January 16, 2021 • 33 mins
The year is 919 AD and things are not going well. The mighty empire of Charlemagne has splintered into a multitude of puny kingdoms. Its feeble rulers are being pushed around by their formidable barons. The frontiers are breached. In the north the Vikings and Danes are ransacking towns and villages along the coasts and even deep inland. In the east the Slavs are burning Hamburg. And in the south the most terrifying of them all, the Magyars, a steppe tribe like the Huns and the Mongols, are marauding all the way from Bavaria to Northern Spain.
Cometh the time, cometh the man/woman?
Takeaways:
- The podcast introduces the tumultuous historical context of East Francia in 919 AD.
- Henry, Duke of Saxony, was elected king amidst a fractured political landscape.
- Henry's strategic alliances with other dukes significantly strengthened East Francia's unity.
- The Holy Lance was obtained by Henry, believed to provide divine support in battles.
- Henry's military reforms transformed the peasant infantry into a professional fighting force.
- The victory against the Hungarians in 933 marked a pivotal moment for Henry's reign.
Chapters:
- 00:04 - Introduction to the History of the Germans
- 00:27 - The Crumbling Kingdoms of 919 AD
- 04:24 - The Election of Henry the Fowler
- 06:16 - Unifying the Kingdom: Henry's Strategy
- 27:07 - The Battle Against the Hungarians
- 30:42 - Henry's Legacy and Final Reforms
- 32:23 - Outro and Next Episode Preview
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
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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:
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hello and welcome to theHistory of the Germans.
Episode one.
A new beginning in more thanone way.
This is the very first realepisode of my podcast and I so hope
you enjoy it.
I am massively excited and ifI sound a bit nervous, it is because
I am.
So please bear with me.
It will get better.
So, on with the show.
(00:27):
We are starting in the year919 AD.
Things are not going well.
The mighty empire ofCharlemagne has fallen apart.
What we have instead are amultitude of puny kingdoms.
Their feeble rulers are beingpushed around by their formidable
barons.
The frontiers are breached.
In the north, the Vikings andthe Danes are ransacking towns and
(00:48):
villages along the coast, andeven deep in land.
In the east, the Slavs areburning Hamburg.
And in the south, the mostterrifying of them all, the Magyars.
A steppe tribe like the Hunsand the Mongols, are marauding all
the way from Bavaria tonorthern Spain.
One of those crumblingkingdoms was East Francia, which
(01:11):
covers what is today WestGermany, Austria and Switzerland.
Its ruler, Conrad, was thelast king who traced his claim back
to Charlemagne himself, eventhough that was really only by adoption.
After seven years of incessantand fruitless civil and foreign wars,
Conrad, exhausted anddisillusioned, gave up and died.
(01:35):
For six months, the throneremained vacant.
So by rights, the crown shouldhave gone to the West Francine King
Charles, Charles the Simple.
As the most senior member ofthe Carolingian family.
However, the four German dukesof Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria and
Saxony agreed on one thing andone thing only, and that was that
(01:58):
Charles should not be king.
Ruling Charles out left onlythree credible contenders.
Eberhard of Franconia, thebrother of the deceased King Conrad,
Duke Arnulf of Bavaria andDuke Henry of Saxony.
There's another Duke,Burckhardt of Swabia, but he was
(02:19):
otherwise occupied in his ownlittle civil war.
Eberhard held the greatest ofthe four duchies and was the closest
blood relative of the last ruler.
So by all accounts, he oughtto succeed him.
But that is not what happened.
According to the chronicles,when Conrad lay on his deathbed,
he beseeched his brotherEberhard not to take the reign, but
(02:42):
to offer it to Henry, the Dukeof Saxony.
And it says that Eberhardsaddled his horse and dutifully traveled
to Henry's castle atQuedlinburg to present him with the
crown.
And when he stood there, crownin hand, he found Henry more interested
in his favorite pastime,playing with songbirds, hence his
(03:04):
nickname, the Fowler.
Rather than in pursuing powerand Might.
That story is in equal measurecute as it is made up.
Note, there were six monthsbetween Conrad's death and Eberhard's
visit.
So even though the roads in10th century Germany were pretty
awful, he could have made thatjourney in a lot less time than that.
(03:24):
It's more likely that Eberhardused his time to think through the
implications of taking up hisbrother's mantle.
Objectively, the kingdom ofEast Francia was a complete hospital
pass.
The king was expected to useup all his resources, including his
private property, to defendthe realm.
At the same time, hisrapacious nobles were constantly
(03:45):
grabbing more and more of theroyal domain, making it ever harder
to keep the ship of state afloat.
And his brother, despite beingthe richest of the dukes, had failed
in the attempt to unify thekingdom and became a lot poorer in
the process.
There was no indication thatEberhard would fare any better.
(04:06):
So my guess is that Eberharddecided it was better to pass the
buck on to another duke, kickback and see what advantages he could
gain under the new regime anyway.
Whether it was respect for thelast wishes of a dying king or a
cold hearted weighing of options.
In May 919 at the Royal palaceof Fritzlar, the nobles of Saxony
(04:29):
and Franconia elected Henry,Duke of Saxony, to be king of East
Francia.
Note that it was only theSaxons and the Franconians who elected
Henry.
The other half of the country,namely the Bavarians and Swabians,
stayed away from the election.
Instead, the Bavariansactually elected their own duke,
Arnulf to be king.
(04:50):
Henry's coronation alsodiffered vastly from Conrad's.
Conrad had insisted on thefull pageantry of a Carolingian royal
investiture.
That includes being anointedand consecrated, which in turn raised
him from a humble human beingto a representative of Christ on
earth.
Henry, on the other hand,decided to forego any major ceremony
(05:10):
and certainly did not want tobe anointed and consecrated as king.
Hardly ever in German historyhas a king acceded to the throne
with so little going for him.
He was no close blood relativeof any previous king.
He was elected only by half ofhis kingdom's barons, and he wasn't
even consecrated as king bythe Church.
(05:33):
But I think behind the low keycoronation and that story with the
songbirds, there have been avery clever calculation.
You see, Conrad, despite hisadoption and all that frankincense
in myrrh, could not bend thedukes and the bishops to his will.
Henry may have some moreresources, having pooled with Eberhard
but success was by no means guaranteed.
(05:54):
So by foregoing the claims toabsolute dominion awarded by the
Church and pretending not tobe really interested in the crown
in the first place, he opensup the possibility of bringing the
other dukes into a newpolitical system where the king is
only a first amongst equals,rather than an almighty ruler and
man.
(06:14):
Did this new model and thisnew king do?
Well, Henry will achieve inseven simple steps what all his predecessors
since Charlemagne have failedso dismally at creating a unified,
lasting kingdom that was atleast comparatively safe from external
threats.
Let's start with step one, thebringing of the Swabians and the
(06:36):
Bavarians into the fold.
