Ep. 19 (156) – What price a Crown
The year is 1346 and we have, yes, another succession crisis. Without checking through my 1500 pages of transcripts, I have counted a total of 14 contested imperial elections in the 427 years we have ...
1 Aug 202425min
Ep. 18 (155): The Youth of the Emperor Karl IV
You have heard me complaining regularly over the last 154 episodes that what we report as political ambitions or strategic plans of the kings and emperors was pure conjecture derived from their action...
18 Jul 202428min
Ep. 17 (154) - The Blind King John of Bohemia
The noble and gallant King of Bohemia, also known as John of Luxemburg because he was the son of the Emperor Henry of Luxemburg, was told by his people that the battle had begun. Although he was in fu...
11 Jul 202440min
Ep. 16 (153) – The rise of the city of Nürnberg
“In the same way that Jerusalem is the navel of the world, is Nurnberg the navel of Germany” is how Matthäus Dresser described the city in 1581. The astronomer Johannes Regiomontanus moved to Nurnberg...
27 Jun 202427min
Ep. 15 (152) - The (not so) Ugly Duchess Margarete Maultasch
“The twelve-year-old Margarete, Princess of Carinthia and Tyrol, was travelling from her seat near Meran to Innsbruck for her wedding with the ten-year old Prince Johann of Bohemia. [..]Still and seri...
13 Jun 202435min
Ep. 14 (151) – The Kurverein zu Rhens – featuring William of Ockham
This week we look at the central intellectual debate of the 14th century, did Jesus own property? If yes, then it was right and proper that the church owned land, privileges, entire counties and duchi...
6 Jun 202437min
Ep. 13 (150) – The Last Chivalric Battles – Morgarten and Mühldorf
The 14th century is a time of fundamental change in practically all areas of social, political and economic life. It is a time when the certainties of the Middle Ages are replaced by a process of tria...
30 Mai 202438min
Ep. 12 (149) – The Real Ludwig of Bavaria
A few months after emperor Henry VII had died in the Tuscan village of Buonconvento and before a successor had been elected, a young man, Ludwig, second son of the duke of Upper Bavaria made his name ...
23 Mai 202439min
