The Umbrella of Power!
When (anti)pope John XXIII entered the city of Constance in 1414 the chronicler Ulrich of Richental was confused by a man following the pope with a parasol.
That wasn't to protect against the sunshine (he arrived in November), but as a sign of power 🧵(1/ Umbrella's have been symbols of royal and imperial power in Asia since the time of ancient Egypt and for instance the nine-tiered umbrella is one of the regalia of the king of Thailand. (2/

As I am preparing the next episodes - which will deal with the Council of Constance 1414-1418 I am trying to become familiar with what the city looked like in the 15th century. 🧵(1/
#council #constance And nothing does that better than the amazing model of the city kept at the Rosgarten Museum.
I hope you are all set for the first season highlight next week. But if you want to brush up on the runners and riders, check out the HistoryThreads below (2/

It is estimated that even an average Florentine banker in 1310 had more ready cash than the emperor Henry VII. These commoners had a lot more money than the aristocrats who ruled their cities. The conflict this caused became known as the wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines 🧵(1/ This difference in financial resources already caused frictions, but the bigger issue was that the aristocratic consuls did not run the city in the interest of the merchants and artisans. (2/

The Sicilian Vespers shocked the monarchs of Europe. A popular uprising that pushed out a monarch was something the powerful in western europe did not have to contend with for centuries. It took place on March 30, 1282, but it goes back a lot further 🧵(1/19) Charles of Anjou, count of Provence and king of Sicily was one of the most ambitious and most successful noblemen of the 13th century. Born the 11th son of king Louis VIII of France, he climbed the ladder to first count and then, with papal support, to king of Sicily. (2/

Where are the Habsburgs from?
The Habsburgs have woven a complex myth around the first member of their family to rise to king of the Romans. According to that Rudolf was "poor count" who did not need a treasurer because "he only had barely 5 shillings in bad coin". Let's see🧵(1/ Rudolf was born in 1218 the son of Albert, called the Wise of Habsburg. The Habsburgs were nobles based in the Aargau, today a region in North Switzerland. They were named after their ancestral castle, the Habichtsburg, near Brugg. (2/

The history of Bremen starts with the creation of its bishopric in 787 when Charlemagne appoints Willehad as a missionary bishop in the newly conquered Saxon lands.
This bishopric rose to heights before coming crashing down to near insignificance. 🧵(1/ The first upgrade was in 848 when Ansgar, the archbishop of Hamburg had to flee his wooden cathedral before a Viking attack. He got himself elected bishop of Bremen on top of Hamburg, creating the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. (2/

If you have even a passing interest in medieval sculpture you have seen the Donor figures in Naumburg cathedral, in particular Uta von Ballenstedt reproduced in hundreds of pictures. But who was she, who was the guy next to her and who are all these other figures? 🧵(1/ The 12 donors of Naumburg had roles in German history that went well beyond just giving money o build the cathedral and pay one of the greatest medieval artists, the unknown "Master of Naumburg" to have their portrait sculptured. (2/

The late medieval Hanse was an odd structure and very different to the maritime republics of the Mediterranean. Not because it was dominated by trading cities rather than princes, but because of the way it operated. 🧵(1/ Just compare the Hanseatic cities of Lubeck, Hamburg, Danzig/Gdansk, Riga, Reval/Tallinn with the great Italian maritime republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa.
Both operated in geographically closed oceans, the Mediterranean and the Baltic and transported goods over long distances

Richard the Lionheart's revenge!
Everyone knows the story of Richard the Lionheart's capture and ransom by the duke of Austria and the emperor Henry VI. - but there is an epilogue to that where Richard brings about the destruction of the empire...🧵(1/ In 1193 Richard the Lionheart, king of England and lord over most of France is captured by the duke of Austria who hands him over to emperor Henry VI. Henry VI. not only negotiates an astronomic sum as ransom but also forces Richard to kneel before him and become his vassal. (2/

Today I want to break a lance for a diplomatic genius who saved the kingdom of Denmark from almost certain annihilation - Henning von Putbus (Podebusk) 1320?-1388.
No image of him seems to exist so here is a picture of his great achievement, the peace of Stralsund in 1370 🧵(1/ Podebusk had entered the service of king Waldemar IV Atterdag of Denmark in 1350. During most of the Middle Ages Denmark oscillated between world domination and total chaos. When Waldemar was crowned the kingdom was mortgaged to German noblemen led by Gerhart von Holstein. (2/

The Black Death did not stop the Hanseatic League from reaching the zenith of its power and influence. Which is surprising as other economic centres in Northern France and Flanders suffered severely from war, plague, climate change and schism. How did that come about? 🧵(1/ It wasn't that the plague left the Hanse cities untouched. Bremen counted 6,966 named dead from the 1350 outbreak, at least half of its overall population. more than a third of the council members of Lübeck, Wismar, Reval and Lüneburg perished. (2/