The first duke to succumb tothe charms and arms of Henry was
Burckhardt of Swabia.
Burckhardt may have stayedaway from Henry's coronation, but
also he didn't supportArnold's claim to kingship.
He was otherwise occupied.
Having literally just monthsearlier captured the reins of the
(06:56):
duchy, he was now underpressure from King Rudolf of Burgundy.
This Rudolf had made claimsfor parts of what is now Alsace in
Germanic Switzerland.
His army had captured Zurichand had started to threaten Burckhardt's
main power base around Lake Constance.
Now Burckhardt was able tofight Rudolf of Burgundy back at
a battle near Winterthur.
(07:19):
However, as soon as Rudolf'sarmy had disappeared over the hill,
Henry suddenly appeared withhis forces.
But no battle ensued.
Instead of trying to defeatBurckhardt and then extract land
and concessions from him,Henry offered him a friendship agreement.
Under this agreement, Henryappointed Burckhardt to be Duke of
(07:41):
Swabia as his representative.
And that meant Burckhardtcould now legitimately control the
royal domain within his lands.
He could appoint bishops andabbots and essentially rule at will
in his duchy.
In exchange, he had to acceptHenry as king and support him in
war.
Basically, he received prettymuch the same freedoms we think Eberhard
(08:03):
of Franconia had negotiatedwith Henry at the coronation.
Now, Bavaria was a harder nutto crack.
You see, the Bavarians alwayssaw themselves as something better.
They were more civilized,thanks of having been inside the
Roman Empire and havingconverted to Christianity earlier
compared to the pagan, longhaired and unwashed Saxons.
(08:26):
So really not much has changed there.
Plus they had a lot biggerguns than the Swabians.
Henry had to run twocampaigns, one of which brought him
to the gates of Regensburg,the capital of Bavarian Duke Arnulf.
Again, rather than trying toachieve a full military success and
humiliate Arnulf, Henrypreferred to agree terms and another
(08:51):
Friendship Treaty was signedin 921, and Arnulf gained the same
rights in Bavaria over royaldomains, abbots and bishops that
Burckhardt had gained inSwabia and Eberhard had already enjoyed
in Franconia.
Arnulf then recognized Henryas king and accepted the duchy from
him.
So within just three years,Henry had achieved what Conrad had
(09:14):
so abysmally failed at.
He had unified the kingdom,though at the expense of a huge degree
of independence for the dukes.
Now we get to step two, theacquisition of Lotharingia.
Having secured the southernduchies into the kingdom, Henry's
focus now shifted towards Lothringia.
(09:35):
Just as a recap, Lothringiahad been created as a separate kingdom
for Emperor Lothar under theTreaty of Verdar in 843, and it comprised
a strip of land that goes fromthe North Sea to the Mediterranean.
So it included what is todaythe Netherlands, Belgium, parts of
West Germany, which includesthe imperial capital in Aachen, eastern
(09:57):
France.
So that's namely Burgundy,Alsace Lorraine, but also Provence
and French speakingSwitzerland, and then northern Italy.
In fact, these are thebattlefields of every Franco German
clash over the next 1102 years.
After the direct descendantsof Lothar had died out, the southern
(10:18):
end, including Burgundy,Provence and Northern Italy, had
become separate kingdoms.
And we will talk about those alot in the upcoming episodes.
The northern parts had becomea duchy, and that duchy had moved
back and forth between thekings of East Francia and the kings
of West Francia.
Under King Conrad, Lothringiahad just been lost to the West Francian
(10:39):
King, Charles the Simple.
It was therefore a question ofhonor for Henry to get it back.
It also included the palace ofCharlemagne in Aachen, making it
even more desirable.
The good news for Henry wasthat Charles the Simple had become
very unpopular in France.
In 922, the nobles of Francerebelled and elected Robert of Neustria
(11:01):
as the new king.
In the inevitably ensuingcivil war, Henry remained neutral,
even though he had just signeda friendship agreement with Charles
a year before.
So instead of helping, hestarted nibbling away at Lothringian
territory.
And then Charles was capturedin a battle, in the same battle where
(11:22):
his rival Robert had alsodied, leaving France without a king.
That's where Henry saw hischance and invaded.
However, the French quicklylined up behind Robert's successor,
King Rudolf, and retaliated.
Henry had to run back acrossthe border.
In the subsequent peace treaty.
For reasons that I don't quiteunderstand, Henry was somehow able
(11:45):
to keep all his gains so far.
The next chance came in 925,when the Lothringian leaders, including
their Duke Gilbert, broke withKing Rudolf of France and called
on Henry for help.
Another invasion resulted in ademonstration of strength, but again
no decisive battle.
(12:06):
Henry used his upper hand notto inflict humiliating defeats, but
to sign friendship agreementsagain now with Duke Gilbert, with
the French king, and with manyof the Lothringian nobles.
And now something quitefundamental happens.
You know, under Charles, thesimple Lothringia had remained a
separate entity with its ownlaws, courts and king, who just happened
(12:27):
to be either the king of WestFrancia or the king of East Francia.
Now, Henry's treatise changedthat and it turned Lothringia into
a duchy that was an integralpart of the East Francian kingdom,
so similar to Bavaria or Franconia.
He reconfirmed Gilbert as Dukeof Lothringia and awarded him the
same level of autonomy thatthe other dukes enjoyed, and also
(12:51):
gave him his daughter as a wife.
Having acquired Lothringia notonly strengthened the kingdom, but
also gave Henry enormous prestige.
He now held the capital ofCharlemagne in Aachen, making him
not just practically, but alsovisibly the most senior leader in
the ancient Carolingian empire.
(13:12):
Over the ensuing decades, theduchies as such, remained separate
entities with their owninternal structure and a lot of independence.
The dukes may seemirritatingly powerful to the king,
but they themselves were notabsolute rulers in their duchies
either.
Like the king, the dukesneeded to balance the powerful families
(13:32):
within the duchies, ensurethey feel respected and that their
advice was heard.
The title of dukes was not yetan inherited one, so the king could,
and ultimately did, replacethe ruling ducal families with trusted
allies or more often,immediate family members.
That being said, he could notchange the duchy's internal structure.
(13:56):
So these new dukes, even whenthey are sons or brothers of the
king, will represent the duchyin their dealings with the king,
rather than being at theking's beck and call.
Now comes step three, thebuilding of a new military.
Having created a new politicalstructure for the kingdom, ensured
some internal peace and led toa rapid expansion of the economy.
(14:19):
At the same time, Henryreformed and founded new monasteries
that played a major role notonly in learning and spiritual well
being, but also in theinternal colonization of the country
that was still almost entirelycovered in forests.
The biggest change, however,was to the military.
The Carolingian armiesconsisted predominantly of free men
(14:42):
who were obliged to serve acertain number of days as soldiers
at their own expense.
There were some armoredknights embedded in the army, but
they were still exceedinglyrare and did not form their own divisions.
