Episode 231 – Marrying Bohemia and Hungary
The Habsburgs did not acquire the Hungarian and Bohemian crowns in one wedding night, it was an overnights success 250 years in the making
Episode 230 – The League of Cambrai
The Italian wars begin for real in 1508 when Margaret of Austria puts together the League of Cambrai to rescue her father, the now “Emperor” Maximilian I
Episode 229 – How the Habsburgs gained Spain
Did the Habsburgs gain Spain in the horizontal? Was Joanna of Spain really mad or just mad at/about her husband? Was Philipp just handsome or playing chess with Louis XII to unify Europe? Questions, questions….
Episode 228 – The Princes and the Emperor
In 1500 the imperial estates stripped the Maximilian I of power. Why did they create their own imperial government? And did it work?
Episode 227 – Landsknechte vs. Swiss Mercenaries
Why are the Swiss called the Swiss – and how did the first encounter between the two famous Renaissance forces, the Landsknechte and the Swiss Reisläufer turn out?
Episode 226 – A Grand Plan for a Great War
Europe’s political landscape is shifting fundamentally. And Maximilian I has a grand plan to get rid of the French, once and for all
Episode 225 – The Ewige Landfrieden (Public Peace) of 1495
Maximilian I declared an eternal public peace In 1495 and established two courts, that shaped the unique relationship Germans have with the law
Episode 224 – The Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire
The Reichstag, the assembly of the electors, princes and cities of the Holy Roman Empire was weirder but more effective than usually believed
Episode 223 – A Diet of Worms (1495 Edition)
The long awaited refom of the Holy Roman Empire gets under way – smooth is not the word one would use…blackmail and ruder words are used
Episode 222 –Italian Wars and Spanish Marriages
When king Charles VIII of France marched into Italy in 1494, the medieval political world collapsed and is repalced with something new…