Podcast
Listen as seperate Podcast on Apple
Listen as seperate show on YouTube
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
Overview
Out of the ruins of the Carolingian empire a new polity emerges. It is not yet Germany, but it is no longer a pan-European Frankish empire. King Henry the Fowler elected by barely half the country forges a viable kingdom through cunning diplomacy and personal charm. His son, Otto the Great, elevates the role of King to Roman emperor, incorporates Italy, expands east beyond the Elbe, defeats the marauding Hungarians and gets recognition from the Emperor in Byzantium. Under his son, Otto II, the empire almost collapsed after a defeat against Muslim Sicily and a violent uprising of the pagan Slavs in the East. At his death, his son, Otto III is just 4 years old. He gets crowned in the nick of time but gets kidnapped by his cousin who wants to usurp the throne. Thanks to some cunning manoeuvring of his mother, Theophanu, his grandmother, Adelheid, and Gerbert of Aurillac, the smartest man in the 10th century, little Otto III is saved and the kingdom is stabilised. Otto III embarks on a madcap attempt to rebuild the Western Roman Empire with its capital in Rome. After his death the last of the dynasty, Henry II refocuses on Germany and creates the most powerful European state in the 10th/11th century.
Henry the Fowler (919-936)
King Henry the Fowler elected by barely half the country forges a viable kingdom through cunning diplomacy and personal charm. He establishes the borders of the new kingdom and builds the foundations on which his son, Otto the Great can end the Magyar threat
919-936
Henry the Fowler becomes the mist unlikely and most successful king of the Eastern Franks in a century
Otto I The great (936-973)
Otto the Great – Germany’s luckiest emperor. Almost destroying all his father had built through his own recklessness he emerges from a civil war as the most powerful ruler the Carolingian empire had seen in a long time. In 955 he comprehensively beats the bane of the age, the Magyars at the Lechfeld. He acquires Italy with arms and charms, gets crowned emperor in Rome and even gets recognised by the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople. His path is also littered with the most fascinating, powerful and glamorous women German history has on offer – Mathilda of Ringelheim, Eadgith of Wessex, Adelheid of Italy and Theophanu, the not quite real princess from the east. Never a dull moment!
936-937
Otto I is crowned King and immediately goes to work, making first his half brother and then everyone else hate him.
938-939
All that upsetting of people has borne fruit. Otto I finds himself caught before Breisach with his entire realm in rebellion. One unlikely supporter turns the tide
940-950
After this bumpy start Otto I stabilises his rule and begins projecting power abroad – even as far as Italy where a beautiful young queen finds herself imprisoned by her jealous father-in-law…
950-955
No damsel in distress is left unsaved in these chivalric times, at least not when they are queens and come with the keys to Italy. Otto I finds a bride, Adelheid, a bride his son Liudolf has no warmth for. His rebellion upsets not just his father but also the whole realm. Everyone had to take sides and meanwhile, the Hungarians are getting ready to attack
955
The Battle on the Lechfeld seals the fate of Europe and makes Otto I emperor, if not by coronation but acclamation
955-965
To be a real emperor Otto I has to travel to Rome, that hotbed of debauchery under its 23-year-old pope. He is crowned not just emperor but also king of Italy, starting the long term entanglement with the south.
965-973
Otto I has it all. A tremendous wife, a devoted and competent son. All he needs now is a bride for this son, a bride that gives his regime the legitimacy he craves. And that would have to be a bride from Byzantium..
Otto II (973-983)
As much as Otto the Great was lucky, Otto II was unlucky. He gets ambushed by the king of France, loses the largest battle of the century in the South of Italy and in his last year the Slavs, having been brutally oppressed by his father’s generals rise up, burn cities and churches and regain their freedom
973-977
The emperor is dead, log live the new emperor Otto II. If Otto I was one of the luckiest rulers, his son was one of the unluckiest. It all kicks off with an invasion by the French..