So, given the transitorynature of military service, soldiers
tended to be poorly trainedand pretty poorly equipped.
That did not matter much aslong as the wars were mainly either
(15:04):
civil wars or wars againstsimilarly structured armies in France
or in Italy.
In the early 10th century, thekingdom had come under pressure from
new and better equipped enemies.
The Vikings in the north andthe Magyars in the south.
The Vikings were the greatestsailors of the age, allowing them
to quickly deploy their forceswherever they wanted along the coasts
(15:25):
and the rivers.
And once on land, theiradvantage lay mainly in the element
of surprise and a welldeserved reputation for merciless
cruelty.
By 925, the Vikings had beenraiding northern Europe for nearly
a hundred years, and theirattack forces had become veritable
armies.
Just a few decades earlier,the famous Rollo and his troops had
(15:47):
besieged Paris and were paidoff with the Duchy of Normandy.
The Vikings were reallyterrifying, but they did not challenge
the system as such.
Given that they had so far notshown any tendency to stay as they
had in England and in France,the Magyars were a vastly different
threat.
The origin of the Magyars isheavily disputed, but they may have
(16:09):
originated near the UralMountains in Russia.
So over 500 years, they hadmigrated from northern Russia to
an area that is today's Hungary.
That is why we call themHungarians, though they themselves
prefer the term Magya.
And that is until today.
Their military style wassimilar to the classic steppe fighters,
(16:29):
like the Huns and the Mongols.
Their army consisted almostentirely of light cavalry armed with
composite bows.
The composite bow was the mostpowerful and the least recognized
weapon of the Middle Ages.
A composite bow consists ofseveral types of wood and horn laminated
together.
That allows for small butimmensely powerful bows that can
(16:51):
be shot from a horse.
The famous English archersused a single wood bow, which needed
to be much bigger to achievesimilar power, and hence could only
be used by infantry.
The reason English archers donot use composite bows is as so many
things are, down to the weather.
Composite bows do not work inthe rain.
(17:14):
The humidity weakens thelamination between the different
kinds of wood, which weakensthe bow.
And that is probably the onlyreason why the Mongols never invaded
Western Europe.
Composite bows gave theHungarians huge mobility and the
ability to fight their foes ata distance.
The peasant infantry of theCarolingian period stood no chance
(17:35):
against these awesome fighters.
Every time the Carolingianarmy charged them on foot, with their
knives in their pitchforks,the Hungarians just rode away, turned
round and shot them witharrows from a safe distance.
In the year 907, theHungarians inflicted a massive defeat
on the Bavarian DukeLewittpolt, which opened the border
(17:56):
into Germany.
They had previously alreadymade inroads into Italy and from
907 onwards the Hungariansundertook annual raids deep into
Carolingian territory, raidingand plundering as far west as Burgundy,
Provence and even northern Spain.
In Henry's reign, theHungarians came through in 919, in
(18:18):
924 and in 926.
And he couldn't do anythingabout it.
All he did was hide behind thewalls of his castles.
The only available militaryresponse was to catch the Hungarians
on their way back when theywere slowed down by the wagons full
of plunder.
By a stroke of luck in 926, inone of these retreat actions, Henry's
(18:42):
troops managed to capture notjust the loot, but also a highly
ranking Hungarian Prince Henryused this hostage to do what he does,
negotiate.
He agreed a nine year trucewith the Hungarians in exchange for
the prince and an annual tribute.
The truce might have beenhumiliating, but Henry did not lose
(19:04):
time.
A fundamental reform of themilitary was needed to confront the
Hungarians.
He called the Royal Diet inworms in 926 to agree two major reform
packages.
The first one was the Burgenordner.
The idea behind it was toprofessionalize the peasant infantry.
Instead of all peasants havingto come to the aid of the King in
(19:27):
war, out of each group ofnine, one was selected to do military
service for them.
This ninth peasant was tobecome a full time soldier, had to
move to a castle.
In the castle he must buildand maintain accommodation for the
other eight and their familiesand animals should they need to retreat.
(19:47):
The other eight would have todo the field work on the land of
the permanent soldier andstore 1/3 of the harvest in the castle.
So when the enemy comes, thepopulation flees into the castle.
There they hide out until theraiding Hungarians have gone back
home.
Given they have stored onethird of last year's harvest in the
castle, the peasants haveenough seed to sow the crops for
(20:10):
next year.
You have to remember thatagriculture in the early Middle Ages
was extremely inefficient.
You needed about one third ofthe harvester's seed for next year.
That meant when an enemy hadraided the countryside and stolen
or destroyed the entireharvest, the peasant not only lost
this year's crop, butpotentially several years of harvest.
(20:32):
By storing a third of thegrain in the castle, the maximum
damage was limited to just one harvest.
Henry also ordered thatMarkets and courts should be held
in these castles, makingcastle building even more attractive.
There's a rather tediousdebate among scholars whether Henry
had the legal and politicalright to enforce the Borgenordnung
(20:52):
outside his own Duchy of Saxony.
The answer, probably not.
However, the Hungarianinvasion was a major threat to all
duchies, and the Borgenordnowwas a pretty good idea.
That, combined with Henry'snegotiation skills, meant that most,
if not all, dukes, counts,bishops and abbots fell in line.
(21:13):
And castles sprung up all over Germany.
Part two of the militaryreform was to create a heavily armored
cavalry.
Whilst the stirrup had alreadybeen introduced more than 100 years
earlier, and subsequently,armored knights were a thing, there
weren't a lot of them around.
Armored knights are expensive.
(21:33):
To maintain a horse and armorrequires a lot more than the work
of just eight peasants.
Hence, Henry had to grant theknights some of his lands to fund
the cost.
The structure of the awardtended to be a lease for life that
in principle would revert theland back to the awarding king at
the death of the incumbent.
But as we all know, this isnot how this story ended.
(21:57):
The knights became the feudallords who passed the lands down to
their heirs.
And again the question was itjust Henry's land they received?
And again, the answer is no.
Knights sprung up all over thecountry, suggesting the dukes, the
bishops and the abbots came inon the planet.
The military reform was notconfined to the ability to fight
(22:19):
wars, but had fundamentalconsequences for the social structure.
By professionalizing the army,the free peasant lost his right and
ability to bear arms.
Suddenly, he turned from beinga member of a conquering royal army
to being a defenceless subjectwho needed protection from armed
warriors.
This shift had certainly notcome about just through the Bogenordnung,
(22:42):
but the Burgenorden is awatershed moment where what we now
call feudalism became the norm.
And we are moving into theMiddle Ages proper now, going on
to step four, the expansioninto the East.
Before Henry could use hisshiny new army to oppose the Hungarians,
he needed to try them out.
The best place to do that wasat the eastern border of his own
(23:06):
Duchy of Saxony.
It allowed him to catch twobirds with one stone.
On the one hand, he expandshis own domain, and on the other
hand, he acquires land he canthen lease to his new armed cavalrymen.
