Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, episode 142,

Adolf von Nassau, a shadow of a king.

And this is, by the way, also episode 5 of season 8,

the Holy Roman Empire, 1250 to 1356.

After the death of Rudolf of Habsburg, the electors chose another, now a truly impicunius

count, Adolf von Nassau, to be king.

They chose him over Rudolf's son Albrecht and over the overwhelmingly most powerful prince in the empire,

King Venza's last second of Bohemia.

Now this cultured and competent man became known to German history as a Chattchenkernig, a shadow

of a king, unable to wriggle out of his ties to the overbearing electors.

Acting as a mercenary in the pay of King Edward of England and failing to create his own Hausmacht in Thuringia,

many history books skip over his six years on the throne.

Nevertheless, the events around his election and deposition

form another crossroads in the history of the German lands that

set the Holy Roman Empire further down the path to be another holy nor Roman nor an empire.

But before we start I have a tip for you.

If you are a fan of University Challenge and quite frankly frankly, who would listen to 140 episodes of

obscure German history and isn't, tune in on April 8 at 830 GMT on BBC 2 for the final.

For those of you, not based in the UK, University Challenge is a quiz show running since

1962, where university teams compete with each other. Many former contestants

became leading intellectuals, actors and politicians. The questions are such that most people

feel incredibly smug if they get two or three right per show. Now one of your fellow listeners,

...