0:01

We took it all. We

0:03

brought them to our land. An

0:06

endless night, ember hot and

0:08

icy cold. The

0:11

rage of the earth. We

0:13

made this curse. Carved

0:16

it in the murder box. We

0:18

did not see. We could not,

0:20

but she did. And in the

0:22

end... What will I become?

0:25

Senua Saga. Hellblade II. Play

0:28

it now with Game Pass. Hello

1:08

my friends, Dakuya here. And I'm Gabi.

1:10

And welcome back to the podcast, my

1:12

hoes. Welcome back. I am finally at

1:15

home where I belong in the

1:17

dog bed. Yeah. He's once

1:20

again sitting in the dog

1:22

bed. Do you remember that

1:24

place where we're at to Milan? We were recording the podcast episode

1:26

while we were over there. And just how

1:28

uncomfortable I was sitting in the corner trying

1:30

to get... We had multiple episodes

1:32

to record at that point. Three. Yeah,

1:35

literally three. And now here we are, finally

1:38

back again with another episode

1:40

of the History of Everything

1:42

podcast. Guys, we are going to

1:44

be a little bit off. If

1:47

all of our patrons got like a little schedule

1:49

of episodes for like six months, we're

1:52

going to scramble them a little bit because the researchers

1:54

are all swamped and we're not able to get the

1:56

scripts out in time. So we did have one... Written.

2:00

By. A good fan Austin. And.

2:04

We're. Going to write that we're going to require

2:06

down to that he other the so bad

2:08

is the we're doing here today that is

2:10

talking about Barbarossa, an individual that if you

2:12

remember we did at a part series on

2:14

the Crusades to fill keep on referencing that

2:16

Every time I talk about multipart series in

2:18

this year the are The Barbarossa was that

2:20

very famous figure. it is that spoiler alert

2:23

goes. For. To be raised to

2:25

be doing a biography on him here today.

2:27

He's on the drowned in the river on

2:29

his way to the Holy Land. that turned

2:31

back what was arguably the biggest Crusader army

2:34

in European history. The thing that potentially could

2:36

have changed the tide of the Crusades as

2:38

we know it. And it turned

2:40

around after the do drowned in a river. Reasonable.

2:43

Now. Before. We tell that

2:46

story. I just want to remind everyone

2:48

that okay supper he took his clothes

2:50

but we do have one chef. This

2:52

year's final check. On that

2:55

to Germany and Austria for the

2:57

Christmas markets were gonna be seeing

2:59

Tassels were gonna be participating in

3:01

that Christmas markets and three cities

3:04

which would be Munich, Salzburg, and

3:06

Vienna. And if you guys want

3:08

to join us on that you know check

3:10

out the link and sign up. We have

3:13

same and plants he just needs but twenty

3:15

five percent down to secure your spot and

3:17

after that. There are six months.

3:19

What? twelve month and I think eighteen months

3:21

payment plans is up to you how much

3:23

he would like to pay. Him

3:26

he's a way more affordable for the average person

3:28

on top of I feel like I'm obligated to

3:30

mention that that is the trip itself and and

3:32

beyond that were in be going around ourselves like

3:34

my wife and I am order to be exploring

3:36

parts of Germany and maybe even going over into

3:38

hungry and other areas are self. So whether or

3:40

not we see any view or meet any of

3:42

you or anything whether you're going on the trip

3:44

or not well I look for to be able

3:46

to see all of you as you possibly can

3:48

and maybe if you do go with us you

3:50

can go and a little bit more of that

3:52

with us as is. That bathtub.

3:54

Other elsa. To Barbarossa. Okay so

3:56

now getting into this and I feel I

3:58

feel very happy here. If you're talking about

4:01

thing with Germany. considering that were specifically

4:03

talking about the thing with a trip,

4:05

it's okay. So Barbarossa. Holy Roman Empire.

4:08

Oh My. God. Holy Roman Empire.

4:10

Yes every single time. I love going

4:12

back and of stories of the Holy

4:14

Roman Empire and he is individual.

4:16

That. Of are you know how

4:18

they have a whole water wings for like

4:21

kids that go on their arms and begins

4:23

pool because the cat quite swim. Yeah.

4:25

Is an individual that probably could have benefited

4:27

from that? Wasn't wearing armor as

4:29

a lake. Water can save you through

4:31

and plate. Armor A If you haven't

4:33

a foot wide, you battleships float. If

4:37

you have the pseudo celebrities you could

4:39

do anything okay just imagine of males have

4:41

those living by law to go ducks.

4:43

Battles it's blood because of. And let

4:45

me tell you about this would call

4:47

buoyancy. Boy

4:50

Sea. Breezes, Is is he

4:52

says yes? Yes, Yes he is older

4:54

male, not slowed. That's why it's the

4:57

buoyancy. Who.

5:00

I hope everyone listening as booing

5:02

with me. Or

5:07

those Alright, fine. fine.

5:09

Moving on, Barbarossa. His

5:11

name wasn't actually Barbara's that like the whole

5:14

member. Why he's even call that like Frederick

5:16

Barbarossa is that he's known as red beard

5:18

like that. That's what that is. a pirate.

5:20

Neat. So. He was go read

5:23

beer by the Italians and as first

5:25

of his name by a family in

5:27

which he had been born be seconds.

5:29

He was Frederick of the First and

5:31

this guy who embodied many different contradictions.