In a campaign in 928 and 929,he pushes the border towards the
Elbe, including the previouslyunconquered areas in what is today's
(23:28):
state of Saxony, aroundDresden And Leipzig.
The following year, he teamsup with the Duke of Bavaria and subjects
the Bohemians and enters theircapital in Prague again.
We will hear a bit more aboutthat story in one of the upcoming
episodes.
Now, on to step five.
The Holy Lance.
(23:49):
Having an army on earth seemedto have not been enough for Henry
to dare to confront the Hungarians.
What he needed now was hissupport from above.
In 932, he held a synod of allthe major bishops and abbots of his
realm, calling for God'sblessing in his upcoming endeavor.
As part of the bargain withthe Lord, the synod implemented a
(24:11):
number of church reforms,including new feast days, stricter
fasting rules, and severepunishment for priests who fail in
their moral rectitude.
So it sounds as ifCharlemagne's general admonishment
needed another refresher.
But the most importantcelestial help came from King Rudolf
of Upper Burgundy.
You see, amongst the treasuresof Upper Burgundy was the Holy Lance.
(24:35):
The Holy Lance was describedby Luitprand of Cremona as at the
raised part, which we call thewaist, there are crosses made from
the nails that once piercedthe hand and feet of our Lord and
Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
This is the lance thatcontains the nails from the cross.
When Henry heard that Rudolfpossessed this inestimable heavenly
(24:57):
treasure, he sent envoys tosee if he could acquire it and as
gained for himself aninvincible weapon against all enemies,
visible and invisible, andmake perpetual triumph certain.
Rudolf initially refused, butafter being threatened with fire
and sword, he finally relentedand handed the Lance over for presents
of gold and silver and a largedistrict of the Duchy of Swabia,
(25:21):
that is the city and canton of Baseline.
So far, Henry's been reallygood at negotiating this one.
Not so sure.
On the one hand, the city ofBasel is at least today one of the
richest spots on earth.
The Holy Lance, on the otherhand, unfortunately looks suspiciously
like an 8th century standardFrankish lance.
(25:42):
There's also the side issuethat there are Holy Lances in Paris,
Rome, Armenia and Constantinople.
One has to wonder what wasgoing on in the 8th century when
they not only produced a fakeConstantine Donation, but a veritable
avalanche of relics.
There were two notoriousdealers in relics called Deus, Dona
and Felix, who sold the samesaints over and over again.
(26:04):
As far as I found out, thereseemed to be at least five heads
of John the Baptist for years.
I believe there was a churchin Sicily where they venerated a
head of John the Baptist.
At the age of six, whenpreparing the podcast, I was looking
for the source of the story,and it is for Umberto echoes the
name of the rose, so probablynot true.
But if any one of you findsevidence for it, please post it on
(26:27):
Twitter or Facebook.
Anyway, Henry swapped the cityfor a stick.
A stick he believed will makehim invincible.
We'll see whether that willcome true.
Over the centuries, the mythof the lance's magical powers grew
and grew.
And in the 12th century,folklore tied it to the Lance of
Longinus, who pierced the sideof the Lord at the crucifixion.
(26:50):
It became the most revered ofthe imperial regalia, and we will
meet it again and again in our narrative.
If you want to see it, it's inthe Kunsthistorche Museum in Vienna.
And now to step six, the bigone, the fight against the Hungarians.
In the year 933, Henry feltready to take the plunge.
(27:12):
The army was ready, theheavenly forces were appeased, and
he had the Holy Lance.
He summoned the people andsaid, once your empire was disrupted
on every side by countlessdangers, but now it is free.
You yourself know this well,having labored under the grinding
(27:32):
weight of civil conflicts andforeign wars, and now, with the grace
of the highest divinity, byour labor and by our strength, there
is peace and unity.
The Slavs have been defeatedand subjected in service to us.
There is just one thingremaining for us to do.
We must join together againstour common enemy, the Magyars.
(27:52):
I have plundered you, yoursons and your daughters to fill their
treasuries.
And now I am forced to plunderthe churches and the servants of
those churches, leaving usnaked and with no money.
Consider amongst yourselveswhat should be done about this and
choose.
Should I take the treasuriesthat were consecrated to the divine
(28:15):
office and hand them over topurchase our redemption from the
enemies of God?
At this, the people raisedtheir voices to heaven, saying that
they wished above all to beredeemed by the living and true God,
because He was faithful andjust in all of his path and holy
in all of his works.
Promising to the King theirfull effort against this most vicious
(28:38):
of peoples, they raised theirright hands into the air and affirmed
this pact.
So Henry refused to pay hisannual tribute and waited for the
Hungarians to show up.
The Hungarians realized quitequickly that something was up.
The Slavic tribes on the Elbe,instead of coming along on the raid
(28:59):
as they have done in the past,sent them a very fat dog as a present.
The Hungarians did not havetime to avenge that insult, as they
were far too much in a hurryto get into the fight with the Germans.
As the Hungarians enteredGermany proper, they found the defenses
stronger than expected, andthey lost two smaller skirmishes
in Thuringia.
(29:20):
Then, on 15 March 933, an armyconsisting of soldiers from all across
the kingdom faced theHungarians at Reed on the Unstrut
River.
The armored cavalry proved itsworth, as did the much improved infantry,
and the Hungarians fled backinto their homeland.
This was not the final or evena devastating defeat, but it was
(29:42):
the first time a Frankish armyhad beaten the Hungarians in an open
battle.
The expansion into SchleswigHenry led one last campaign against
the Danes in 934, conqueringSchleswig and thereby bringing the
threat from the Vikings to an end.
You see, Germany had alwaysbeen a secondary target for the Scandinavians,
(30:05):
mainly because England andFrance offered rich pickings without
much risk of retaliation.
Germany was a bit poorer andhad a land border with Denmark, meaning
the Germans could bring fireand brimstone to Danish homes whilst
their Vikings were away on raids.
Henry's attack reminded themthat the latter was a real option.
(30:27):
So from then on, the Daneskept to foreign shores and even went
through some charade ofsubmission to the German kings.
And that was it.
Henry died of a stroke in 936,having reigned just 17 years.
He achieved in these 17 yearsmore than any Germanic ruler since
Charlemagne.
(30:49):
He unified the kingdom of the Germans.
He defined its borders thatremained largely unchanged, at least
in the west, north and south,until 1648.
He created not just a newmilitary structure, but also the
new social structure thatwould prevail for another 500 years.
He founded castles, cities andmonasteries in untold numbers.
(31:11):
And he fought of the Vikingsand the Hungarians.
His authority extended wellbeyond the borders of the kingdom.
He was recognized as thesenior ruler in the ancient Carolingian
realm.
And so he was called upon toresolve internal conflicts within
West Francia, Italy and Burgundy.
But the last and final majorreform came at the end.
