History of the Germans Ep. 211: Friedrich III (1440-1493) – Hitting Rock Bottom
It is November 1462 and the emperor Friedrich III and his young family are huddling together in the cellars of the Hofburg. The citizens of Vienna are shooting cannonballs into the 13th century castle, the walls are crumbling and any moment now the angry crowds may break in. Outside, supporting the insurrection stood his own brother, calling on him to give up.
Two crowns he has already lost and a third is about to be knocked off his head as the imperial princes had ganged up on him. Friedrich III was a man who firmly believed in ancient laws and traditions and was profoundly ill suited for a world where, as Picciolomini wrote in the last sentence of his history of the emperor Friedrich III quote: “We are of the opinion that empires are won by weapons, not by legal means!”
Friedrich III and with him the Habsburgs hit rock bottom, but how and why exactly he ended up there, and w hat that tells us about the profound changes during this period of history is what we are going to explore in this episode.
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