977-983
Things got even worse when Otto II musters the largest army his dynasty ever raised to conquer southern Italy
Otto III The Wonder of the world (983-1002)
Otto III comes to the throne aged 4 when his father unexpectedly died of Malaria. His mother and grandmother have to wrestle the guardianship out of the hands of his perfidious cousin, henry the Quarrelsome. Once matured he becomes a fascinating figure oscillating between excessive brutality and excessive piety. His attempt at a “Restauration of the Roman Empire” fails catastrophically and his friends barely manage to repatriate his body back to Germany.
983-984
The news of his father’s death reach 4-year-old Otto III just hours after his coronation in Aachen. Abducted by his (murderous) cousin, the life and reign of the boy rests in the hands of his formidable mother Theophano and even more formidable grandmother Adelheid.
984-996
First Theophano and then Adelheid steer the empire through a very difficult period. The Slavs have risen up upon the death of Otto II and pushed the border back to the Elbe. The French kingdom falls to Hugh Capet.
996-999
Otto III finally turns 16 and takes over the reign. Otto III is mostly interested in religion and the culture of Byzantium, something that does not stop him from sacking Rome
999-1002
Otto III embarks on his most ambitious project, the rebuilding of the Roman empire. He makes the ruler of Poland a friend and associate of the empire and builds a place on the Palatine hill. But that cannot last
Germany in the year 1000
A look around the economic, social and political structure of Germany in the year 1000. An economic boom fuelled by climate change and social changes drive an expansion of population and wealth. The major barons have managed to assert their rights to inheritance of ducal and baronial titles and rights. The empire relies more and more on the church infrastructure to gather resources and maintain the peace.
Henry II (1002-1024)
The last of the Ottonians, though much more akin to the Salian emperors who follow in his wake. After a complex route to kingship, Henry focuses on the war with his increasingly powerful neighbour to the east, Boleslav the Brave of Poland. He shocks his contemporaries by entering into an alliance with the pagan Slavs against a Christion ruler. Though he has to ultimately concede defeat he did strengthen the internal structure of his kingdom by further expanding the Imperial church system.
1002-1003
Henry II was the last direct male descendant of Henry the Fowler, but that did not give him a free pass to the imperial throne. It took cunning and the support of his powerful wife Kunigunde to gain the kingdom.
1003-1014
Henry II’s archenemy was his predecessor’s friend and associate, Boleslaw Chorbry, the ruler of Poland. In pursuit of that rivalry the pious emperor
1014-1024
Henry II’s ambitions were much less focused on the here and now, but on the spiritual realm. By founding a new and exceedingly rich bishopric in Bamberg would he achieve his ultimate goal – sainthood
The Ottonians – A Blank Canvas? And otheR questions
These two episodes try to get a bit closer to the question of what the Ottonians mean for us today. Episode 20 – A Blank Canvas traces the way historians have perceived and interpreted the Ottonian period since the beginning of the 19th century which is almost a 1:1 reflection of contemporaneous events – leaving us with the question whether the current interpretation is also just a reflection of where we are today. The second episode is an attempt to answer all the questions you sent me over the last couple of months.
A Blank Canvas – about how the German writers in the 19th century created a narrative out of the history of the 10th century that supported politics of the 19th.
Questions & Answers
Episode 21
The Teophano episode contains an error concerning the first contacts with Polish state under Mieszko. It implies that after the initial fights with Gero, Mieszko agreed to be baptised and took a wife from Saxony. This is incorrect. Mieszko’s first Christian wife as well as the Church mission involved in the baptism was Czech. There is no express record of his intentions, but it is reasonable that he was going out of his way to show he was not being forcibly converted by the Brandenburg marchers. He married a Saxon woman when his first wife died, but this was long after the baptism.
I apriciate your explanatios. Could you please summariize the comments in a small Book and make this available. That would be a great help. Many thanks in advance. Wk
Really loved your first season, sorry I am starting so late, but I am trying to catch up fast… I can not wait to start visiting these places! I’m a decendant of Germans but my ancestors left Germany in the 1800’s, but now we are back. Thank you for this amazing podcast! Already started season 2!