Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

The century of Salian rule from 1024 to 1125 is the crucial turning point not just for German, but for European history more generally. It is in this period that the Investiture Controversy pits Popes against Emperors. The dispute is nominally about the role secular powers play in the selection of bishops and abbots. But in reality, it is about much more than that. It is about whether the monarch acts as the representative of God, or as mere mortal, subject to Papal authority. It is about whether Europe becomes a coherent political entity ruled by an all-powerful emperor or whether it becomes a fragmented system of interlocking states, cities, and lordships under a parallel church infrastructure. It is about whether Europe becomes a uniform society or the diverse structure that will give birth both to endless warfare and misery as well as the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment (to name just a few). move from the unexpected election of Konrad II to his son Henry III becoming the undisputed senior ruler in Western Europe. The backlash against the emerging command monarchy culminates in Emperor Henry IV kneeling in the snow outside the Castle of Canossa begging Pope Gregor VII to receive him back into the mother church. This podcast is part of the broader History of the Germans podcast that aims to track the history of the German people from the Early Middle Ages to Reunification in 1991. If you enjoy this show, check out any of the other seasons or follow the main show. So far I have the following seasons: The Ottonians (919 AD-1024 AD) Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy (1024 AD-1125 AD) Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen (1125-1190) Frederick II Stupor Mundi (1190-1268) Saxony and Eastward Expansion The Hanseatic League The Teutonic Knights The Holy Roman Empire (1250 AD -1356 AD) The Reformation before the Reformation (1356AD -1439 AD) The Empire in the 15th Century The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs (1439AD -1519 AD)