(31:33):
Henry broke the damagingtradition of Merovingian and Carolingian
kings to divide their empirebetween their sons.
He made the nobles swear toelevate his oldest son, Otto, to
the kingship, and only him.
From this point forward, kingsand ruling dynasties will change.
The central power will rise invain, but the kingdom as such will
(31:55):
no longer be formally divideduntil 1806.
And that is the magic word, kingdom.
What Henry did not achieve wasto be crowned emperor and turning
his kingdom into an empire.
That will be the job of hisson, Otto I, known as the Great.
Next week, we will meet Ottoand follow his tumultuous first years
(32:18):
in office when he nearlydestroyed all his father had achieved.
I really hope to see you then,and if you enjoyed the show, please
subscribe to the podcast onApple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcast from, and anyfuture episode will miraculously
appear in your feed everyweek, I promise.
(32:39):
And you can go even furtherand leave a positive review, which
would be really, really appreciated.
Sa.
Hello and welcome to theHistory of the Germans.
Episode one.
A new beginning in more thanone way.
This is the very first realepisode of my podcast and I so hope
you enjoy it.
I am massively excited and ifI sound a bit nervous, it is because
I am.
So please bear with me.
It will get better.
So, on with the show.
(00:27):
We are starting in the year919 AD.
Things are not going well.
The mighty empire ofCharlemagne has fallen apart.
What we have instead are amultitude of puny kingdoms.
Their feeble rulers are beingpushed around by their formidable
barons.
The frontiers are breached.
In the north, the Vikings andthe Danes are ransacking towns and
(00:48):
villages along the coast, andeven deep in land.
In the east, the Slavs areburning Hamburg.
And in the south, the mostterrifying of them all, the Magyars.
A steppe tribe like the Hunsand the Mongols, are marauding all
the way from Bavaria tonorthern Spain.
One of those crumblingkingdoms was East Francia, which
(01:11):
covers what is today WestGermany, Austria and Switzerland.
Its ruler, Conrad, was thelast king who traced his claim back
to Charlemagne himself, eventhough that was really only by adoption.
After seven years of incessantand fruitless civil and foreign wars,
Conrad, exhausted anddisillusioned, gave up and died.
(01:35):
For six months, the throneremained vacant.
So by rights, the crown shouldhave gone to the West Francine King
Charles, Charles the Simple.
As the most senior member ofthe Carolingian family.
However, the four German dukesof Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria and
Saxony agreed on one thing andone thing only, and that was that
(01:58):
Charles should not be king.
Ruling Charles out left onlythree credible contenders.
Eberhard of Franconia, thebrother of the deceased King Conrad,
Duke Arnulf of Bavaria andDuke Henry of Saxony.
There's another Duke,Burckhardt of Swabia, but he was
(02:19):
otherwise occupied in his ownlittle civil war.
Eberhard held the greatest ofthe four duchies and was the closest
blood relative of the last ruler.
So by all accounts, he oughtto succeed him.
But that is not what happened.
According to the chronicles,when Conrad lay on his deathbed,
he beseeched his brotherEberhard not to take the reign, but
(02:42):
to offer it to Henry, the Dukeof Saxony.
And it says that Eberhardsaddled his horse and dutifully traveled
to Henry's castle atQuedlinburg to present him with the
crown.
And when he stood there, crownin hand, he found Henry more interested
in his favorite pastime,playing with songbirds, hence his
(03:04):
nickname, the Fowler.
Rather than in pursuing powerand Might.
That story is in equal measurecute as it is made up.
Note, there were six monthsbetween Conrad's death and Eberhard's
visit.
So even though the roads in10th century Germany were pretty
awful, he could have made thatjourney in a lot less time than that.
(03:24):
It's more likely that Eberhardused his time to think through the
implications of taking up hisbrother's mantle.
Objectively, the kingdom ofEast Francia was a complete hospital
pass.
The king was expected to useup all his resources, including his
private property, to defendthe realm.
At the same time, hisrapacious nobles were constantly
(03:45):
grabbing more and more of theroyal domain, making it ever harder
to keep the ship of state afloat.
And his brother, despite beingthe richest of the dukes, had failed
in the attempt to unify thekingdom and became a lot poorer in
the process.
There was no indication thatEberhard would fare any better.
(04:06):
So my guess is that Eberharddecided it was better to pass the
buck on to another duke, kickback and see what advantages he could
gain under the new regime anyway.
Whether it was respect for thelast wishes of a dying king or a
cold hearted weighing of options.
In May 919 at the Royal palaceof Fritzlar, the nobles of Saxony
(04:29):
and Franconia elected Henry,Duke of Saxony, to be king of East
Francia.
Note that it was only theSaxons and the Franconians who elected
Henry.
The other half of the country,namely the Bavarians and Swabians,
stayed away from the election.
Instead, the Bavariansactually elected their own duke,
Arnulf to be king.
(04:50):
Henry's coronation alsodiffered vastly from Conrad's.
Conrad had insisted on thefull pageantry of a Carolingian royal
investiture.
That includes being anointedand consecrated, which in turn raised
him from a humble human beingto a representative of Christ on
earth.
Henry, on the other hand,decided to forego any major ceremony
(05:10):
and certainly did not want tobe anointed and consecrated as king.
Hardly ever in German historyhas a king acceded to the throne
with so little going for him.
He was no close blood relativeof any previous king.
He was elected only by half ofhis kingdom's barons, and he wasn't
even consecrated as king bythe Church.
(05:33):
But I think behind the low keycoronation and that story with the
songbirds, there have been avery clever calculation.
You see, Conrad, despite hisadoption and all that frankincense
in myrrh, could not bend thedukes and the bishops to his will.
Henry may have some moreresources, having pooled with Eberhard
but success was by no means guaranteed.
(05:54):
So by foregoing the claims toabsolute dominion awarded by the
Church and pretending not tobe really interested in the crown
in the first place, he opensup the possibility of bringing the
other dukes into a newpolitical system where the king is
only a first amongst equals,rather than an almighty ruler and
man.
(06:14):
Did this new model and thisnew king do?
Well, Henry will achieve inseven simple steps what all his predecessors
since Charlemagne have failedso dismally at creating a unified,
lasting kingdom that was atleast comparatively safe from external
threats.
Let's start with step one, thebringing of the Swabians and the
(06:36):
Bavarians into the fold.
The first duke to succumb tothe charms and arms of Henry was
Burckhardt of Swabia.
Burckhardt may have stayedaway from Henry's coronation, but
also he didn't supportArnold's claim to kingship.
He was otherwise occupied.
Having literally just monthsearlier captured the reins of the
(06:56):
duchy, he was now underpressure from King Rudolf of Burgundy.
This Rudolf had made claimsfor parts of what is now Alsace in
Germanic Switzerland.
His army had captured Zurichand had started to threaten Burckhardt's
main power base around Lake Constance.
Now Burckhardt was able tofight Rudolf of Burgundy back at
a battle near Winterthur.
