Empire-Builders

Sources & further reading: 1. Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. Wilson) 2. The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900–1300 (Herbert Schutz) 3. Weinfurter, Stefan (1999) [1992]. The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition. Translated by Kaiser, Denise A. 4. Wolfram, Herwig (2006) [2000]. Conrad...

This is the story of Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert d'Aurillac: wandering monk, imperial tutor, cathedral canon, one-time abbot, Ottonian spy, siege engineer, archbishop, and pope. His remarkable rise was attributed to a pact with the Devil. Sources & further reading: - The Letters of Gerbert, With His Papal Privileges as Sylvester II - The Abacus and the Cross (Nancy Marie Brown) - A 10t...

This is the story of the Ottonians, the descendants of Otto the Great, who steered Germany and Italy through the dawn of a new millennium. Sources & further reading: - Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. Wilson) - Otto III (Gerd Althoff) - Death and Life in the Tenth Century (Eleanor Duckett) - Warfare in Medieval Europe c.400-c.1453 (Bernard S. Bachrach, David S. Bac...

The Saxons were Charlemagne's greatest foe, yet it was a Saxon family that restored his empire. This is the story of the first Ottonians: Henry the Fowler & Otto the Great. Sources & further reading: - Warfare in Medieval Europe c.400-c.1453 (Bernard S. Bachrach, David S. Bachrach) - Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany (David S. Bachrach) - The Costs of Fortress Construction in Tenth-Cent...

The Franks were arguably the most successful barbarian people that emerged in the late antique period. Though they helped bring an end to the Western Roman Empire, they later restored it under Charlemagne, even as they laid the primitive foundations for a new age and order. This is the story of the Franks, spanning six centuries of war, intrigue, and statesmanship, which saw this people rise from...

This episode focuses on the last chapters of the Carolingian Empire, in the days of Charlemagne's grandsons and great grandsons. What were the last Carolingians really like, and how did they navigate this time in flux? Our story coincides with the Viking Age, the birth of feudalism, and the origins of French & German statehood. This is the sixth episode in a series covering the Holy Roman...

This episode focuses on Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's deeply misunderstood son and heir. This is the fifth episode in a series covering the Holy Roman Empire. Sources & further reading: - Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. Wilson) - The Carolingian World (Marios Costambeys, Matthew Innes, Simon MacLean) - The Demanding Drama of Louis the Pious (Courtney M. Booke...

We all saw the interview. Sources & further reading: The Story of Russia (Orlando Figes) Peter the Great: His Life and World (Robert K Massie) The Romanovs: 1613-1918 (Simon Sebag Montefiore) Catherine the Great & Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair (Simon Sebag Montefiore) Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (Simon Sebag Montefiore) Young Stalin (Simon Sebag Montefiore) The Cambridge History...

In this episode, we cover Charlemagne's coronation, the Carolingian Renaissance, the administrative aspects of his vast realm, and conclude with an examination of Charlemagne the man. We start with his coronation... By this point, Charlemagne had mastered the art of wartime logistics and organization, handed down news ways of governance and worship to conquered peoples, and soon he would inaug...

The founder of the Carolingian empire, Charlemagne, is often called the “father of Europe.” For the French and German people alike, he’s a little bit like a medieval George Washington. But unlike Washington, Charlemagne was not just statesman and general. He was an empire-builder living in a very different time, when might made right. There is no single battle or campaign that earned Charlemagne h...

In the course of only twenty five years, Clovis -- the first of the Merovingians -- had united the Frankish people, adopted Roman Christianity, and laid the foundations for a kingdom that would last about two and half centuries. In the vision of Clovis' father, Childeric, he imagines that the Merovingian dynasty would transmogrify from a procession of mythic creatures into a pack of wild bears...

So there’s a lot of guys thinking about the Roman Empire lately, but that’s nothing new. Though the western half of their empire fell more than 1500 years ago, the Romans have never really gone away, leaving behind traces -- material and immaterial -- of their achievements in so many different realms of human endeavor: from civil engineering and hydraulics to political and legal reforms to linguis...

Following in the footsteps of greatness is never an easy thing, especially at the dawn of history. This was the Bronze Age, when glory could not be bought or borrowed or bartered, except with the price of blood. Sure, there was praise to be earned for building roads and consecrating temples and giving grain to the hungry. All of that was very well and good. However, it was the virtues of war, not...

Let us, just for the moment, take a brief respite from the epic tales of gods, great men, and battles that dominate our narrative. Rest assured that we will return to these subjects soon enough because of how prominently they figure in the two centuries of Akkadian rule, so much so that normally sober-minded historians have referred to it as “the heroic chapter” of Bronze Age History. It is all to...

What kind of man does it take to build an empire? And not just any empire, but the very first in the history of man? What would it take to bring it into being when only kingdoms and cities had come before? For an answer, we can look at the story of Sargon of Akkad: Lover to Ishtar, Father to Enheduanna, Lord of Lies, King of Battle, Prophet of Empire. In The Birth Legend of Sargon of Akkad, we are...

Since there can be no firm understanding of the Sargonic empire without a passing familiarity with the Sumerian city-states that preceded it, this episode is devoted to them, their leading representative being Uruk. With this context established, we will be able to make sense of the Akkadians as well as their successors, because as certainly as day follows night, so too does one empire follow anot...

An introduction to the Empires podcast. Theme track used: The Age of Empire (Zero Project)