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. Over the course of these momentous decades, warring forest tribes would transfer into a vast amount of pluralistic, though German, identities, including the rising Hanseatic League.

New episodes every Thursday!

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)

Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: Second Edition. Penguin Books, 1998.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Davies, Norman. Europe: A History. Oxford Press, 1996.

Schildhauer, Johannes. The Hansa: History and Culture. Dorset Press, 1988.

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

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 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)

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: Second Edition. Penguin Books, 1998.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

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 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)

Fine, John VA Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1948.

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 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)

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1948.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: Second Edition. Penguin Books, 1998.

Davies, Norman. God’s Playground: A History of Poland Volume 1: Origins to 1795. Columbia University Press, 2005.

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 Medieval History become involved, and the consequences will take a couple episodes to unpack.

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)

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval Germany 1056-1273. Oxford University Press, 1988.

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 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)

Fine, John VA Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Durant, Will. The Age of Faith. Simon and Schuster, 1950.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

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 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)

Cantor, Norman. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial, 1993.

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Davies, Norman. Moorhouse, Roger. Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City. Jonathan Cape, 2002.

Davies, Norman. Europe: A History. Oxford Press, 1996.

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 Middle Ages.

New episodes every Monday! (Excepting this October!)

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)

Vernadsky, George. Kievan Russia. Yale University Press, 1948.

Schmidt, Knud Rahbek. The Social Structure of Russia in the Early Middle Ages. University of Aarhus. 1960.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Wilson, Peter H. Heart of Europe. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University, 2020.

Davies, Norman. Moorhouse, Roger. Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City. Jonathan Cape, 2002.

Berend, Nora. Urbanczyk, Przemyslaw. Wiszewski, Przemyslaw. Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, C.900-C.1300. Cambridge University Press, 2014.