(07:19):
However, as soon as Rudolf'sarmy had disappeared over the hill,
Henry suddenly appeared withhis forces.
But no battle ensued.
Instead of trying to defeatBurckhardt and then extract land
and concessions from him,Henry offered him a friendship agreement.
Under this agreement, Henryappointed Burckhardt to be Duke of
(07:41):
Swabia as his representative.
And that meant Burckhardtcould now legitimately control the
royal domain within his lands.
He could appoint bishops andabbots and essentially rule at will
in his duchy.
In exchange, he had to acceptHenry as king and support him in
war.
Basically, he received prettymuch the same freedoms we think Eberhard
(08:03):
of Franconia had negotiatedwith Henry at the coronation.
Now, Bavaria was a harder nutto crack.
You see, the Bavarians alwayssaw themselves as something better.
They were more civilized,thanks of having been inside the
Roman Empire and havingconverted to Christianity earlier
compared to the pagan, longhaired and unwashed Saxons.
(08:26):
So really not much has changed there.
Plus they had a lot biggerguns than the Swabians.
Henry had to run twocampaigns, one of which brought him
to the gates of Regensburg,the capital of Bavarian Duke Arnulf.
Again, rather than trying toachieve a full military success and
humiliate Arnulf, Henrypreferred to agree terms and another
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Friendship Treaty was signedin 921, and Arnulf gained the same
rights in Bavaria over royaldomains, abbots and bishops that
Burckhardt had gained inSwabia and Eberhard had already enjoyed
in Franconia.
Arnulf then recognized Henryas king and accepted the duchy from
him.
So within just three years,Henry had achieved what Conrad had
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so abysmally failed at.
He had unified the kingdom,though at the expense of a huge degree
of independence for the dukes.
Now we get to step two, theacquisition of Lotharingia.
Having secured the southernduchies into the kingdom, Henry's
focus now shifted towards Lothringia.
(09:35):
Just as a recap, Lothringiahad been created as a separate kingdom
for Emperor Lothar under theTreaty of Verdar in 843, and it comprised
a strip of land that goes fromthe North Sea to the Mediterranean.
So it included what is todaythe Netherlands, Belgium, parts of
West Germany, which includesthe imperial capital in Aachen, eastern
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France.
So that's namely Burgundy,Alsace Lorraine, but also Provence
and French speakingSwitzerland, and then northern Italy.
In fact, these are thebattlefields of every Franco German
clash over the next 1102 years.
After the direct descendantsof Lothar had died out, the southern
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end, including Burgundy,Provence and Northern Italy, had
become separate kingdoms.
And we will talk about those alot in the upcoming episodes.
The northern parts had becomea duchy, and that duchy had moved
back and forth between thekings of East Francia and the kings
of West Francia.
Under King Conrad, Lothringiahad just been lost to the West Francian
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King, Charles the Simple.
It was therefore a question ofhonor for Henry to get it back.
It also included the palace ofCharlemagne in Aachen, making it
even more desirable.
The good news for Henry wasthat Charles the Simple had become
very unpopular in France.
In 922, the nobles of Francerebelled and elected Robert of Neustria
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as the new king.
In the inevitably ensuingcivil war, Henry remained neutral,
even though he had just signeda friendship agreement with Charles
a year before.
So instead of helping, hestarted nibbling away at Lothringian
territory.
And then Charles was capturedin a battle, in the same battle where
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his rival Robert had alsodied, leaving France without a king.
That's where Henry saw hischance and invaded.
However, the French quicklylined up behind Robert's successor,
King Rudolf, and retaliated.
Henry had to run back acrossthe border.
In the subsequent peace treaty.
For reasons that I don't quiteunderstand, Henry was somehow able
(11:45):
to keep all his gains so far.
The next chance came in 925,when the Lothringian leaders, including
their Duke Gilbert, broke withKing Rudolf of France and called
on Henry for help.
Another invasion resulted in ademonstration of strength, but again
no decisive battle.
(12:06):
Henry used his upper hand notto inflict humiliating defeats, but
to sign friendship agreementsagain now with Duke Gilbert, with
the French king, and with manyof the Lothringian nobles.
And now something quitefundamental happens.
You know, under Charles, thesimple Lothringia had remained a
separate entity with its ownlaws, courts and king, who just happened
(12:27):
to be either the king of WestFrancia or the king of East Francia.
Now, Henry's treatise changedthat and it turned Lothringia into
a duchy that was an integralpart of the East Francian kingdom,
so similar to Bavaria or Franconia.
He reconfirmed Gilbert as Dukeof Lothringia and awarded him the
same level of autonomy thatthe other dukes enjoyed, and also
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gave him his daughter as a wife.
Having acquired Lothringia notonly strengthened the kingdom, but
also gave Henry enormous prestige.
He now held the capital ofCharlemagne in Aachen, making him
not just practically, but alsovisibly the most senior leader in
the ancient Carolingian empire.
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Over the ensuing decades, theduchies as such, remained separate
entities with their owninternal structure and a lot of independence.
The dukes may seemirritatingly powerful to the king,
but they themselves were notabsolute rulers in their duchies
either.
Like the king, the dukesneeded to balance the powerful families
(13:32):
within the duchies, ensurethey feel respected and that their
advice was heard.
The title of dukes was not yetan inherited one, so the king could,
and ultimately did, replacethe ruling ducal families with trusted
allies or more often,immediate family members.
That being said, he could notchange the duchy's internal structure.
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So these new dukes, even whenthey are sons or brothers of the
king, will represent the duchyin their dealings with the king,
rather than being at theking's beck and call.
Now comes step three, thebuilding of a new military.
Having created a new politicalstructure for the kingdom, ensured
some internal peace and led toa rapid expansion of the economy.
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At the same time, Henryreformed and founded new monasteries
that played a major role notonly in learning and spiritual well
being, but also in theinternal colonization of the country
that was still almost entirelycovered in forests.
The biggest change, however,was to the military.
The Carolingian armiesconsisted predominantly of free men
(14:42):
who were obliged to serve acertain number of days as soldiers
at their own expense.
There were some armoredknights embedded in the army, but
they were still exceedinglyrare and did not form their own divisions.
So, given the transitorynature of military service, soldiers
tended to be poorly trainedand pretty poorly equipped.
That did not matter much aslong as the wars were mainly either
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civil wars or wars againstsimilarly structured armies in France
or in Italy.
In the early 10th century, thekingdom had come under pressure from
new and better equipped enemies.
The Vikings in the north andthe Magyars in the south.
The Vikings were the greatestsailors of the age, allowing them
to quickly deploy their forceswherever they wanted along the coasts
(15:25):
and the rivers.
And once on land, theiradvantage lay mainly in the element
of surprise and a welldeserved reputation for merciless
cruelty.
By 925, the Vikings had beenraiding northern Europe for nearly
a hundred years, and theirattack forces had become veritable
armies.
