in Germany as well as with the papacy. But in 1110 he runs out of road. He needs to come to a lasting agreement with the intractable Pope Paschalis II. Paschalis himself is looking for a solution. And he comes up with a solution, so cunning, you can put a tail on it and call it a weasel..

In the meantime, the King of France transitions from sexually incontinent simoniac to papal pet. Something that will yield immense benefit to royal power in the long run. The King of France becoming the friend of the pope brings the King of England closer to the future emperor. Henry V marries the English king’s daughter, 8-year old Matilda. Matilda would later become famous as the Empress Matilda, adversary of King Stephen in the Anarchy, mother of King Henry II of England and founder of the Plantagenet dynasty..

A lot to get through but fun…check it out here