5:33

He was someone who was an amazing

5:35

king and ruler who was lauded as

5:38

being the greatest Emperor that the Holy

5:40

Roman Empire had ever had. Boy,

5:42

it's A. He was simultaneously a

5:45

person who was embattled by contradictory

5:47

policy and countless Moore's and it

5:49

becomes this really confusing fame or

5:52

so and wonders. Okay, how

5:54

does a guy with his complex

5:56

have a history as barbarossa and

5:58

of being a good is one

6:00

of Europe's greatest peacemakers and

6:03

rulers. Well, we're

6:06

gonna have to go ahead and dive into that, which

6:08

is no pun intended, considering that he literally drowns here

6:10

in the end. I feel like I'm

6:12

spoiling that, but come on, if you've listened

6:15

to any of our episodes and you remember any of

6:17

the times that again, I talked about the Crusades, I

6:19

have mentioned this guy's death many

6:21

times, but we

6:24

now need to talk about the Duke

6:26

of Swabia. That

6:29

is his origin. For those who don't know, he started

6:31

as the Duke of Swabia. He

6:34

started as a Duke and then became Holy Roman

6:36

Emperor? Yes. How does that

6:38

happen? Well, remember how you have the Holy Roman Empire

6:40

and it's composed of many different states. You

6:42

have kings, counts, dukes, all different kinds of things that are

6:44

within it. So you just got a promoche? So

6:47

sort of, you get elected. So

6:49

the Holy Roman Empire was something where you could

6:51

become Emperor by virtue of election. And typically, it

6:53

was something where you had to be related to

6:56

the previous guy in order to get elected. But

6:58

there were many different times in which a dynasty

7:00

would end up changing over. That

7:02

happened multiple times over the course of the Holy

7:04

Roman Empire's history. Not to break the

7:07

fourth wall, but that mic is right up against

7:09

your mouth. It needs to be further back. Okay.

7:12

For anything that if there's any... Further back. Yeah.

7:15

Like this? Yeah. I

7:17

hope to God that it doesn't sound as bad for anyone

7:19

who's been listening to this here. I have the mic further

7:22

away now here. I apologize. Okay. Moving

7:24

into this, born to the

7:27

preceding Duke of Swabia, which is Frederick

7:29

the Second, and the daughter of Henry

7:31

the Ninth of Bavaria, Barbarossa's

7:33

life would start with the destiny

7:35

of royal upbringing. And

7:37

what I mean by that is that his

7:39

family during this time had already amassed a

7:41

very significant stronghold within the deep reaches of

7:44

the German territory of Swabia. And

7:46

his uncle, who was Conrad the Third,

7:48

had already reached the grand old plateau

7:50

of a title of being Emperor.

7:54

So his family had connections,

7:56

to say the least. Despite

7:58

that, Frederick's legacy was... going to

8:00

be tested early and often.

8:04

So here's what I mean. Prior to

8:06

Freddie the first birth, the marriage

8:08

of his father to Judith of Bavaria

8:11

had quelled a decade-long rivalry that had

8:13

existed between the family of Henry the

8:15

ninth, who was of the Welf family,

8:17

and that of his father, who was

8:20

of the Höllenstaffen. Now, as

8:22

was common for nearly the entire

8:24

existence of the various different royal

8:26

lines, marriage for the purpose of

8:28

treaties between royal lines, this was

8:30

something that often would bear fruitful

8:32

results. And in the birth

8:34

of the man that would eventually become known

8:37

as Barbarossa, this

8:39

is what would happen. This would

8:41

create the belief that he was

8:43

the individual that would one day

8:45

so peace and unified Germany with

8:47

the power of both families, who

8:50

were two of the most powerful

8:53

families in all of Germany, which we

8:55

say that in regards to the German

8:57

region at the time, firmly

9:00

in hand. Because Germany didn't exactly

9:02

exist at this point, but people

9:04

still spoke variants of German. They

9:06

were German culturally, if not naturally,

9:08

not nationally. That's what I mean. That's

9:10

so much pressure for one person. Yeah,

9:13

welcome, welcome to the duties of kingship. That's

9:16

kind of what ends up happening. You

9:18

got a lot on your plate here and the amount

9:20

of people, whenever you hear about those

9:23

royals who kind of crack and go crazy,

9:26

you make fun of them. Yes. But

9:29

also, you got to think

9:31

about the amount of pressure that was

9:33

on them in the first place. And

9:35

simultaneously, how many potential assassinations those individuals

9:37

survived. The amount of paranoia that they

9:39

would have had is insane. But

9:43

okay, moving forward, at

9:46

just 29 years of age, Frederick I

9:48

was going to swiftly begin to live

9:50

up to this legacy as he was

9:52

elected King of Germany in 1152. Shortly

9:57

after being named King of the Land,

9:59

Frederick was... then go on to

10:01

violate many of the

10:03

treaties. Well, I mean, this will be the

10:05

first of many treaties that you end up

10:07

violating in what would become a very lifelong

10:09

political war against the Papacy. Do

10:12

you remember how we covered that whole

10:15

thing with the Holy Roman Empire and

10:17

the investiture controversy and the issues that

10:19

they constantly had with the Papacy over

10:21

who was allowed to have what powers

10:23

to elect or put officials into power

10:26

all over the country? Yep. Yeah,

10:29

that's part of this nightmare. So

10:32

yeah, starting with Eugenius III, he

10:34

would have to deal with a

10:37

number of popes. At

10:39

the time of his royal leadership,

10:41

Frederick was faced with a pope

10:43

that leaned very heavily on prior

10:45

papal victories, using their investment into

10:47

local bishops and abbots throughout the

10:49

HRE. So seeing

10:51

this as a challenge and being

10:54

extremely unwilling to succumb to papal

10:56

rule, this young

10:58

red beard would begin

11:00

filling up vacant episcopal

11:02

positions with German loyalists,

11:06

which, as you can imagine, considering

11:08

the previous treaties and everything that had

11:11

been signed with the Papacy, that

11:13

was directly going to violate the concordance of

11:15

worms that had occurred back in 1122. Yeah.

