Renegade Historian: Recent Episodes
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"And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kinds; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
In the early 4th century, after the resignation of Diocletian, Rome was an empire divided between 4 men, none of whom trusted one another. As you might expect, it soon descended into civil war once again. But this time, the man who came out on top would change Rome forever. His name was Constantine, and he would leave Rome with a new religion, a new capital and a new army. Yet for all he accomplished, Constantine could only delay the inevitable. The western half of the empire decayed while the east was revitalized by Constantinople, New Rome...
Image Citation: Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pezzi_bronzei_di_statua_colossale_di_costantino,_330-37_ca._01.JPG
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church” – Tertullian of Carthage
By the time a child called Jeshua was born in a manger the Roman Empire had seen its share of cults… And they’d all fallen by the wayside. But the cult founded by that child, who grew into a carpenter from Galilee didn’t and despite the best efforts of several Roman Emperors, his followers, the Christians, would change the course of Roman, and indeed European, history. This is the story of the Christians, and how they flourished in spite of successive persecutions to become the Roman Empire’s largest religious minority by the end of the Crisis of the Third Century.
Image: Ecce Homo by Antonio Ciseri, 1871, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Today learn all about the Manhattan Project and the development of atomic weapons!
Image citation United States Department of Energy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Castle_-_Romeo_001.jpg
“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” – Revelation 6:5-6
The third century was a period of turmoil and change both for Rome and for its neighbors in the forests of Germany and the deserts of the Near East. In Persia, a new empire would arise, one that aimed to restore Persia’s greatness of old. In Germany, tribes would vie for position and prominence, raiding one another as well as the Romans as climate change and resource scarcity drove them ever westward. As its old enemies changed so did Rome, the Empire would be reborn under a new kind of emperor, its government, army and economy changed forever. Any concept of the Pax Romana was decidedly in the past now, the Empire’s age of gold and marble had been replaced by one of iron, brick, and blood.
Image: Diocletian's Camp and Qasr Ibn Maʿan - Ulrich Waack at the German-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diocletian%27s_camp_and_Qasr_Ibn_Maʿan.jpg
The tank revolutionized the battlefield when it first appeared, trundling over the muddy ground of No-Man's-Land, today learn the history behind the steel behemoths of the battlefield!
Image: The Hundred Days Offensive, August-November 1918, Imperial War Museum, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Hundred_Days_Offensive,_August-november_1918_Q68975.jpg
"And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." - Revelation 6:4
The death of Severus Alexander threw Rome into a period of non-stop chaos. Civil wars, Germanic invasions, and a resurgent Perisa threatened to rip the empire to pieces from within and without. In the midst of the chaos, new religions and ways of life took root in the empire. It would take the rise of a new kind of emperor to reforge Rome into something new, something capable of surviving in this brave new world...
Myrabella, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saintes_amphitheatre.jpg
Learn all about the defense of Baltimore by the U.S. Army and the Maryland Militia against a British assault on one of the infant United States' most critical sea ports! It's a story near and dear to my heart as a Baltimorean.
Image: Fort McHenry Social Media Team, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FortMcHenryAerialView.jpg
Gladiators, one of the most recognizable features of the Roman Empire, were the professional athletes of their day mixed with some rock start edge. They were slaves who became heroes to the people and became immortal in the process.
Image Citation: Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colosseum_in_Rome,_Italy_-_April_2007.jpg
"Be harmonious, enrich the soldiers, scorn everybody else." - Septimus Severus to his two sons Caracalla and Geta while on his deathbed
When Marcus Aurelius died in March, 180, most in the Roman Empire thought it would be business as usual when he was succeeded by his son, Commodus. But his son would prove to be a tyrant, straining the empire's institutions and weakening it from within. When he died at the hands of an assassin in 192 the empire was plunged into civil war. When the dust settled a new dynasty held the throne, one from North Africa, led by Septimus Severus. But, in just a few short decades the Severan dynasty would crash and burn and the empire would soon follow.
Image: Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum Romanum by Luigi Bazzani - Luigi Bazzani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arch_of_Septimius_Severus_in_the_Forum_Romanum_by_Luigi_Bazzani.jpg
Today learn all about the world's first meme stonk, flowers. This is a crash course on the infamous Tulip Mania!
