The Imperial Reform of 1495 with Prof. Duncan Hardy
History of the Germans
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 550 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Prof Duncan Hardy is one of the leading experts in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and one of his main topics is the Imperial reform of 1495, making him the ideal guest for our show.
In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire he tries to define what the Holy Roman Empire was a question we will almost certainly spend quite some time discussing today.
His forthcoming book, which he had so kindly sent me an advance copy, should be familiar to you all, since I do use it as a source for the show. It is titled Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany and contains a large number of edited and translated primary sources illustrating German history circa 1350 to 1550.
As a special treat, listeners to the Hstory of the Germans can order the book at Manchester University press with a 30% discount. The discount code is mentioned at the end of teh interview, so listen out. You can order ithere:
Duncan has a PHD from Oxford University, fellowships from Cambridge, Erfurt and Bielefeld and currently teaches at the University of Central Florida.
And he is a fellow listener of the show. So this will be the time where all my mistakes and random speculations will be dragged into the glare of academic scrutiny.
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.
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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.
So far I have:
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans. |
| 0:07.0 | Today we have a real treat in store. I'm here with Dr. Duncan Hardy. Duncan is a historian of Central Europe, broadly defined in the 13th to 16th century. He specializes in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 0:19.0 | In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire, he tries to define of the Holy Roman Empire. In his first book, Associative Political |
| 0:21.7 | Culture in the Holy Roman Empire, he tries to define what the Holy Roman Empire was, a question |
| 0:26.6 | I'm sure we'll spend quite some time discussing today. His forthcoming book, which he so kindly |
| 0:31.8 | sent me an advanced copy of, should be familiar to you all, since I do use it as a source |
| 0:36.2 | in the show. It's titled Law Society in Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany, |
| 0:41.3 | and contains a large number of edited and translated primary sources, |
| 0:44.3 | illustrating the German history of 1350 to 1550, which we spent quite some time on. |
| 0:50.3 | Now, Duncan has a PhD from Oxford University, |
| 0:53.3 | fellowships from Cambridge, Earford and |
| 0:54.8 | Bielefeld and currently teachers at the University of Central Florida. |
| 0:58.2 | He is also, and that makes me really proud, a fellow listener to the show. |
| 1:02.9 | And so this will be the time where all my mistakes and random speculations will be dragged |
| 1:07.5 | into the glare of academic scrutiny. |
| 1:10.3 | Duncan Hardy, welcome to the show. |
| 1:12.4 | Thank you for having me on. |
| 1:14.6 | Now, Duncan, before we go into the actual topics of today's conversation, |
| 1:18.0 | can I ask you, how did you get into German late medieval history as a topic? |
| 1:23.8 | I mean, this is really not the obvious choice for a British historian, is it? |
| 1:28.3 | That's a fair point. |
| 1:30.3 | A precondition for it really was that I did German A-level, which already at the time, |
... |
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