11:22

The hits were just going to keep on coming for Frederick,

11:25

and on his march to

11:27

defiance of Pope Eugenius III,

11:29

he would follow up his

11:31

violations of the concordance of

11:33

worms with the refusal to

11:35

acknowledge his uncle's previous alliance

11:38

with the growing power of

11:40

the Byzantine Empire under Manuel

11:42

I Commendis. This

11:44

being an alliance that would be

11:46

against the upstart Normans of Sicily

11:49

and southern Italy and Arnold of

11:51

Brescia of Rome itself, which

11:53

had an ongoing challenge and concern

11:56

for the Papacy. There's

11:58

this whole thing, and I know. I know that I'm

12:01

going to talk about the Sicilians here at some

12:03

point, or I say that,

12:05

the Normans in Sicily. Remember

12:07

how there's that whole thing about

12:09

the Normans going from northern France

12:11

under William the Conqueror back in

12:13

1066 and conquering England and

12:16

creating the modern state that we know

12:18

of England? Yeah,

12:20

there's this big problem gap throughout all

12:22

history where the Normans were a

12:24

very war-like people and they consistently

12:27

would settle in varying different places

12:29

and just create a ton of

12:32

problems for other people. Where

12:34

did they find an entire group

12:36

of people named Norman? Did everybody

12:38

just name their kid Norman? Yes, absolutely,

12:40

they did. They all

12:42

went, oh hey, here's these

12:45

Northmen and they're French, so they're Norman.

12:47

So here's Norman Frank, here's Norman England,

12:49

here's Norman Italian. And all these Normans

12:51

are going to go get on a

12:53

boat and they're going to go bash

12:55

someone's head in with an axe. And

12:58

they did that a lot. I'm

13:01

not even kidding. Among all the varying

13:03

different war-like peoples that you could have in Europe, the Normans

13:05

were some of the most famous and one of the, spoiler

13:07

alert, because I know I'm going to do an episode

13:10

on them at some point, the Normans, one of the

13:12

things that they were famous on here, Gabb, is that

13:14

they had this strong tendency to produce a lot

13:16

of suns out of noble and nightly

13:18

households. And the problem

13:20

with producing a lot of suns is

13:23

that you need the

13:25

lands to give those suns when

13:27

you die and go figure when you

13:29

don't have this, the only way to

13:31

get those lands is to take them

13:33

from other people. So

13:35

the Normans had this very strong habit of overpopulating

13:39

an area with landless nights and

13:41

then going, man, those neighbors over

13:43

there, they have some pretty nice

13:46

stuff. I want

13:48

that stuff. And

13:50

they invaded it a lot. Yeah. Hey

13:53

everyone, it's like, who are you here? And before we get

13:55

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the end, what will I become? Samuels

15:02

saga, Hellblade 2. Play

15:04

it now with Game Pass. Wow.

15:08

Anyway, again, we're gonna get into that in

15:11

the future here. Okay, so where was I?

15:14

Yes, he doesn't want us to come to a papal

15:16

rule. So yes, what

15:18

would end up happening from this

15:20

here is that by refusing

15:22

to acknowledge the alliance, Frederick would force

15:25

the Pope's hand just one year after

15:27

taking hold of the Democrat Germany and

15:29

signing the Treaty of Constance in 1153.

15:33

This being something which required

15:35

that Barbarossa request permission from

15:37

the papacy prior to ceding

15:40

land to the Byzantines, and

15:43

also forbade Frederick from aligning

15:45

with Arnold, whom he

15:47

would eventually hang. And

15:49

with his Roman commune of Normans to

15:52

the south, this was just something

15:54

that they, you know, he

15:56

wasn't allowed to deal with them. The

15:59

Pope would also. Thou V allowed

16:01

to maintain his role, which room

16:03

warded Frederick a third or fourth

16:05

third the first. With the power

16:08

of Roman Emperor. Because.

16:10

Member of the whole thing where be kings

16:12

of Germany had actually be granted be emperor

16:14

ship by the pope. And

16:16

so in a live in sixty five

16:18

the newly adorned. Hope Eatery.

16:21

In the fourth would honor the treaty of

16:23

his predecessor. And. A point:

16:25

Barbarossa as. Emperor. With

16:28

all powers, the empire intact. Murmur.

16:30

Before this, he wasn't Holy Roman

16:33

Emperor. He was king of the

16:35

term. It's. That's. A

16:37

very distinct title difference.

16:39

So he's on a cell.

16:42

Holy Roman Emperor assesses Germany.

16:44

Think. Of like, Southern Denmark. All.

16:47

The way down into the middle of Italy. And

16:49

go Wow! that's a lot. Is a

16:52

lot. Oh and then I know at

16:54

certain points. People. Are really

16:56

really sad when Germans became.

16:59

Another. Own Emperor because it's just another

17:01

German. Young. What the Lombards?

17:03

the which really piss off a lot of the

17:05

Romans. It was fine sword and not fine, but

17:07

it was better by the time of going to

17:09

be eleven and twelve hundreds, but there was a

17:12

lot of pain in the previous two hundred years

17:14

of that. Ah, but the Italians. Because.

17:17

The Italians wanted to be. Hello! I'm

17:19

an amber sort of yeah no more. sort of

17:21

be viewed them as an outsider and not truly

17:23

Roman. Notice day it gets

17:25

really complex as well because remember the

17:27

entire time that they're calling themselves the

17:29

Holy Roman Empire and the Holy Roman

17:31

Emperor? Or the Roman Empire.

17:34

Still, Exist. It. It. Was

17:36

the Byzantine Empire? Which. He did

17:38

not get the name the Byzantine

17:40

Empire until I believe like the

17:42

seventeen hundreds. Say with call the Roman

17:44

Empire. Yes, it was literally called the Eastern

17:47

Roman Empire or just the Roman Empire. The

17:49

The Byzantine call themselves the Romans. Saudi

17:51

Eastern Empire and the Holy Roman

17:53

Empire both existed at the same

17:55

time. Yes, and i knew

17:57

the today yes and no this time

18:00

Nobody trademarked? No.

18:03

Also, the whole time this is going on, and I know

18:05

we're going to talk about this with the Normans when we

18:07

eventually get into that, the Normans of Sicily were constantly trying

18:09

to invade into the Byzantine Empire and take it over, or

18:12

at least take over sections of it with Greece.