Just a few decades earlier,the famous Rollo and his troops had
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besieged Paris and were paidoff with the Duchy of Normandy.
The Vikings were reallyterrifying, but they did not challenge
the system as such.
Given that they had so far notshown any tendency to stay as they
had in England and in France,the Magyars were a vastly different
threat.
The origin of the Magyars isheavily disputed, but they may have
(16:09):
originated near the UralMountains in Russia.
So over 500 years, they hadmigrated from northern Russia to
an area that is today's Hungary.
That is why we call themHungarians, though they themselves
prefer the term Magya.
And that is until today.
Their military style wassimilar to the classic steppe fighters,
(16:29):
like the Huns and the Mongols.
Their army consisted almostentirely of light cavalry armed with
composite bows.
The composite bow was the mostpowerful and the least recognized
weapon of the Middle Ages.
A composite bow consists ofseveral types of wood and horn laminated
together.
That allows for small butimmensely powerful bows that can
(16:51):
be shot from a horse.
The famous English archersused a single wood bow, which needed
to be much bigger to achievesimilar power, and hence could only
be used by infantry.
The reason English archers donot use composite bows is as so many
things are, down to the weather.
Composite bows do not work inthe rain.
(17:14):
The humidity weakens thelamination between the different
kinds of wood, which weakensthe bow.
And that is probably the onlyreason why the Mongols never invaded
Western Europe.
Composite bows gave theHungarians huge mobility and the
ability to fight their foes ata distance.
The peasant infantry of theCarolingian period stood no chance
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against these awesome fighters.
Every time the Carolingianarmy charged them on foot, with their
knives in their pitchforks,the Hungarians just rode away, turned
round and shot them witharrows from a safe distance.
In the year 907, theHungarians inflicted a massive defeat
on the Bavarian DukeLewittpolt, which opened the border
(17:56):
into Germany.
They had previously alreadymade inroads into Italy and from
907 onwards the Hungariansundertook annual raids deep into
Carolingian territory, raidingand plundering as far west as Burgundy,
Provence and even northern Spain.
In Henry's reign, theHungarians came through in 919, in
(18:18):
924 and in 926.
And he couldn't do anythingabout it.
All he did was hide behind thewalls of his castles.
The only available militaryresponse was to catch the Hungarians
on their way back when theywere slowed down by the wagons full
of plunder.
By a stroke of luck in 926, inone of these retreat actions, Henry's
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troops managed to capture notjust the loot, but also a highly
ranking Hungarian Prince Henryused this hostage to do what he does,
negotiate.
He agreed a nine year trucewith the Hungarians in exchange for
the prince and an annual tribute.
The truce might have beenhumiliating, but Henry did not lose
(19:04):
time.
A fundamental reform of themilitary was needed to confront the
Hungarians.
He called the Royal Diet inworms in 926 to agree two major reform
packages.
The first one was the Burgenordner.
The idea behind it was toprofessionalize the peasant infantry.
Instead of all peasants havingto come to the aid of the King in
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war, out of each group ofnine, one was selected to do military
service for them.
This ninth peasant was tobecome a full time soldier, had to
move to a castle.
In the castle he must buildand maintain accommodation for the
other eight and their familiesand animals should they need to retreat.
(19:47):
The other eight would have todo the field work on the land of
the permanent soldier andstore 1/3 of the harvest in the castle.
So when the enemy comes, thepopulation flees into the castle.
There they hide out until theraiding Hungarians have gone back
home.
Given they have stored onethird of last year's harvest in the
castle, the peasants haveenough seed to sow the crops for
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next year.
You have to remember thatagriculture in the early Middle Ages
was extremely inefficient.
You needed about one third ofthe harvester's seed for next year.
That meant when an enemy hadraided the countryside and stolen
or destroyed the entireharvest, the peasant not only lost
this year's crop, butpotentially several years of harvest.
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By storing a third of thegrain in the castle, the maximum
damage was limited to just one harvest.
Henry also ordered thatMarkets and courts should be held
in these castles, makingcastle building even more attractive.
There's a rather tediousdebate among scholars whether Henry
had the legal and politicalright to enforce the Borgenordnung
(20:52):
outside his own Duchy of Saxony.
The answer, probably not.
However, the Hungarianinvasion was a major threat to all
duchies, and the Borgenordnowwas a pretty good idea.
That, combined with Henry'snegotiation skills, meant that most,
if not all, dukes, counts,bishops and abbots fell in line.
(21:13):
And castles sprung up all over Germany.
Part two of the militaryreform was to create a heavily armored
cavalry.
Whilst the stirrup had alreadybeen introduced more than 100 years
earlier, and subsequently,armored knights were a thing, there
weren't a lot of them around.
Armored knights are expensive.
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To maintain a horse and armorrequires a lot more than the work
of just eight peasants.
Hence, Henry had to grant theknights some of his lands to fund
the cost.
The structure of the awardtended to be a lease for life that
in principle would revert theland back to the awarding king at
the death of the incumbent.
But as we all know, this isnot how this story ended.
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The knights became the feudallords who passed the lands down to
their heirs.
And again the question was itjust Henry's land they received?
And again, the answer is no.
Knights sprung up all over thecountry, suggesting the dukes, the
bishops and the abbots came inon the planet.
The military reform was notconfined to the ability to fight
(22:19):
wars, but had fundamentalconsequences for the social structure.
By professionalizing the army,the free peasant lost his right and
ability to bear arms.
Suddenly, he turned from beinga member of a conquering royal army
to being a defenceless subjectwho needed protection from armed
warriors.
This shift had certainly notcome about just through the Bogenordnung,
(22:42):
but the Burgenorden is awatershed moment where what we now
call feudalism became the norm.
And we are moving into theMiddle Ages proper now, going on
to step four, the expansioninto the East.
Before Henry could use hisshiny new army to oppose the Hungarians,
he needed to try them out.
The best place to do that wasat the eastern border of his own
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Duchy of Saxony.
It allowed him to catch twobirds with one stone.
On the one hand, he expandshis own domain, and on the other
hand, he acquires land he canthen lease to his new armed cavalrymen.
In a campaign in 928 and 929,he pushes the border towards the
Elbe, including the previouslyunconquered areas in what is today's
(23:28):
state of Saxony, aroundDresden And Leipzig.
The following year, he teamsup with the Duke of Bavaria and subjects
the Bohemians and enters theircapital in Prague again.
We will hear a bit more aboutthat story in one of the upcoming
episodes.
Now, on to step five.
The Holy Lance.
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Having an army on earth seemedto have not been enough for Henry
to dare to confront the Hungarians.
What he needed now was hissupport from above.
In 932, he held a synod of allthe major bishops and abbots of his
realm, calling for God'sblessing in his upcoming endeavor.
As part of the bargain withthe Lord, the synod implemented a
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number of church reforms,including new feast days, stricter
fasting rules, and severepunishment for priests who fail in
their moral rectitude.
