Ep. 186: Mainz and Hessen - An Origin Story
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we are setting off on our tour of the empire for real. And where better to start than with the most senior, most august of the seven prince Electors, the archbishop of Mainz, archchancellor of the empire, and holder of the decisive vote in imperial elections.
We have already encountered a number of archbishops of Mainz in this podcast, from the treacherous Frederick who tried to overthrow Otto the Great (ep.3), to Willigis, the eminence grise of the empire under Otto II, Otto III and Henry II (ep.10-19) , Adalbert, first advisor and then adversary of Henry V (ep. 40), Peter von Aspelt, the man who put the Luxemburgs on the Bohemian throne (ep. 145) and lots more.
But this series is not about grand imperial politics, but about the grimy territorial skullduggery inside the empire. And for Mainz this is a story that is deeply entangled with the history of Hessen.
Where Mainz is ancient, tracing its’ eminence back to a saint who had come across the water, Hessen was a new kid on the block amongst the imperial princes. But a very successful one. And at its beginning stood the 24 year-old daughter of a saint holding up her baby son to be acclaimed lord by the people, or some such thing.
Maps of Mainz, the Landgraviate of Thuringia and Hessen: Maps • History of the Germans Podcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans. |
| 0:07.0 | Episode 186, Origin Stories, which is also episode one of our new series, The Empire in the 15th century. |
| 0:15.0 | Now this week we are setting off on our tour of the Empire for real, and we're better |
| 0:21.2 | to start than with the most senior, the most august of the seven prince-electors, the |
| 0:25.9 | Archbishop of Mainz, the Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, and holder of the decisive vote |
| 0:31.0 | in imperial elections. |
| 0:33.6 | We have already encountered a number of these Archbishops of Mainz in this podcast, from the treacherous Frederick who tried to overthrow Otto the Great, to Villegis, |
| 0:41.3 | the eminence Gris of the Empire under Otto II, |
| 0:44.3 | Otto the Third and Henry II. |
| 0:47.3 | And then Aralbert, first advisor and then adversary of Henry V, |
| 0:51.3 | Peter van Aspelt, the man who put the Luxembourg's on the Bohemian throne, |
| 0:56.6 | and lots and lots and lots more. |
| 0:59.6 | But this series is not about the grand imperial politics, but about the grimy territorial skullduggery inside the empire. |
| 1:07.1 | And for Mainz, this is a story that is deeply entangled with the history of Hessan. |
| 1:13.6 | Where Mainz is ancient, tracing its eminence back to a saint who had come across the water, |
| 1:18.6 | Hessan was a new kid on the block amongst the imperial princes, but a very successful one. |
| 1:25.6 | And at its beginning stood the 24-year-old daughter of a saint holding up her baby's son |
| 1:31.3 | to be acclaimed lord by the people, or some such thing. |
| 1:35.3 | But before we start, just a quick reminder that the History of the Germans podcast is advertising |
| 1:40.3 | free thanks to the generosity of our patrons who have signed up on Historyof |
| 1:44.4 | the Germans.com slash support. And this week our special thanks go to Tom B, Christopher |
| 1:49.8 | P, Jocelyn, Christy Zat, Jakub P, Sean Ryder and Jeff B. And one last thing. I've given |
... |
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