In this series introduction, we discuss the collapse of the Theme System and the corrupt, fragile state of the Balkans in the late 12th century. The western-Byzantine rivalry would finally come to a head with the several invasions of the Western Balkans, and ultimately, the seizure of Constantinople in the 4th Crusade, events which will set in motion the stories of this series.

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Fine, John VA Jr. The Late Medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press, 1994.

Frost, Robert. The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania Volume 1: The Making of the Polish Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

In this episode, we focus on the Kingdom of Hungary from the mid 12th century to the start of the 13th. This is an important time in Hungarian History, and lays the groundwork for their century of change, through internal strife, and foreign invasions of all of their neighbors. At the heart of the conflicts is a search for identity beyond the exploits of their traditional past, and their search will tie them in with the changes taking place across the continent.

New episodes coming when I get around to it...

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Engel, Pal. The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary. International Library of Historical Studies, 2005.

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Rady, Martyn. The Middle Kingdoms. Basic Books, 2023.

In this episode, we descend upon the Greater Riverlands, to discuss the last century of organized political life in the Kievan Rus. Like elsewhere in Inner Europe, it is a time of political fragmentation and dynastic struggle, but also one of rapid development, and a flourishing culture. There truly was no society quite like the Medieval Kievan Rus, before or since.

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1948.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: Second Edition. Penguin Books, 1998.

In this episode, we descend into the first 100 years of the Polish Fragmentation Period, wherein Boleslaw III Wrymouth's Seniorate System cracks, and then dissolves into an abundance of warring principalities. Ultimately, the period would not be all decline, as several important social and cultural changes would find the room they needed to grow, and later strengthen a Polish revival.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Davies, Norman. Moorhouse, Roger. Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City. Jonathan Cape, 2002.

Davies, Norman. God’s Playground: A History of Poland Volume 1: Origins to 1795. Columbia University Press, 2005.

In this Series Introduction, we discuss the rising western influence within Inner Europe, and talk more conceptually about how cultural influences manifest themselves into real organizational systems, and what this will mean for Inner Europe. In this series, we will aim to discover these grand changes by focusing on three civilizations in turn: A Fragmented Poland, the Kievan Rus, and the Kingdom of Hungary.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Rady, Martyn. The Middle Kingdoms. Basic Books, 2023.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

In this episode, we recount the changing customs and organization of the Bohemian duchy in the 12th century, and witness its elevation to kingdom in the 13th. Throughout, it presents a useful case study in imperial politics as a whole, through the reign of Barbarossa and Frederick II, whose conflicts would usher in the fall of the Staufers.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Bazant et al. The Czech Reader. Duke University Press, 2010.

Durant, Will. The Age of Faith. Simon and Schuster, 1950.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

In this episode, we look at the latter half of the 12th century within Inner Europe; namely, this means looking at the rule of Frederick I "Barbarossa", perhaps the most powerful Staufer emperor, and one who would change much about how the empire worked, and how it perceived itself compared to the powers around it. Part of this change meant dealing with pan-elite factions which had risen in perennial opposition to Imperial power, materialized most in the Welf threat within Saxony and Bavaria led by Henry the Lion. The efforts to remake the Empire would in effect also remake Inner Europe, as we shall see in later episodes.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

Davies, Norman. Moorhouse, Roger. Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City. Jonathan Cape, 2002.

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

In this episode, we begin our series on the High Medieval Empire by focusing first on its northeastern frontier, where many factors would coalesce into a sudden, and permanent, push to the east by Saxons and Danes into the lands of the Slavic Wends. The whole phenomenon has been summarized into the "Wendish Crusade", despite the crusade only lasting a single season of a many decades long process. Over the course of these momentous decades, warring forest tribes would transfer into a vast amount of pluralistic, though German, identities, including the rising Hanseatic League.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: Second Edition. Penguin Books, 1998.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Davies, Norman. Europe: A History. Oxford Press, 1996.

Schildhauer, Johannes. The Hansa: History and Culture. Dorset Press, 1988.

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

In this series, we discuss how the Holy Roman Empire will change in the long term from its warrior foundings, to a transpersonal and permanent institution of Inner Europe. This process would be personified by the Staufer dynasty, who would work to pick up the fragments of the investiture struggle and rebuild a new society.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: Second Edition. Penguin Books, 1998.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

In this episode, we continue our survey of Inner Europe during the Investiture Struggles by examining the rules and administrations of many consolidating duchies and kingdoms, including Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, Carantania, Hungary, Croatia, and Duklja. As survival becomes less of a concern, confirming the co-rule of a region's traditions takes the top priority.

New episodes every Thursday!

Have a question or comment? Contact me at [email protected]

Sources

Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, "Hej, Sokoły" folk tune

Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960)

Fine, John VA Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1948.