Ep. 139: Rudolf of Habsburg (1273-1291) - The End of the Interregnum
History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 551 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On October 1, 1273 seven princes elected a new king of the Romans. Their choice was a momentous one that set European history further down its path away from a universal empire to separate kingdoms and principalities.
The pope had demanded that they come to a unanimous decision so that the empire could again participate in a crusade to stop the remains of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to be swept away for good.
So why did they chose a modest count from what is now Northern Switzerland called rudolf von Habsburg and not any of the kings, dukes and princes who had been vying for the job and who could count on support from Naples, Rome, Prague and Paris is what we will look into in this episode, the first of our new season “from the Interregnum to the Golden Bull – the Holy Roman empire 1250-1273.
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.
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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
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, Episode 139, the end of the Interregnum. |
| 0:13.5 | On October 1, 1273, seven princes elected a new king of the Romans. |
| 0:19.4 | Their choice was a momentous one that said European history further down its path from |
| 0:23.6 | a universal empire to separate kingdoms and principalities. |
| 0:28.1 | The Pope had demanded that they come to a unanimous decision so that the empire could again |
| 0:32.8 | participate in a crusade to stop the remains of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to be swept away for good. |
| 0:40.3 | So, why did they choose a modest count from what is now Northern Switzerland? |
| 0:46.3 | And not any of the kings, dukes and princes who had been vying for the job |
| 0:50.3 | and a good count on support from Naples, Rome, Prague and Paris is what we will look into in this episode. |
| 0:58.0 | The first of our new season, from the Interregnum to the Golden Bull, |
| 1:03.0 | the Holy Roman Empire, 1250 to 1273. |
| 1:16.4 | But before we start, let me run through the usual spiel about the history of the Germans being advertising free. |
| 1:18.4 | It matters. |
| 1:19.4 | I mean I guess you have seen the recent news about Google being fined $2.6 billion for market |
| 1:25.0 | abuse as they pushed customers towards their own shopping platform. |
| 1:29.8 | This used to be such an elegant machine providing super-fast, uncuttered access to the information |
| 1:34.6 | one wanted. |
| 1:36.1 | Now it's like a shopping mall where you have to squeeze past shrieking billboards to find |
| 1:41.0 | the little independent bookshop in the far corner. Now since I am short a few billion to spend on fines, I rely on patrons and on one-time |
| 1:50.5 | supporters who can sign up on patreon.com slash History of the Germans and History of the Germans.com |
| 1:56.0 | support. |
| 1:57.5 | And thanks so much to Michael P., Christian N, Sarah A., Steve M. and Gweinstein, who've already signed up. |
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