When you run out of land to rule, you make more land to rule. Meet a King who tried to do that quite literally, and also led to the creation of the host of some of the most powerful legal judgements in the world today.
Willem was born in 1227 to Floris, Count of Holland, and Mathilde de Brabant. Willem succeeded as the Count in 1234, after his father died in a tournament. His uncles, Otto, Bishop of Utrecht, and Willem were his Regents. 1/10
In 1245, Holy Roman Emperor, Friedrich, was excommunicated by the Pope. Though Friedrich retained authority in the Empire, the Archbishops of Köln and Mainz elected Heinrich Raspe von Thüringen as King of Germany, in opposition to Friedrich's son, Konrad. 2/10
But when Heinrich Raspe died in 1247 soon after defeating Konrad in battle near Frankfurt, Henri de Brabant proposed Willem as the new King. The proposal was backed by the Archbishops of Köln and Mainz and endorsed by Pope Innocent IV. 3/10
But King Willem was a name more in title than in rule. When he went to Aachen for his coronation, he was refused entry. The city supported Emperor Friedrich. It took a 6 month long siege for Willem to gain entrance and get himself coronated by the Köln Archbishop. 4/10
In 1248, Willem built a palace near the Count's hunting residence. Later called "’s-Gravenhage", it added palaces and became the principal residence of Counts of Holland. This area has now grown into a big city, The Hague, which hosts the International Court of Justice. 5/10
With Friedrich still strong in Germany and Italy, King Willem's rule was limited to Rhineland and Swabia. Back in Holland, he would make a decision that would have a lasting impact. He chartered Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland to plan the waterworks and protect the land. 6/10
Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland was the first of the many water boards of present day Netherlands. These water boards organize the management of water barriers and water levels in Netherlands and played a major role in reclaiming land from the sea. 7/10
Friedrich's death in 1250 send Konrad south to consolidate his claims in Sicily. With his marriage in 1252 to Elisabeth von Braunschweig, Willem gained allies in Saxony & Brandenburg, bringing him closer to the Welf contingent, the major rivals of the Konrad's family. 8/10
Strengthened, Willem would gain primacy in Germany with the death of King Konrad in 1254. But his rule would be short, as he met his death in 1256, during his campaign against the Frisians, when he (or his horse) fell through ice, while he was traversing over it. 9/10
In a disputed election that followed, English Prince Richard and Castile King Alfonso would be elected as King of Germany by different sets of electors. Both would take limited effort to enforce the election, leaving behind a period of regnal ambiguity in Germany till 1278. 10/10
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Sigismund Vasa was born in 1566 to Duke Johan of Finland and Katarzina of Poland. In 1568, Johan and his brother, Carl, overthrew their elder half brother, King Erik of Sweden, making Johan the new King. A generation earlier, Sweden had broken away from the Roman Church. 1/10
King Johan took a softer approach, attempting to reconcile with the remaining Catholics in Lutheran Sweden. Sigismund was raised as a Catholic by his mother. In 1573, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became an elected monarchy after Katarzina's brother, King Zygmunt, died. 2/10
If somebody had asked me in 2019, what my biggest concerns for the future were, I would have said war and disease.
Disease, because a pandemic is always inevitable, and unpredictable. Is the field of medicine progressing fast enough to outrun the evolution of pathogens? 1/4
Looking back, the way we have handled the Covid pandemic is positive, provided it is because we have progressed in the field of medicine and not because as a disease, Covid is less dangerous than H1N1. What toll would Spanish flu have taken had it come a century later? 2/4
If the marmot/13th century origin of the plague in medieval Europe is correct, there is a line of improvement from plague to H1N1 to SARS-Cov-2. So, here's hoping we are on the right track in outrunning pathogens. 3/4
So, Dad bought this land in the late 1980s in a court auction. The court documents referred to it as a "parambu" (essentially non agricultural land). At the time, the entire area, apart from a house next door (and perhaps the one next to it), was undeveloped. 1/6
Sometime in the 1990s, when he asked for permission for construction, it was refused saying it was agricultural land, which was also the legal opinion we received at the time. We could have paid a high percent of the land value and gone ahead, but it wasn't worth it. 2/6
Cut to February 2021, the state notify the updated records of agricultural land. Our land is not among them. The area has now grown into a town centre with hotels and a hospital. But despite the notification, Revenue records are still stuck in the 1960s. 3/6
Many a time the worst things happen on a deed made with the best intentions. A nation gets broken up for centuries over a will, ushering an era dominated by foreign rulers.
Bolesław was born in 1086 to Władysław Herman, Duke of Poland and Judith of Bohemia. He also had an illegitimate half brother, Zbigniew. Władysław had become Duke after his elder brother, Bolesław, was deposed in 1079 by the nobles and the clergy. 1/10
The senior Bolesław and his predecessors had taken an expansionist view for Poland, becoming a regional power player. In 1076, Bolesław was crowned King, but was seen by the nobles and the clergy as becoming too powerful. 2/10
A nation broken by a foreign invasion, a young prince collaborating with the same invaders to gain dominance in his nation, remaking it and setting in motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead towards regaining the nation's independence.
Aleksander Iaroslavich was born in 1220 to Iaroslav Vsevolodich, Prince of Pereyaslavl, and Fedosia. Iaroslav was the younger brother of Prince Konstantin of Rostov and Grand Prince Iurii of Vladimir-Suzdal. Iurii and Iaroslav had earlier allied against the elder Konstantin. 1/10
After Andrei Iurievich had demolished Kiev in 1169, Vladimir had become the main power centre of the divided Rus' nation. Young Aleksander was installed as the Prince of Novgorod in 1236 and it is in Novgorod that he would make his mark. 2/10
Andrei Iurievich was born around 1111 to Iurii Vladimirovich, Prince of Rostov-Suzdal, and a Cuman princess.
For centuries, Kiev had been the capital of the Rus'. In 1149, Prince Iurii captured Kiev with the help of Cuman allies, but he could not hold onto it for long. 1/10
Kievan Rus' originated in the 9th century, when Rurik and his brothers founded it. But by the time of Andrei, the state had been divided among Rurik's descendants into many principalities. The Grand Prince of Kiev was still the nominal overlord, but the city was in decline. 2/10