History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification

The last decade of emperor Maximilian’s reign was overshadowed by all three challenges to the emerging Habsburg empire gaining strength. The Ottoman empire was piling on resources by taking over Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. A vigorous new king of France, Francois I was turning the tide in the incessant Italian wars into his favor. And finally the greatest of threats to the dynasty emerged as the Prince Electors were contemplating to raise that self-same Francois I to the imperial title.

In this episode we will look at how the prematurely aged and exhausted emperor tried to shield his grandsons Charles and Ferdinand from the ton of bricks that was coming down on them. And we will look at his last days and legacy. Clocking in at 18 episodes, Maximilian did achieve one of his objectives in life, outpacing the great emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Let’s find out whether he did this only in terms of number of HotGPod episodes, or in other ways too.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

These last dozen or so episodes we have examined the genesis of two of the three major strategic preoccupations of the Habsburg empire, the rivalry with the French kings and the relationship with the imperial princes. Today we will look at the build-up of the third major strategic challenge to the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottomans. One can argue, and many have, that the threat of an Ottoman invasion in the 1520s and 1530s prevented the emperor Charles V from clamping down on the protestants in the empire. By the time the border had been stabilised and the Habsburgs could focus again on the religious and political changes in the German lands, it was too late to reverse events. There is an element of irony here that I will refrain from elaborating on.

When Constantinople fell in 1453, the Christian nations of Western Europe assumed that they could regain the ancient capital of Byzantium and even Jerusalem if only they were united under the crusading banner. By the time Suleiman the Magnificent appeared before Belgrade in 1521, that had become inconceivable. The Christian nations, and in particular the Habsburgs were on their back foot.

So, what had happened in these 70 years that made the Ottoman armies appear unbeatable?

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

You have almost certainly seen the image in today’s episode artwork before. It is a family portrait showing Maximilian, his first wife Marie of Burgundy, his son, Philip the Handsome and three children. When Bernhard Strigel painted this image in around the year 1516, Philip the Handsome was already dead for 10 years and Marie of Burgundy had gone more than 30 years before. Then there are the inscriptions over the heads of these well-known and easily identifiable figures. There is a lot of Habsburg chin on show here. But they do not describe Maximilian as emperor, but as Cleophas, blood brother of Joseph, husband of the divine Virgin Mary, Marie of Burgundy is Mary Cleophas, sister of the Virgin Mary, and Philip the Handsome as James the Lesser, apostle and son of the other two. Two of the three little boys are named as Joseph the Just and Simon the Zealot, the cousin of the lord. Who are these saints? Well they do appear in the bible, so they are real, but in very minor roles. One of them was even rejected as an apostle. But they do have something special, they are Jesus’ aunt, uncle, nephews and cousin. And since he had died without offspring, his heirs. So this is a picture about succession and inheritance, not necessarily about family love.

Ok, making the emperor the brother in law of Joseph is quite odd already, but let’s talk about the three children. They were all alive when this picture was painted and roughly the age they are depicted as. The one in the middle is Charles, the future emperor Charles V. And the little boy cuddling up to Maximilian is his brother Ferdinand, the future emperor Ferdinand I., again identified as holy nephew and cousin. But who is the third child? Well, that is Louis, the future king Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia, son of king Vladislav II and his French wife Anne de Foix. So no close blood relation. What does he do in one of the most famous Habsburg family portraits? It must have something to do with succession and inheritance.

That is indeed what we are going to talk about today. Little Louis will be the key to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this agglomeration of lands centered around Austria, Czechia and Hungary that stayed or was made to stay together for nearly 400 years.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

Another Thursday and another episode dealing with another epic fail of our hero, Maximilian I. But despite a military campaign that once again failed for all the usual reasons, no money, no strategy, no luck, this time he is rescued not by a marriage or imperial princes suddenly inflicted with an unlikely case of backbone, but by his daughter, Margaret, archduchess of Austria, dowager duchess of Savoy and governor of the Netherlands.

In an age that featured a number of impressive women, from Caterina Sforza to Elisabeth I, Margaret may be lesser known, but could easily hold her own amongst such illustrious company. She brought together an alliance that rescued her father’s lands, re-established imperial power in Northern Italy and brought the mighty republic of Venice almost to collapse. And then did it again, again and once more.

Meanwhile her father first made himself emperor in the least impressive ceremony ever, before throwing his hat in the ring to become – tat, tat, taa – the pope.

“Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube" – ‘Let others wage war; thou, happy Austria, marry’ is one of the few terms that almost anyone with a cursory interest in European history knows, only rivalled by the Voltaire quote thou shall not utter in my presence ever. It evokes the image of a handsome alpine boy full of charm and apple strudel wooing some princess into peacefully handing over the richest lands is Europe. And this narrative of peaceful transition to a benign dynasty is another one of the great propaganda successes of the house of Habsburg.

The saying was attributed to Matthias Corvinus, the king of Hungary who had once occupied Vienna, then to the humanist Ulrich von Hutten, but first evidence of its use dates back to 1654, more than 150 years after the famous marriages that made an empire. From 1680 it was read out at Habsburg weddings to emphasise the peaceful nature of its rulers.