18:14

Why? Free land, bitch. Like, they

18:16

want it. Give me

18:18

that money. Give me that land. Give me that

18:20

everything. They got free sons and their sons need

18:22

some land. That's literally the point. I'd

18:24

be so insulted if I were the Romans in

18:27

the Roman Empire and then other people were like,

18:29

no, we're the Romans. Oh, man. Yes. I'd

18:31

go to war just because. You know why that happened?

18:34

I think I remember we covered it in a previous, we

18:36

may have done it. I don't remember if we actually did.

18:39

So there's this whole thing with Irene, who

18:41

is the Empress of the Byzantine Empire or

18:43

Eastern Roman Empire. And under

18:46

law, or according to the Pope at the time,

18:48

for what they had, is that a woman

18:51

could not be Roman

18:54

Emperor. Therefore,

18:56

that meant that the title

18:58

of Roman Emperor was open,

19:01

which is why the, that's

19:03

why Charlemagne back in the year, I

19:06

think it was literally 800. I'm pretty

19:08

sure it was literally the year 800. He

19:10

was granted the title of Holy Roman

19:12

Emperor because the title was up for

19:14

grabs because a woman had it. Okay. I

19:17

don't think you covered this in a

19:20

previous podcast episode, but we were in

19:22

the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and

19:25

you were talking to Amaya about

19:28

it. Yeah. And a bunch

19:30

of people thought you were a tour guide. Small

19:33

crowd gathered while you were

19:35

just telling us about the Charlemagne

19:38

and Princess Irene. Yes. And

19:40

Empress Irene. Empress. Yeah. You

19:43

know, while in the big room where they had

19:45

all of it laid out and the little glass

19:47

table, everyone gathered around

19:50

while you guided

19:52

the tour. Yeah. I kind

19:54

of go on to some rants here.

19:57

It always happens and it's so awkward. I just

19:59

like go to. the other room. Yeah.

20:02

So that's a whole complex

20:04

relationship. And again, if you haven't heard the

20:06

episode for anyone who's listening right now, if

20:08

you haven't heard our episode on the investiture

20:11

controversy, definitely go back and listen

20:13

to that because it's going to address things way

20:15

more in depth regarding all of these issues. So

20:18

yes, Barbarossa gets crowned.

20:21

And upon the crowning of Frederick by the

20:23

Pope, Manuel I Comenas

20:25

would subvert the Emperor by

20:27

aligning with his previous rivals,

20:30

the Normans under William I,

20:32

while also joining forces

20:34

with the city of Genoa and

20:37

the Pope himself, who is

20:39

now under pressure to oblige Manuel I

20:41

with the Normans at his doorstep. The

20:44

resulting triumvirate of backstabbers would

20:46

then sign the Treaty of

20:49

Benevento, which was just one

20:51

year after Frederick's appointment as Emperor of

20:53

Rome. After

20:55

having earned the title of Holy

20:57

Roman Emperor in 1155, following some

20:59

suave political maneuverings and the success

21:02

of his first campaign in Italy

21:04

and the sacking of Milan, Frederick

21:07

was undeterred by the violation of

21:09

the Treaty of Constance by the

21:11

newfound alliance of Byzantines, Normans and

21:13

the Papacy. Instead, Barbarossa

21:15

would take aim at his own homeland

21:17

in order to try and secure things.

21:21

And so through political negotiation, strategic

21:23

withholding of resources, and the stationing

21:25

of soldiers in particular regions with

21:28

German phytoms, he was

21:30

able to relatively silence the

21:32

localized quarrels of the other

21:34

German princes, which remember, were

21:36

constantly fighting one another and

21:38

unite Germany as one whole

21:40

kingdom with one goal in

21:42

mind. But we're

21:44

going to be getting to that here in a little bit. So

21:47

when the Pope then administered a letter

21:50

of explanation of his actions in 1156

21:52

through the Cardinal Roland,

21:54

the guy who was later to be named

21:56

Pope Alexander the Third in 1157, Translation

22:00

of the letter by Frederick: Imperial

22:03

Chancellor run all the of the

22:05

cell. Which. Magic.

22:08

Aggressive translation means he wasn't

22:11

very charitable, but how did.

22:13

He. Basically explain things in the worst

22:16

possible way, which is very easy.

22:18

you know, get something lost in

22:20

translation. This. Than lead to Frederick

22:22

launching a. Second, to obtain

22:24

into Italy as punishment for the

22:26

violation of the Treaty of Constants

22:29

that had been sent back. And

22:31

Eleven Thirty Five. Year.

22:34

Off. Here's. Something I'm going to

22:36

need to go ham explain. Following.

22:38

His father's death a few years

22:40

earlier, and Eleven fifty two. And.

22:42

His own experiences crusading with his father's

22:45

army in that same year, as well

22:47

as his prior sacking of Milan and

22:49

Congress and to Italian year old Italian

22:52

lands me years prior. Frederick.

22:54

Would return to Milan. Yet

22:56

again, To sack the city.

22:59

And. Surrounding lands with a very

23:01

now highly experienced. Army Question? Yes,

23:03

they're soft all his fucking cities

23:05

the oh dang much. But all

23:07

of these old buildings are still

23:09

standing. How? All I'm a little

23:12

added saw the Don't Destroy. Stealing.

23:15

Stone is not very effective. Stealing.

23:17

The gold that is inside of

23:19

the stone buildings. As.

23:22

Effective. So. They didn't answer the city

23:24

in the sense of destroy the city this

23:26

act to sit in a sense of scale

23:28

the people and steal all their said yes.

23:30

Also typically if stuff was within a church.

23:33

You didn't touch that. There. Are

23:35

many cases in which people would have

23:37

been doing so would result in. Terrible.

23:41

Outcome to be for those the debt because.

23:44

There. Are literally enemies of the church and. More

23:46

small minded? Yeah, So.

23:48

same isn't he yeah it's the eleven

23:51

hundreds he have a christian army attacking

23:53

a person sitting out what would typically

23:55

happened in that scenario is you'd usually

23:57

leave the church and you would attack

23:59

them or house. Burn

24:01

that shit down and take all their stuff. That's

24:06

sad, because the merchant worked for his money.

