Ep. 71: Henry VI (1189-1197) - Conquest of Sicily - To Catch a King

History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification

Dirk Hoffmann-Becking

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 551 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is one story from the Middle Ages that most people know, the imprisonment and ransom of King Richard the Lionheart of England. The chivalric knight and hero of the Third Crusade is cowardly set upon by a gallery of villains, his brother, John Lackland, the King of France, Phillippe Auguste and the moneygrabbing emperor Henry VI, ably asssited by duke Leopold of Austria. We will look at this story from Henry VI. perspective which make Richard look a lot less compelling. And we throw in one more great story - the birth of an emperor in a tent in the centre of a town witnessed by the matrons of the town.... As always, this episode has a dedicated website with the transcript and maps, pictures and additional comments to read along. It is to be found at https://historyofthegermans.com/71-2/ 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. As always: Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com Facebook: @HOTGPod Twitter: @germanshistory Instagram: history_of_the_germans Reddit: u/historyofthegermans Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Historyofthegermans

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 71, to catch a king.
0:11.2	I'm writing this while sitting in the loggia of Santa Maria de la Grazzi in Arezzo, one of the finest early Renaissance buildings ever, and I'm all alone.
0:21.1	Behind me is one of Andrea della la Robbia's masterpieces.
0:24.6	The church also holds a fresco by a pupil of Pierro de la Francesca.
0:28.8	The fact even one of these smaller towns in Tuscany can hold absolute wonders entirely
0:33.6	off the beaten tourist track tells you all you need to know about the delta and wealth
0:38.1	between Italy and most of Northern Europe in the Middle Ages.
0:42.7	One who was painfully aware of that delta in potential tax income was our friend, Emperor
0:48.4	Henry the 6th.
0:50.4	If you could only get hold of the Kingdom of Sicily, the inheritance of his wife, he would be so rich and so powerful.
0:57.0	But having lost his army before Naples, and even worse, having his wife falling into enemy hands,
1:03.0	means all looks terribly bleak.
1:06.0	But his luck is about to turn, thanks to one of the most famous and most unexpected events in the high Middle Ages, involving one of England's most overrated monarchs.
1:17.6	I'm sure you've heard the story a thousand times of Richard the Lionheart being kidnapped and ransomed by a crowned highwayman.
1:25.6	Today, you get the Kurosawa treatment,
1:28.5	and you'll hear the story from the German perspective.
1:31.9	But before we start, just a reminder.
1:35.3	The history of the Germans' podcast is advertising free,
1:38.0	thanks to the generous support from patrons.
1:40.4	And you can become a patron too
1:41.9	and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other privileges from the price of a latte per month.
1:48.2	All you have to do is to sign up at patreon.com slash History of the Germans or on my website, Historyof the Germans.com.
	...

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