It definitely did not originate in the days of Maximilian I when all these dynastic alliances were formed and bore fruit. Talking about gentle and peaceful transition was preposterous against the backdrop of a 15 -year long war over the succession to the grand Dukes of Burgundy, and the roller coaster ride that is today’s topic, the way the Habsburgs acquired the crown of Spain.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

If there was one group that consistently thwarted Maximilian’s grand plans for world domination, it was the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He had given in to their demands for Imperial Reform, had granted the Reichstag far reaching powers, had established the Reichskammergericht as a law court independent of imperial authority and had announced the much longed for ban on feuding. But did the princes, counts, knights and cities hold up their end of the bargain and paid him taxes to raise the armies needed to defend the borders of the empire – well you bet.

They left him hanging before Livorno, they collected berries instead of fighting in the Swiss war, and – spoiler alert – they will not raise a little finger to help Ludovioco il Moro to regain his duchy of Milan, even though Milan had been an imperial fief since the days of Charlemagne and Otto the Great. No money, no soldiers, nothing.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

Why are the Swiss called the Swiss? After all, Schwyz in only of 26 cantons, and not one of the largest ones. How did the proud and prosperous citizens of Zurich or Berne, mighty city states in their own right, decide they wanted to be named after a mountainous region largely inhabited by peasants tending to their gorgeous brown cattle, the Braunvieh. They even called their national airline Swissair, until my former colleagues at McKinsey let the air out of that one.

So, why Swiss? The answer goes back to today’s topic, a war that the Swiss call the Schwabenkreig or Swabian War. This war played a massive role in Swiss historiography, and its main battles at the Caven and at Dornach was mentioned in the same breath as Morgarten and Sempach. It was seen as the moment when Switzerland de facto exited the Holy Roman Empire and began ploughing its own furrow in European history. Meanwhile in Germany, this war that we called the Schweizerkreig or Swiss War is largely forgotten amongst the hundreds of other military conflicts.

It was also the first of many contests between the two formidable fighting forces of the Renaissance, the Swiss Reisläufer and the German Landsknechte. These soldiers of fortune have percolated the national consciousness on both sides, their fanciful dress depicted in art on both sides of the Rhine and still providing one of Rome’s most instagrammable photo opportunities.

That on top of the usual incompetence and skullduggery should be incentive enough to listen to this episode.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

Europe's political landscape is shifting fundamentally. No longer are wars fought between kings and their vassals, and emperors against popes - it is all about the balance of power. and this balaance is firmly out of whack. The largest, richest and most populous part of Europe, the empire that still formally included Italy, the Low Countries, the Swiss Confederation, Bohemia and Burgundy, was also its politically weakest entity, whilst the kings of France leveraged their smaller but more coherent state into European dominance.

The struggle between France and its neighbours with england looking on was to become the dominant political pattern of Western European politics for 250 or arguable 350 years.

Maximilian has a Grand Plan that could have nipped these centuries of death and destruction in the bud. But he did not...

Karl Marx once said that history repeates itself twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. he was wrong on many (not all) things. This one repeats not twice but ten, if not dozens of times, but first as farce and then as tragedy...

Enjoy the ride..

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

Prof Duncan Hardy is one of the leading experts in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and one of his main topics is the Imperial reform of 1495, making him the ideal guest for our show.

In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire he tries to define what the Holy Roman Empire was a question we will almost certainly spend quite some time discussing today.

His forthcoming book, which he had so kindly sent me an advance copy, should be familiar to you all, since I do use it as a source for the show. It is titled Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany and contains a large number of edited and translated primary sources illustrating German history circa 1350 to 1550.

As a special treat, listeners to the Hstory of the Germans can order the book at Manchester University press with a 30% discount. The discount code is mentioned at the end of teh interview, so listen out. You can order ithere:

Manchester University Press - Law, society and political culture in late medieval and Reformation Germany

Duncan has a PHD from Oxford University, fellowships from Cambridge, Erfurt and Bielefeld and currently teaches at the University of Central Florida.

And he is a fellow listener of the show. So this will be the time where all my mistakes and random speculations will be dragged into the glare of academic scrutiny.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

Let me start today’s episode with some outrageous national stereotypes. If an Englishman is disappointed with the way the affairs of state are conducted, he writes a letter to his member of Parliament. A Frenchman in that same situation rents a tractor and dumps manure outside the Palais d’Elysee. A German threatens to file a lawsuit with the constitutional court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht.

Where did the Germans pick up the belief that courts and the law will protect them against government overreach? Sure, 19th and early 20th century judges had on occasion stood up to the Kaiser’s administration and the Grundgesetz, the liberal constitution of 1949, had become a cornerstone of our national identity following the comprehensive loss of moral standing.

But there is also a long strain that goes back to the Holy Roman Empire and the two imperial courts, the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat. These courts have a bad reputation, not only because Johan Wolfgang von Goethe saw it fit to ridicule his former place of work. However, not everyone shared this negative perspective. Many social groups down to mere commoners relied on these independent judges to protect their life and property against rapacious princes.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast

For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast

Facebook: @HOTGPod 

Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast

Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social

Instagram: history_of_the_germans

Twitter: @germanshistory

To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs