Episode 200 – Divide and Lose
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?
Episode 199 – How Holland Was Lost to the Holy Roman Empire (Part 2)
The second part of our series on the exiit of the Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire, this time with a focus on demographics, economics and climate.
Episode 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
Episode 197 – The 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?
Episode 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
Episode 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.
Episode 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.
Episode 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
Episode 192 – Duchy of Württemberg, or Turning Wine into Winning
The region around Stuttgart has become one of Europe’s richest and most active technological hub. How did that trace back to the 15th century?
Episode 191 – The Margraviate of Baden
The story of how the small state of Baden became a dominant force in the South West of germany is one of friendship and loyalty to the death, piratical princesses, alchemy, someone called the Türkenlouis, a sun-shaped city and some skilled diplomacy.