24:09

Yeah, yeah, but also

24:12

free money. Free real estate.

24:16

It's free real estate. And look, if

24:18

you burn down the property and then

24:20

build something else there, it's free real

24:22

estate. Any real estate is free

24:24

real estate. If you... Back it

24:26

with the force of arms. I was going

24:28

to say pillage hard enough, but yours

24:30

is good too. In

24:33

a more, well, I don't even say diplomatic

24:35

sense, but yes. So

24:37

yeah, with a well-equipped and well-trained

24:40

army by his side and riding

24:42

the high of conquest and Milan

24:44

yet again, Frederick would then

24:46

establish the Diet of Roncaglia. Or

24:48

Roncaglia. It's

24:51

Italian, so there's a bit of a difference there for how I

24:54

would say that. This would be

24:56

a decree that would establish the true

24:58

powers of the Roman Emperor. It would

25:00

outline the Empire's role in supporting the

25:02

Emperor and guarantee the Emperor's rights for

25:04

posterity. And in addition,

25:06

the Roncaglia would grant the Holy

25:08

Roman Emperor a leader with 30,000

25:12

pounds of silver. This

25:14

being a tax that Frederick would

25:16

levy out to the great frustrations

25:18

of the quarreling Italian factions.

25:20

And also this would try

25:22

and stop the Byzantine influence

25:24

within the region. Because

25:27

the Italian

25:29

city-states, remember, are...

25:31

No one can see that I'm doing this here. Massive

25:35

air quotes with my fingers. Independent.

25:39

And this was something that the German emperors

25:41

of the Holy Roman Empire were constantly having

25:43

to deal with. Rebellious,

25:46

Italian, wealthy city-states.

25:48

Okay, why was Italy

25:50

all fractured? And I know they

25:52

got... What

25:55

is the word for it? Unified in what? 18-something?

26:00

1867? Was that it? Which

26:05

is pretty late. Oh,

26:07

very. Yes. To unify into a country. So

26:09

why were they all so independent for so

26:12

long? Oh, God.

26:14

Just because they each specialize in their own things,

26:16

or it was always that way so they didn't want

26:18

to change? Gabby, that is a

26:20

fantastic question that you're asking here. The

26:22

short of it is that it

26:25

gets really broken really fast. All right,

26:27

rapid summary of history in the first

26:29

place. Western Roman Empire falls. It gets

26:31

taken over by a group of tribesmen

26:34

called the Ostragoths. You

26:36

have the Ostragoths and then becomes

26:38

the Lombards. So you have the

26:40

Lombard kings of Italy. They're essentially

26:42

Germans that are ruling as the

26:44

kings of the Italians. They

26:47

then get taken over by Charlemagne.

26:49

Charlemagne creates his whole thing with

26:52

the Carolingian Empire, the Holy

26:54

Roman Empire, and you have the kingdom of

26:56

Italy that gets divided amongst his sons. Right?

26:59

So this entire time that this

27:01

is happening, there is an actual

27:03

kingdom of Italy that exists, but

27:06

depending upon the time and who is in charge, different

27:08

cities are going to have different rights

27:11

and privileges and everything. There always

27:13

existed within the evil society the idea

27:15

of local rights and autonomy, and under

27:18

certain kings, this got significantly stronger. Eventually,

27:21

the power of the Italian

27:23

kings would be

27:25

completely broken, and there

27:27

was no king of Italy.

27:29

Instead, there was the duchy

27:31

of Milan, the Duke

27:35

of Benevento, that's southern Italy, so it doesn't actually

27:37

really matter in here, but there was all these

27:39

different territories that were councils,

27:41

city-states, et cetera. This

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28:44

you remember when we were going from

28:47

Italy to France, and how often times

28:49

we were losing signal, and we couldn't

28:51

do anything, because we were constantly going

28:53

under the mountains? Yes. Now

28:56

I want you to think about this. The

28:58

Holy Roman Emperors, based out

29:00

of the middle of Germany, which is typically

29:02

where they would have had their court, in

29:05

order to stop or quell anything

29:09

down in Italy, they would

29:11

have to march an entire army across

29:13

the Alps to

29:15

attack Italy. Oh,

29:17

I'd just be like, ooh, we don't know that.

29:20

They're not my problem. So

29:23

over time, what typically happens, and

29:25

I'm doing a vast generalization when

29:27

I say this, most

29:29

of the time, it really

29:31

wasn't worth it to directly control

29:33

them. It was much easier

29:36

to kind of let the Italian city-states,

29:38

and duchies, and everything be

29:40

mostly autonomous, because it

29:42

took forever and a ton of resources to

29:44

get an army down there. There was no

29:47

guarantee that you would just win. And then

29:49

on top of that, you get an army

29:51

down there to crush something with the Italian

29:53

cities in a revolt. Guess who's

29:55

gonna revolt now? Someone

29:57

back in Germany, which means that you have to turn

29:59

around. march your army across

30:01

the Alps again, and then you

30:03

have to get back to Germany in order to fight those. It

30:06

was, Italy was a massive pain in the

30:08

ass for the Holy Roman emperors time and

30:10

time again throughout all of their rule, and

30:12

they continuously wanted to try to control it

30:15

because it was wealthy, but it was a

30:17

pain in the ass to do so. Makes

30:20

sense. That's really the issue. So

30:23

wait, hold on. Where was I? We

30:25

were going on a whole thing in here. This is a long day

30:28

and it ends up happening with us. I did Italian

30:31

city-states. Yes, and the taxes and everything

30:33

in here. I wanted to stop the Byzantine

30:36

rule. Okay, so while crude and tremendously

30:39

disliked by

30:43

those that you ruled over, Frederick's Rincaglia

30:45

would yield fantastic results for

30:47

him as the newfound boon

30:49

of silver from Italian lands allowed

30:51

the King of Germany to settle

30:54

homeland disputes with a few

30:56

well-placed payments, and also would

30:58

free him of his own

31:00

military shortcomings by allowing him the

31:02

ability to raise a larger and

31:05

more disciplined mercenary army. Remember,

31:07

most of the forces at this time

31:10

are levies, and so actually employing well-paid,

31:13

disciplined mercenaries can be very effective.

