Holy Roman Empire: Explained

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Voltaire famously wrote that the "The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” But Dr. Eleanor Janega believes that literally everything about Voltaire’s statement is wrong - in the medieval context.

In this explainer episode of Gone Medieval, Eleanor attempts to describe this important and powerful entity that lasted for around 800 years, stretching from Sicily to the North Sea, from Burgundy to Poland, which was home to some of the wealthiest and most important cities in medieval Europe and a huge percentage of the medieval European population.

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:24.8	This episode is sponsored by the London Review of Books, Europe's leading magazine of books and
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1:40.5	I'm Eleanor Yonega and today on Gone Medieval I'm afraid you're stuck with just me.
1:45.5	And that's because we are going to be talking about one of my areas of fascination and expertise.
1:50.6	The Holy Roman Empire. I'm going to try to explain some 800 years of history over one of the
1:56.8	largest contiguous political blocks in Europe in under an hour so wish me luck.
2:04.4	Odds are you've heard the name Holy Roman Empire but you can't necessarily define what it is.
2:10.9	You might kind of think of it as a shorthand for the German lands or indeed Germany in the Medieval
	...

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