Lothair Crystal

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

This week, Neil MacGregor is exploring life in the great royal courts around the world during Europe's medieval period. It's easy to forget that the civilisations of Tang China, the Islamic Empire and the Maya in Mesoamerica were all at their peak during this time. He is describing the life of these courts through individual objects in the British Museum's collection. In the last programme he was with the Abbasid court North of Baghdad and an exotic wall painting; today's object is an engraved rock crystal connecting a biblical tale to a real life story of royal intrigue at the heart of Europe. The Lothair Crystal was made in the mid-ninth century and offers scenes in miniature from the biblical story of Susanna, the wife of a rich merchant who is falsely accused of adultery. The crystal was intended to exemplify the proper functioning of justice but, intriguingly, the king for whom the piece was made was himself trying to have his marriage annulled so he could marry his mistress! The historian Rosamond McKitterick explains what we know of the court of King Lothair and former senior law lord, Lord Bingham, describes the role of justice as portrayed in this exquisite work of art. Producer: Anthony Denselow

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.0	Royal Divorces generally mean political trouble.
0:16.3	The marital problems of Henry VIII plunged England into decades of religious strife.
0:21.2	And as we all know, when 8th wanted to marry a divorced
0:24.7	woman there was a constitutional crisis that cost him his throne. The object in this
0:29.8	program is associated with a king whose protracted attempts to divorce his
0:34.2	queen were, on the contrary, intended to safeguard the kingdom. His failure to do
0:39.4	so probably killed him and it certainly led to the termination not only of his line but of his kingdom as well.
0:57.0	The object, an engraved rock crystal, tells us his name. Written in Latin, it reads Lothar, King of the Franks,
1:00.4	cause me to be made. This is the most stunning representation of a biblical story,
1:07.0	carved beautifully, meticulously and very, very finely.
1:12.0	I think this crystal is an object of exceptional interest.
1:19.0	A history of the world in a hundred objects. The Lothar Crystal depicting Susanna and the Elders, probably from Germany 855 to 869.
1:47.0	The objects this week allow us glimpses into the intimate surroundings of the most powerful
1:56.4	rulers of the world around 800 AD.
1:59.9	And perhaps because we're in a private realm, it's not surprising that women feature prominently.
2:05.7	In Mexico, the Mayan Queen served her husband and the gods by causing herself great physical pain.
2:11.7	In Samarra, the Harim women served their Islamic masters with nothing but pleasure.
2:17.2	Today we're in the heart of Europe and once again we're at a point where power and personal life intersect with enormous consequences.
2:26.0	I'm with the Susanna crystal now. It's a flat disc about four and a half inches in diameter and carved into it is a biblical story in eight separate
2:36.3	scenes so if you think of a crystal cartoon you're pretty close to what we're looking at
2:42.3	where in Babylon where the beautiful young Zama
	...

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