We stop for our usual recap to look back over episodes 051 to 076 going from the Concordat of Worms in 1122 to the death of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1250, with a look at the rise of the Commune city states and the maritime republics, Venice in particular.
Tag: Frederick Barbarossa
We take a moment to look more into the private life of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and see how his court, as well as seeing a little naughtiness going on, was a cradle of culture and science. We then deal with a rebellion by his first born son Henry before we see a rematch of Empire vs Lombard League.
We see the early life of Frederick I of Sicily, son of Constance of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI up to the point when he becomes Emperor Frederick II himself with great regret from the popes who had hoped to keep the crown of the empire and that of the kingdom of Sicily separate. Are we in for another great class between Empire and Papacy?
We sadly saw goodbye to the Norman kings in Sicily and usher in a new era in which the Hohenstaufen, under emperor Henry VI, son of Barbarossa, extend their dominion from the north sea to the centre of the Meditteranean.
This is the last in our miniseries on Venice, taking us from the mid twelfth century back up to the notorious 4th Crusade, but not before we look at a 1997 attempt at Venetian independence using a WWII machine gun and a home-made tank called “Tanko”