31:16

Through a series of swiftly

31:18

won battles and skirmishes and

31:20

won declaration, Frederick was then

31:23

able to quell the strife

31:25

in Italy and reduce the

31:27

Italian peninsula to a patchwork

31:29

of well-puppeted castles, cities, and

31:31

palaces that all claimed independent

31:33

rule while establishing policies, taxes,

31:36

and regulations that directly would

31:38

support Barbarossa's ambitions within the

31:40

region. No one

31:42

was able to unify or stand

31:44

up against anyone else without the

31:47

permission and explicit desire

31:49

of Barbarossa. He controlled

31:51

things. Simultaneously, the tax

31:53

would cripple many aspects of the

31:56

papacy through the financial ruin of

31:58

several archbishoporics. Notably, the

32:01

mains, which was one of the big ones that

32:03

was there at the time, whose role as the

32:06

Italian legate in tandem with

32:08

his obligation of the Ricanalia,

32:10

would nearly bankrupt Archbishop Christian.

32:14

Yeah, go figure. When

32:16

you siphoned all that money away that was going to be going to the

32:18

church, the church doesn't have a good time.

32:22

Now the actions of Frederick would

32:24

greatly enrage the Vatican, and

32:27

they would go on to elect their

32:29

own pope, Alexander III, while

32:31

Redbeard would nominate his

32:33

own choice, Victor IV. Remember,

32:38

papal investiture controversy.

32:42

Both of these guys would claim themselves

32:44

as the true pope, with Alexander III

32:46

garnering support from the Normans that once

32:48

contested the Vatican, and Frederick

32:50

and the German princes through their patronage

32:52

behind Victor IV. However,

32:55

in 1160 at the Council

32:58

of Xavier, only Victor

33:00

IV would appear, and

33:02

from this, this meant that he

33:04

was going to be declared as the true

33:06

pope. So

33:09

after ongoing disputes between Frederick and Pope

33:11

Alexander III led to increased pressure on

33:14

the embattled papacy, Alexander would

33:16

flee to France and England, where

33:18

he would establish an alliance with

33:20

Henry II of England and Louis

33:22

VII of France. Both

33:25

leaders would laud their support for Alexander

33:28

as the true pope, and

33:30

over the next year or next

33:32

year of this feud, he would

33:34

lead to Frederick being excommunicated from

33:36

the church, and subsequently being stripped

33:38

of his Holy Roman Emperor status,

33:41

as he would continue to attempt

33:43

negotiations with Henry II, who had begun

33:46

engaging Louis VII in war, yet

33:49

again. Can you guess why? Why?

33:52

Because they're English and French, Gabby. Of course

33:55

that's why. Do you need literally any other

33:57

reason besides they're English and French? And

34:00

they love each other so much,

34:02

always get along. Exactly. Best of

34:05

friends. So, assuming that

34:07

the war would soften Henry's

34:09

stance on Alexander, Frederick entered

34:11

the diet of 1165 in

34:13

Würzburg, following a failed attempt

34:15

at healing the Vyde with Louis

34:17

while visiting France, and

34:19

an additional attempt by Alexander to bring

34:21

Frederick back to the church. Now,

34:24

Frederick was confident that he had

34:27

reduced the support of Alexander and

34:29

drawn the English away from the

34:31

combative Pope, but political

34:33

tensions in England between Thomas

34:35

Beckett and Henry II, combined

34:37

with the volume of supporting

34:40

nations, being France, Spain, Hungary,

34:42

the Lombards, and the Byzantines,

34:45

all of these had sided with Alexander

34:48

III at the time. And

34:51

that led to Henry II dragging

34:53

his feet on the denunciation of

34:55

Alexander as being the Pope, and

34:58

that gave him leverage over Beckett at

35:00

home in England. So

35:02

with his support weakened by the

35:04

failure of Henry to uphold the

35:06

most important aspect of their decree

35:09

together, Frederick was kind

35:11

of backed into a political corner, and

35:13

he would lash out yet again by, can

35:15

you guess it? Can you guess it? What

35:17

is he going to attack? What is he going

35:20

to? What is this guy going to attack? I'll give

35:22

you a hint, he's done it before. He's

35:25

going to sack Milan again. Oh my

35:27

gosh. Literally, the city cannot

35:29

get a freaking break from this guy.

35:32

I didn't want to say it because I was like, that's too easy.

35:34

Too easy? Gabby, listen, once you

35:36

go in and burn down the city gates a

35:39

couple times, it's a lot easier to get through

35:41

the wood afterwards. Well, yeah, but then you become

35:43

a cliché. You don't want

35:45

to be a cliché, you're the Holy Roman Emperor. Yeah.

35:49

So, yes, following the death of the normal leader,

35:51

William I, he was going to go and sack

35:53

Milan again. With now his

35:55

fourth attempt at incursion into

35:57

Italy, Frederick, at this point...

36:00

troops had finally run out of luck. Malaria

36:03

would strike his army as it marched

36:05

on in Italy and this would decimate

36:07

the ranks of his troops. Interestingly,

36:10

a secondary explanation

36:12

that has not been verified

36:15

by historians claims that the

36:17

Milanese fed incredible amounts

36:19

of grain to a cow and

36:21

then sent the cow towards the

36:23

Italian line. And upon cutting

36:26

the cow open and seeing the

36:28

volume of grain that was held in its

36:30

stomach, Frederick and his forces believed the grain

36:32

stores would be too great to allow for

36:34

a siege to work. And

36:36

from this, you know, they

36:39

weren't going to actually do

36:42

anything. This was given as a

36:44

reason for the Swabian Bavarian army disengaging

36:46

the siege and returning home.