So it sounds as ifCharlemagne's general admonishment
needed another refresher.
But the most importantcelestial help came from King Rudolf
of Upper Burgundy.
You see, amongst the treasuresof Upper Burgundy was the Holy Lance.
(24:35):
The Holy Lance was describedby Luitprand of Cremona as at the
raised part, which we call thewaist, there are crosses made from
the nails that once piercedthe hand and feet of our Lord and
Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
This is the lance thatcontains the nails from the cross.
When Henry heard that Rudolfpossessed this inestimable heavenly
(24:57):
treasure, he sent envoys tosee if he could acquire it and as
gained for himself aninvincible weapon against all enemies,
visible and invisible, andmake perpetual triumph certain.
Rudolf initially refused, butafter being threatened with fire
and sword, he finally relentedand handed the Lance over for presents
of gold and silver and a largedistrict of the Duchy of Swabia,
(25:21):
that is the city and canton of Baseline.
So far, Henry's been reallygood at negotiating this one.
Not so sure.
On the one hand, the city ofBasel is at least today one of the
richest spots on earth.
The Holy Lance, on the otherhand, unfortunately looks suspiciously
like an 8th century standardFrankish lance.
(25:42):
There's also the side issuethat there are Holy Lances in Paris,
Rome, Armenia and Constantinople.
One has to wonder what wasgoing on in the 8th century when
they not only produced a fakeConstantine Donation, but a veritable
avalanche of relics.
There were two notoriousdealers in relics called Deus, Dona
and Felix, who sold the samesaints over and over again.
(26:04):
As far as I found out, thereseemed to be at least five heads
of John the Baptist for years.
I believe there was a churchin Sicily where they venerated a
head of John the Baptist.
At the age of six, whenpreparing the podcast, I was looking
for the source of the story,and it is for Umberto echoes the
name of the rose, so probablynot true.
But if any one of you findsevidence for it, please post it on
(26:27):
Twitter or Facebook.
Anyway, Henry swapped the cityfor a stick.
A stick he believed will makehim invincible.
We'll see whether that willcome true.
Over the centuries, the mythof the lance's magical powers grew
and grew.
And in the 12th century,folklore tied it to the Lance of
Longinus, who pierced the sideof the Lord at the crucifixion.
(26:50):
It became the most revered ofthe imperial regalia, and we will
meet it again and again in our narrative.
If you want to see it, it's inthe Kunsthistorche Museum in Vienna.
And now to step six, the bigone, the fight against the Hungarians.
In the year 933, Henry feltready to take the plunge.
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The army was ready, theheavenly forces were appeased, and
he had the Holy Lance.
He summoned the people andsaid, once your empire was disrupted
on every side by countlessdangers, but now it is free.
You yourself know this well,having labored under the grinding
(27:32):
weight of civil conflicts andforeign wars, and now, with the grace
of the highest divinity, byour labor and by our strength, there
is peace and unity.
The Slavs have been defeatedand subjected in service to us.
There is just one thingremaining for us to do.
We must join together againstour common enemy, the Magyars.
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I have plundered you, yoursons and your daughters to fill their
treasuries.
And now I am forced to plunderthe churches and the servants of
those churches, leaving usnaked and with no money.
Consider amongst yourselveswhat should be done about this and
choose.
Should I take the treasuriesthat were consecrated to the divine
(28:15):
office and hand them over topurchase our redemption from the
enemies of God?
At this, the people raisedtheir voices to heaven, saying that
they wished above all to beredeemed by the living and true God,
because He was faithful andjust in all of his path and holy
in all of his works.
Promising to the King theirfull effort against this most vicious
(28:38):
of peoples, they raised theirright hands into the air and affirmed
this pact.
So Henry refused to pay hisannual tribute and waited for the
Hungarians to show up.
The Hungarians realized quitequickly that something was up.
The Slavic tribes on the Elbe,instead of coming along on the raid
(28:59):
as they have done in the past,sent them a very fat dog as a present.
The Hungarians did not havetime to avenge that insult, as they
were far too much in a hurryto get into the fight with the Germans.
As the Hungarians enteredGermany proper, they found the defenses
stronger than expected, andthey lost two smaller skirmishes
in Thuringia.
(29:20):
Then, on 15 March 933, an armyconsisting of soldiers from all across
the kingdom faced theHungarians at Reed on the Unstrut
River.
The armored cavalry proved itsworth, as did the much improved infantry,
and the Hungarians fled backinto their homeland.
This was not the final or evena devastating defeat, but it was
(29:42):
the first time a Frankish armyhad beaten the Hungarians in an open
battle.
The expansion into SchleswigHenry led one last campaign against
the Danes in 934, conqueringSchleswig and thereby bringing the
threat from the Vikings to an end.
You see, Germany had alwaysbeen a secondary target for the Scandinavians,
(30:05):
mainly because England andFrance offered rich pickings without
much risk of retaliation.
Germany was a bit poorer andhad a land border with Denmark, meaning
the Germans could bring fireand brimstone to Danish homes whilst
their Vikings were away on raids.
Henry's attack reminded themthat the latter was a real option.
(30:27):
So from then on, the Daneskept to foreign shores and even went
through some charade ofsubmission to the German kings.
And that was it.
Henry died of a stroke in 936,having reigned just 17 years.
He achieved in these 17 yearsmore than any Germanic ruler since
Charlemagne.
(30:49):
He unified the kingdom of the Germans.
He defined its borders thatremained largely unchanged, at least
in the west, north and south,until 1648.
He created not just a newmilitary structure, but also the
new social structure thatwould prevail for another 500 years.
He founded castles, cities andmonasteries in untold numbers.
(31:11):
And he fought of the Vikingsand the Hungarians.
His authority extended wellbeyond the borders of the kingdom.
He was recognized as thesenior ruler in the ancient Carolingian
realm.
And so he was called upon toresolve internal conflicts within
West Francia, Italy and Burgundy.
But the last and final majorreform came at the end.
(31:33):
Henry broke the damagingtradition of Merovingian and Carolingian
kings to divide their empirebetween their sons.
He made the nobles swear toelevate his oldest son, Otto, to
the kingship, and only him.
From this point forward, kingsand ruling dynasties will change.
The central power will rise invain, but the kingdom as such will
(31:55):
no longer be formally divideduntil 1806.
And that is the magic word, kingdom.
What Henry did not achieve wasto be crowned emperor and turning
his kingdom into an empire.
That will be the job of hisson, Otto I, known as the Great.
Next week, we will meet Ottoand follow his tumultuous first years
(32:18):
in office when he nearlydestroyed all his father had achieved.
I really hope to see you then,and if you enjoyed the show, please
subscribe to the podcast onApple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcast from, and anyfuture episode will miraculously
appear in your feed everyweek, I promise.
(32:39):
And you can go even furtherand leave a positive review, which
would be really, really appreciated.
Sa.
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