Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, episode 56, the siege of Kramer.

First up, a quick apology for the delayed publication of this episode. I did go away for

Easter and all that chasing after Easter bunnies and barbecuing is not conducive

to producing history podcasts. Normal service will resume next Thursday morning. Now this week

we will see how the Italian communes take the laws of Roncalia. Not well is the understatement

of the 12th century. Prepare for some epic sieges and some harsh imperial justice.

But before we start, just a reminder.

The history of the Germans podcast is advertising free, thanks to the generous support from patrons.

And you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other privileges

from the price of a latte per month. All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com

slash history of the Germans or on my website, History of the Germans.com.

You find all the links in the show notes. And thanks a lot to John and Ed and Carrie, who've already signed up.

And then I want to give a very special shout-out to Suzanne,

superfan of the show since literally day one.

Thanks so much for all your encouragement, advice and generosity.

Something that has kept me going when I had to live with episodes

barely hitting 200 downloads

over seven days. But now, back to the show. Last week, Barbarossa promulgated the laws on Roncalia,

or more precisely endorsed the application of Roman law for the Italian part of the empire.

Roman law was the law of Imperial Rome,

where the Emperor is the source of all laws and laws apply at the pleasure of the ruler.

And in more tangible terms, the Emperor had reclaimed almost all of the Imperial regalia,

...