The foundation of the Hanseatic cities along the Baltic was an unusual process. They often comprised multiple separate settlements each with their own law, city wall, council and town hall. Some of these were Slavic settlements, others German. Rostock is a great example 🧵(1/ Almost all of these Hanseatic cities, Lübeck included, had Slavic predecessor towns. The strategic benefits along the rivers had been well known to the locals long before the first German merchant arrived. They often had established trading links into Scandinavia. (2/

Herring - the most important fishery in the Middle Ages and backbone of the Hanseatic economy.
Today we eat very little herring, which is a shame since this oily fish can be absolutely delicious. But it isn’t just its taste that made it the Middle Ages favourite fish. 🧵(1/ Herring have a number of great advantages. The first one is that they often move in large schools as solitary herring are getting quickly confused and lost. The name Herring might go back to the Old High German word “heri” meaning “lots” or “many”. (2/

The story of the Hanseatic League usually starts with the foundation of Lübeck. But Lübeck, splendid as it is, was just a city. Had Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Gdansk, Riga, Tallin etc. just been successful trading cities, would anyone name their hometown or business "Hanseatic"? 🧵 What made the Hanse special starts with violence between German merchants and traders from Gotland. Talk is of "many evils, namely the hatred, enmities, and murders that arose from the discord of the two peoples" that Henry the Lion, duke and lord of Lübeck needs to resolve. (2/

Cremona was the greatest rival of Milan when this magnificent cathedral was begun in 1107. Today the city is a beautiful but minor Lombard city. The mistakes that led to its downfall goes back to the time of Emperor Barbarossa (1152-1190). 🧵(1/ When Barbarossa first came to Italy in 1155, the Lombard cities were split almost 50/50 between Milan and its supporters on one side and Cremona and its supporters on the other. The emperor sided with Cremona when he decided in favour of the citizens of Lodi by pure chance. (2/

The most generous offer any pope had ever made came in 1111 when Paschalis II was prepared to hand back all of the church’s fiefs to the emperor Henry V, a move that would have ended the Investiture Controversy and put the papacy on a very different trajectory 🧵(1/24 The background is that emperor and pope are caught in a deadly struggle for supremacy. One element of it is the question of who appoints (=invests) bishops. That matters in an empire where bishops have received vast tracts of land to administer on behalf of the king. (2/

The coronation of Empress Beatrix in 1167 - A story of sacrilege, the near destruction of the ancient basilica of St. Peter in Rome and of an Emperor who had reached his zenith that lasted only days before all his dreams came crashing down to the ground.🧵(1/21) Frederick Barbarossa is the master of Europe. The mighty German princes served in his army. He had destroyed Milan. The Lombards paid him taxes and dues that made him more resourceful than any of his predecessors since Otto I. (2/

Emperor Lothar III fought his way into Rome to be crowned #OTD, June 4, 1133 in the church of the Lateran by Pope Innocent II.
Nothing about this coronation was smooth. The city of Rome was split between two great aristocratic clans, the Frangipani and the Pierleoni. 🧵 Each had put their candidate on the papal throne, the Frangipani Innocent II and the Pierleoni Anaclet II. Anaclet II held Rome and was allied with Roger II of Sicily, who he had made king. (2/

Emperor Lothar III (1075-1137) is often overlooked as a mere transitional figure between the Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties. That seems unfair given the quite fundamental shift in the political and economic structure of the empire during his reign. A thread 🧵 (1/ He was born in 1075, probably just after his father, a count in the Harz mountains had died fighting the emperor Henry IV. His mother (was) remarried almost immediately. Lothar may have grown up in her new home in Lothringia or with his grandmother, the duchess of Saxony. (2/

There is no one history of the Germans, but many. After 94 episodes of going through the history of the epic fight between emperors and popes, it is time to tell the other story, the story of the North, of Saxony and its marches, a story that looks east, not south. 🧵(1/ And because this is an almost independent history, we have to start at the beginning. Who are the Saxons? As the chronicler Widukind observed in the 10th century " “There is a great deal of disagreement about this matter." (2/

February 26th marks the bookends of the history of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. OTD in 1154, Roger II first king of Sicily died in Palermo and on the same day in 1266 his great grandson, king Manfred fell in the battle of Benevento, ceding the regno to Charles of Anjou. 🧵 The Normans first arrived in Southern Italy in around the year 1000, allegedly as pilgrims to the shrine of the archangel Michael at Monte Gargano. Their local hosts assessed their military prowess and quickly hired them as mercenaries in their endless conflicts. (2/