The Empire in the 15th Century

The Holy Roman Empire on the Threshold to the Early Modern Period

Overview

This is the time when the empire reaches its most challenging phase. This is not the difficult second album, this is more Tina Turner in 1982 when her cover of shame, shame, shame reached #47 in the Netherlands charts.

This is where we see the beginnings of actual states and state bureaucracies developing in Germany. But these states were extremely fragile, likely to be overrun by enemies, divided amongst multiple sons or incorporated into larger entties. War was almost constant, as were dramas of love and pride.

Despite all this strife and feuding, this is also a time of great innovation. Gutenberg came up with the printing press, a technology that would undermine the authority of the Catholic church, fan the flames which led to the Reformation, create the communications infrastructure needed for the rise of modern science and even – if Neil Postman is to be believed – lead to the invention of childhood as an extended, protected phase in the lives of young people.

Like the internet and social media, the printing press demanded new types of content: maps, encyclopedias, fiction, political pamphlets and engravings, opening the world up to the world.

Episodes

Season Opener (Episode 185)

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.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#186 – Origin Stories

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.

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.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#187 – Johannes Gutenberg’s Pressing Matters

It is the invention of the printing press we discuss here, nothing more and nothing less. How did it come about, how did it work and why?

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#188 – What Has Printing Ever Done For Us?

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.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#189 – The Counts Palatinate on the Rhine

A journey upriver from Mainz to Heidelberg in 1454 – with a brief history of the Counts Palatinate on the Rhine

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#190 – A (very) brief History of the German Universities

“It is a settled fact that Germany alone produces more than all the rest of the world put together; her supremacy in science forms the pendant to England’s supremacy in commerce and on the sea; and it is perhaps even greater.” (Ferdinand Lot, 1892)

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#191 The Margraviate of Baden

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.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#192 : Württemberg, or How to Build a Success

The counts, dukes and ultimately kings of Württemberg had risen to the top by winning the genetic lottery. 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.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

# 193: The Trades and Tribulations of the Free Imperial Cities

In 1911 an archivist found the almost complete accounts of the largest late medieval trading company in Germany, giving us insights into the world of Free Imperial Cities

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#194 The Fuggers of Augsburg

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.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#195 Engraving the German Renaissance

If there was one major contribiution the Gemrans made to the Renaissance – apart from the printing press, it was the prodcution of drawings, engravings and woodcuts to be enjoyed by many and individually.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#196 Agnes Bernauer – Love and War in Bavaria (Part 1)

The early 15th century is the political nadir but peak drama for the house of Wittelsbach – featuring Agnes Bernauer and Isabeau of Bavaria

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#197 Landshuter Hochzeit – Love and War in Bavaria (Part 2)

The most spectacular wedding of the 15th century took place in 1475 in Landshut – how could a duke of half of Bavaria pull that off?

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#198 – How Holland Was Lost to the Holy Roman Empire (Part 1)

How did the Low Countries, once one of the heartlands of the Holy Roman Empire, gradually slip out of the ploitical entity it had belonged for centuries.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#199 – How Holland Was Lost to the Holy Roman Empire (Part 2)

The second part of our series on the exit of the Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire, this time with a focus on demographics, economics and climate.

For episode webpage and transcript, click here

#200 – Divide and Lose, the Leipziger Teilung

In 1485 two brothers split the electorate of Saxony in two, creating the distinctly different Länder of Thuringia and Saxony in the process. All that after 20 years of successful joint rule and at the risk of materially reducing their family’s power. Why did they do it?

For episode webpage and transcript, click here