36:49

Seems very far-fetched and very,

36:51

very hyper specific. Anyway,

36:54

during this time, Frederick's imperial

36:56

chancellor, Reynold of Dassle, died

36:58

while in Rome. This

37:01

then led to a series of major policy

37:03

changes back home for the German

37:05

king and it forced his hand

37:08

into a detente that would serve

37:10

only to delay a fifth Italian

37:13

campaign. Remember when

37:15

I talked about Italy being a massive pain in the

37:17

ass for the Holy Roman emperors? They

37:20

had to do a lot of campaigns. So

37:22

coming off the back of the 1170 detente with

37:25

Henry, Louis and the Papacy, Barbarossa

37:27

felt reinvigorated enough to engage the

37:30

Italians yet again in 1174. Problem

37:32

was, this time, Italy

37:37

was prepared. So

37:39

the Lombards, the people of the north

37:42

who had been greatly bolstered from the

37:44

1160s exodus of the Pope and subsequent

37:46

financial reinforcement from the Pope to prevent

37:49

the overrun of Roman as absence, they

37:51

were now essentially the protectorists of

37:53

the Papacy and they brought

37:56

themselves to the front to combat

37:58

the impending assault by Frederick's forces

38:00

yet again. Still

38:03

though, after the politician, Redbeard

38:05

would manage to stomach initial

38:07

losses to the Lombards by

38:09

establishing the Armistice of Multibello,

38:12

a treaty that would later be used as a basis

38:14

to support Napoleon during his conquest, but that's a whole

38:16

other kind of story. The

38:18

treaty would force the Lombards to

38:21

become subjects of Frederick, and

38:23

with a now intensified resolve and

38:26

also fewer foes, Germany's

38:28

peacemaker would march through

38:31

Italy onto Le

38:34

Nannal, and it

38:36

was here that we would see

38:38

the pendulum swing decidedly upon the

38:40

German ruler, as Henry the Lion

38:42

of Saxony refused

38:45

to support Frederick's troops

38:48

that were already weakened by

38:50

prior skirmishes with the Lombards.

38:54

Ultimately, this would seal

38:56

the fate of the German forces, as

38:58

Frederick would lose the Battle of Le

39:00

Nannal and subsequently be forced

39:02

into a series of decrees and

39:04

treaties, beginning with the 1176 Treaty

39:06

of Anoggy, that

39:09

would end his incursion to Italy

39:12

and significantly weaken his political power

39:14

in the region beyond. The

39:16

following year, he would agree to the Peace

39:18

of Venice and formally acknowledge

39:21

Pope Alexander III as the one

39:23

true Pope who would reciprocate

39:25

the finalization of hostilities by

39:27

bestowing Frederick with the Kiss

39:29

of Peace, effectively ending

39:31

Frederick's series of quarrels with Papacy

39:34

and leading to an extended period of

39:36

peace between German nobility and

39:38

the church. In

39:41

spite of this newfound peace with

39:43

Papacy, Frederick would still manage

39:45

to wait political warfare against those who

39:48

had slighted him, because you know you

39:50

can't exactly forgive a guy for going

39:52

against him, and his

39:55

aim was now firmly assigned to Henry the Lion

39:57

as a result of the Saxony.

40:00

Jackson's ruler refusal to aid him in the

40:02

prior campaigns against the Italian states. So

40:05

starting with sweeping social and political reforms to

40:07

his kingdom, Barbarossa would soon

40:10

shift focus to building up Henry's power

40:12

and capability within the Germanic order of

40:14

nobles. Having a

40:16

prior claim to Bavaria, Henry

40:19

had begun attempts to claim

40:21

the region formally, for

40:23

which Frederick opted to

40:25

gift the lands to Henry,

40:27

while in addition elevating a

40:30

number of Saxon noble members

40:32

to dukedom, essentially like

40:34

giving a whole bunch of status and

40:36

privileges and honors to these very different

40:39

people and granting them special rights within

40:41

the land. Barbarossa

40:44

did not stop there. Sounds weird, like

40:46

why are you supporting a guy who went against

40:49

you? It really does seem weird, but we're

40:51

going to get to that. He

40:54

would also grant privileges and roles

40:56

to many other members of Saxony,

40:59

Bavaria, and Mecklenburg, and in 1185, this

41:02

would be a very big year,

41:04

as he would lift up dukes

41:06

to king status. He would appoint

41:08

bishops, and he would continue expanding

41:10

the power of the dukes that

41:12

he elevated while also founding the

41:14

territory of Plistrelac, which I'm

41:16

probably butchering the pronunciation of, but

41:19

this is south of Lipsig while

41:21

vassalizing Baldemar I, who is the

41:24

ruler of Denmark. Ending

41:27

in 1189, the expansion

41:29

of Germanic lands throughout Brandenburg, in

41:31

tandem with the restoration of the

41:33

dukedoms of Poland, this resulted

41:36

in Henry becoming increasingly ostracized

41:38

from the decisions of German

41:40

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42:13

See? That point. Remember

42:16

how you had this guy who had this big Duke,

42:19

this powerful figure in there, who owns

42:21

all these lands and rights and privileges

42:23

and has this really big position? So

42:26

what did the king do? Or Emperor? He

42:29

went and got a whole bunch of dudes that were

42:31

under him and around him, and

42:33

he appointed them to

42:35

high positions in courts of honor, meaning

42:38

that Henry was now surrounded by

42:40

guys that were arguably

42:42

as powerful or influential as him

42:44

now. He was no

42:46

longer the big player in town in that

42:48

region, thus completely diminishing

42:50

his power. It's

42:53

like this whole position of like, imagine you have like a...

42:56

How am I gonna explain this? Imagine

42:58

you're at a school. You have a bunch of

43:00

bullies, right? You got the leader in there. You got

43:02

the leader who's like the kingpin? Is that the term?

