Between the Seas: A Central European History

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

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

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

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

In this episode, we look at the latter half of the 12th century within Inner Europe; namely, this means looking at the rule of Frederick I "Barbarossa", perhaps the most powerful Staufer emperor, and one who would change much about how the empire worked, and how it perceived itself compared to the powers around it. Part of this change meant dealing with pan-elite factions which had risen in perenn...

In this episode, we begin our series on the High Medieval Empire by focusing first on its northeastern frontier, where many factors would coalesce into a sudden, and permanent, push to the east by Saxons and Danes into the lands of the Slavic Wends. The whole phenomenon has been summarized into the "Wendish Crusade", despite the crusade only lasting a single season of a many decades long process....

In this series, we discuss how the Holy Roman Empire will change in the long term from its warrior foundings, to a transpersonal and permanent institution of Inner Europe. This process would be personified by the Staufer dynasty, who would work to pick up the fragments of the investiture struggle and rebuild a new society. New episodes every Thursday! Have a question or comment? Contact me at Betw...

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

In this episode, we look at 4 independent short stories, linked through a similar setting and time, that of the warband states of Eastern Central Europe in the changing times of the Investiture Controversy. All will face an interesting historical cycle, a fall and rebirth, which will result in a new place for the warriors of the realm in a greater and lesser military aristocracy. New episodes ever...

In this episode, we finally reach the climax of simmering tensions between papal and imperial authority over the western church. A reform movement, built on reaction against urban decadence in the Mediterranean, Burgundy, and Lorraine, clashes with the imperial church, built on converting, militarizing, and bringing order to the rough Inner European frontier. Some of the largest personalities in M...

In the introduction for series 10 of the show, we speak of the responses that societies will face due to the dramatic changes wrought in by the High Middle Ages. Among them, we single out the Great Schism as an introduction to the scene, and go over its short and long term reasons for occurring, as well as what a few of the many consequences would be for Inner Europe. Source List New episodes ever...

In this episode, we set up the context in which our next few series are to take place. The High Middle Ages will be a time of immense transformation for Inner Europe, a time where the world before and after would be almost unrecognizable. Still, it affected Inner Europe's many different societies in many different ways, and would present challenges as well as opportunities. New episodes every Mond...

In this episode, we catch up with the development and Christianization of Rus Civilization, and discuss its hybridization with the other societies of Inner Europe. In doing so, we introduce some of the dynastic conflicts, rapidly changing peripheral strongholds, and family ties that the non-imperial powers of Inner Europe would develop amongst themselves just prior to the flourishing of the High M...

In this episode, we continue the political narrative of the Renewed Roman Empire in the West by talking about the later Ottonians and the early Salians, the "Holy Emperors" who would transform the empire into its second major phase of political development, that of Imperial Autocracy, the "Salian Command Monarchy". We will also look at the gradual transformation and development of Imperial Identit...

In this series, we begin to see Inner Europe as a more defined society, interacting with entities as recognized entities, and with a shared Romano-German and Romano-Greek approach to relations. This will lead to the next chapter of development, and a new struggle for identity between public and private powers in the 11th century. New episodes every Monday! Have a question or comment? Contact me at...

In this episode, we investigate the political overhauls that occurred after the end of the Magyar time of adventures. These would come hand in hand with the christianization of the clans, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary with the concurrence of the pope and Emperor Otto III. The newly honored king though, St. Stephen of Hungary, would have a momentous challenge of reconquest ahead t...

In this episode, we weave together the few sources of the Riverlands in the 10th and early 11th centuries with what we have already learned about Slavic societal development to tell a narrative of Poland's foundation and consolidation under Mieszko I, Bolesław the Brave, and Mieszko II. In a mere half-century, they would go from a single semi-consolidate tribe under the Piasts in greater Poland, t...

In this episode, we focus in on the subregion of Bohemia, surrounded by the Sudetan mountains. We will summarize the early growth of its societies, specifically focusing on the period following the dissolution of Great Moravia and consolidation of the Bohemian Basin under the first Christian Přemyslid Dukes in the 10th century. Through their stories, we aim to learn how Bohemia was able to be cons...

In this series, we introduce finally the stories of the native-led conversions of the influential dyansties of eastern Inner Europe, namely, the Přemyslids of Bohemia, the Piasts of Poland, and the Arpads of Hungary. With them will come the "birth" of their unique societies and written histories. To set up these stories in this introduction, we summarize a few of the important parallels in worldvi...

In this episode, we focus once more on the southern frontier of Inner Europe, to see the bloody resolution of conflict between the First Bulgarian Empire and a revived Byzantium. This includes the rule of the tsar Peter I, but also the unexpected rise of the Cometopuli, led by the ambitious and talented conqueror and later Tsar Samuel. We will also discuss Byzantine administration during this time...

In this episode, we tell the narrative of the Renewal of the Roman Empire into the form later known as the "Holy Roman Empire", through following the narrative of the Saxon Ottonians of East Frankia from 918 to 983. In it, we break down the new society being created within the Germany of the 10th century, one based on consensus Kingship, and talk about the ideals of an Ottonian Emperor. New episod...

In this episode, we descend to the marshes and forests of the Saxon-Slavic Frontier east of the Elbe, to introduce the development Saxon society through the lens of the brutal campaigns launched back and forth across the river. In this episode, we both set up the future conflicts that will take place in this buffer area of the Western Riverlands, and learn more about the hardened soldiers who will...

In this series, we will look at the incredible stories of Imperial rebirth, which defined the Ottonian founding of what would become the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the Golden Age of the Macedonian Dynasty among the Balkans. In the introduction, we introduce the themes of cultural values and moral forces, immaterial motivations which will help these actors to overcome the stacking factors of fra...

New episodes every Monday! Have a question or comment? Contact me at BetweentheSeas@zohomail.com Sources Intro: Zachary Wheeler and Nathaniel Scarborough, " Hej, Sokoły" folk tune Outro: Antonín Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, Op. 22 (London Symphony Orchestra 1960) Schmidt, Knud Rahbek. The Social Structure of Russia in the Early Middle Ages. University of Aarhus. 1960. Nicolle, David. McBride, Ang...

We continue the series on the 2nd Time of Invasions by looking at the Scandinavians and Northern Europe during the Viking Age. We will examine what caused this expulsion of men and material into the pursuit of loot across the trading routes of Europe, as well as what the effects were of their sustained influence along the Southern Baltic Coast, which makes up part of Inner Europe. Along with this,...