43:07

Ringleader. Ringleader. Literally ringleader. Yes, that's the

43:09

right term here. Okay, you got the

43:11

ringleader. And that

43:13

person is the one who gets all the privileges

43:15

or bonuses, etc. And now each

43:17

one of those other people that served under them

43:20

now gets different appointments to different positions within the

43:22

class in which they have just as much power

43:24

as that ringleader. It

43:26

breaks and fractures their power, because

43:28

if there's anything that people

43:30

wanted to do back in feudal Europe,

43:34

they wanted to be the guy on top of the pyramid, yet

43:37

didn't want to be at the lower base. So

43:40

yes, this outcast status led

43:42

to Henry the Lion launching

43:44

feuds with neighboring dukes and

43:46

progressively aggravating Frederick. Barbarossa

43:49

would respond to the aggressions of Henry by

43:51

stripping him of his duke status, holding

43:53

him in breach of the peace, and

43:56

Henry would go on into exile in

43:58

England with Henry. Henry II.

44:01

There's a lot of Henrys in European history, for

44:03

those that may be confused. So

44:06

with Henry the Lion of Saxony now

44:08

deposed, Frederick's reformation to imperial law and

44:11

expansion of powers to the local phytomes

44:13

surrounding him would establish a series of

44:16

states that would be unified

44:18

under one German king, Frederick

44:21

I Barbarossa.

44:24

He was now the guy who was fully

44:26

in charge. And

44:28

so with his kingdom now fully pacified and

44:31

acting as one uniform entity, Frederick

44:33

could now do his greatest

44:35

mission, the thing that would

44:37

cement his legacy for the

44:39

rest of time. Gabby, do

44:41

you know what I'm talking

44:43

about? The guy who drowned in the

44:45

river. Yes, in the worst

44:48

way possible. He can now finally answer

44:50

his call to the Crusades for the

44:52

third time as Saladin's army put a

44:54

stranglehold on Jerusalem. Prior

44:56

to leaving for the Crusade, Frederick would return

44:58

a part of the Papal State to the

45:00

Pope, and he would set out for Armenia

45:02

to make the crossing into Turk lands, where

45:05

he would meet his very unfortunate fate. Now

45:08

swimming was not a strong suit for

45:10

Frederick, and while bathing in the Saliff

45:12

River, he drowned. Or

45:15

at least that's the story that seems to

45:17

be more entertaining. While

45:19

historians do agree that it's more likely

45:22

Frederick fell off of a bucking horse

45:24

while heavily clad in armor, which

45:26

would have led to his drowning death under the

45:28

weight of his garb, we don't quite

45:31

know what happened. We

45:34

only know that he did drown.

45:37

As to how, we can't

45:39

really say. The story of Redbeard

45:41

drowning in his bath has survived nearly a

45:43

thousand years and is common of a story

45:46

to tell about his death. But

45:48

even in death, Frederick was

45:50

ever the politician with a grudge against the

45:52

Italian states. And so prior

45:55

to leading for Jerusalem, Frederick had

45:57

managed to reach an agreement through

45:59

clever politicking to send his son

46:01

Henry to marry the daughter of

46:03

his lifelong adversary, King Roger II.

46:07

This move would assure that

46:09

the Holenstaffen lineage from which Frederick

46:11

began would remain a world power

46:13

and gain the land of Sicily

46:15

that he had desired for decades.

46:19

Brings us a question though. He is

46:22

dead. Why is Frederick one

46:24

of the greatest Holy Roman emperors? I

46:27

mean, some of the things he's described in here

46:29

is good, but others not necessarily so much. Well,

46:32

let's look at that. Dying at the ripe old

46:34

age of 66, Frederick

46:37

would leave behind much more than a

46:39

legacy of just hating Italians, the Pope,

46:41

and other European leaders. Which

46:43

to be fair, he did a lot. Upon

46:45

his death, Barbarossa left behind an expansive

46:48

and unified empire in the German-held lands,

46:50

having been directly responsible for the establishment

46:52

of over two dozen cities ranging from

46:55

the Baltic Sea to the heel of

46:57

Sicily. Frederick was a

46:59

master craftsman of nation-state building.

47:02

His cities led to an ever-increasingly

47:04

powerful German empire that would pave

47:06

the way for a series of

47:08

notable German, Prussian, and Austrian kingdoms

47:10

and empires that would shape world history

47:12

all the way through to the modern day. His

47:15

passion for laws and crafting of

47:17

societal norms led to the widespread

47:19

reforms of English, French, Spanish, Norman,

47:22

and Byzantine laws, which performed

47:24

the world from a series of phytomes

47:26

and loosely unified dukdoms and regional powers

47:29

to instead more of a series

47:31

of states operating under the unification

47:33

of a single ruler. His

47:36

pedigree for waging political and physical war

47:38

with the Vatican would lead to a

47:40

papacy that eventually would separate itself from

47:43

the role of emperor within the Holy

47:45

Roman Empire. His people

47:47

would prosper greatly under his rule, with

47:50

limited instances of plague impacting

47:52

his territories and a near-zero

47:54

issue with famines or otherwise

47:56

hunger striking his people. The

47:59

culmination of sacred law, order,

48:01

mentality, and shrewd political maneuvering,

48:04

would assure that Frederick was going

48:06

to be held in high regard

48:08

throughout history, despite, simultaneously, being one

48:11

of the biggest pains in the

48:13

asses to every European leader that

48:15

existed in his contemporary life. Because

48:19

he was. He was a

48:21

massive pain in their ass. And

48:23

so now my host, it has been a pleasure sharing with

48:25

you all the story of the legacy of Frederick I Barbarossa.

48:29

But that is the end of that. If

48:32

you want more detail on his death or exactly what

48:34

happened, you can check out the Crusades episodes that we

48:36

did. If you can go back and scroll back to

48:38

it, I think it was like a year and a half ago we

48:40

did that. That was a while

48:42

ago, like 80 something episodes back at least.

48:44

It was pretty early on. It was pretty

48:46

early on. I think that was like the 50th

48:49

something episode might have given been something with the Crusades, if

48:51

I recall, and we're on an episode 150 right now, I

48:53

think. Anyway,

48:56

my friends, thank you all for listening. I will

48:58

see you all next time and

49:01

goodbye my hosts. Bye. Bye.