Image: Courtyard of the Exchange in Amsterdam by Emanuel de Witte, 1653
We saw history happen before our very eyes last week, let's take a moment to go over it...
Image: A meme from the Battle of Gamestop, images sourced from knowyourmeme.com
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
The year is 477, the Roman Forum, once the beating heart of western civilization is now little more than a ruin. Its glory now faded is still visible. The Empire who ruled the world from the Eternal City on the banks of the Tiber is gone, but the sack of 476 was just the final nail in the coffin for a civilization whose decline began long ago. This is the story of the end of the Golden Era. The story of how a city of marble was reduced once more to a city of brick.
Image: Thomas Cole, The Consummation of Empire, 1836, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Consummation_The_Course_of_the_Empire_1836.jpg
In this installment of Snippets of History, learn all about the Battle of Vienna in 1683 when an alliance of Polish and German soldiers led by Jan III Sobieski to Poland broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna and kicked off the decline of the Ottoman Empire!
Image: Portrait of Jan III Sobieski by Daniel Schultz, circa 1680
Today, learn all about Edward Thatch, better known as Blackbeard... The most infamous pirate ever to prowl the West Indies.
Image: Capture of the Pirate, Blackbeard - Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1920
Learn all about the legendary Albanian general Skanderbeg, who held back the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans for 25 years and embarrassed the Ottomans dozens of times on the battlefield despite being outnumbered and outgunned every single time.
Image: 16th Century Portrait of Skanderbeg in the Uffizi, Florence
"Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once." - William Shakespeare Julius Caesar
In this episode I cover the end of the Crusades as a movement with the fall of Constantinople and the rise of the Ottomans. But this battle was more than the end of the Crusades, it was the end of the whole Medieval Era. I also summarize this series and analyze lessons we can learn from the Crusades!
Image: Siege of Constantinople, Bertrandon de la Broquière in Voyages d'Outremer, 1455
Today learn all about Julius Caesar's greatest military victory at Alesia where he built not one but two walls around a town that already had walls...
Image: Vercengetorix Before Caesar, Lionel Royer, 1899
She was Egypt's most famous queen, given a bad reputation in her own time and further skewed into a sex-symbol by Hollywood. But who was Cleopatra actually? For one, she was far more than a pretty face...
Image: Bust of Cleopatra 40-30 BC she was likely in her 30s
"In order to deal justly and equitably with your subjects, be straightforward and firm, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, but always following what is just, and upholding the cause of the poor till the truth be made clear." - Saint King Louis IX to his successor Phillippe
The 13th century was a period of constant change and upheaval. Europe and the Middle East were changing. The old powers waned as new ones rose in their place. The Spanish kingdoms took shape as the Turks consolidated in Anatolia. Islam realigned around Cairo as Baghdad waned. And, across the great steppe a world-changing army came on horseback to conquer with the bow and the sword. In time their armies would conquer an empire that stretched from the Pacific to the Danube. The Crusading Era was coming to an end but it would not go quietly, periods of upheaval have a way of making heroes and villains in equal measure...
Image: Painting of King Louis by Auguste de Creuse, 1837
Today learn about the career of Simo Hayha, perhaps better known as the "White Death". He was the deadliest sniper who ever lived...
Image: Simo Hayha February 17, 1940
In this installment I have a conversation with my friend Dan, an expert on the Protestant reformation, on the subject of the influence actions taken by the Catholic Church during the Crusades had on the Protestant Reformation!
Image: Artist's depiction of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg circa 16th century
Today learn about the craziest bastard in the Russian Civil War, Roman von Ungern Sternberg!
"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!" -Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
After the failure of the Fourth Crusade it should have been clear that the movement was losing its way. But rather than look inward and discover why the crusade failed, Pope Innocent III and his successors Honorius III and Gregory IX chose to renew the effort to recapture Jerusalem. The two crusades born from this would be complete and utter failures. Crusading was beginning to lose its luster, especially as the Papacy kept getting in its own way.
Image: "The Battle of Damietta 1218" Anonymous, 13th Century
Learn about the life of the swashbuckling lunatic father of the U.S. Navy, John Paul Jones.
Image: British portrayal of John Paul Jones as a pirate, late 1770s
Today learn about one of the last and definitely one of the strangest battles of World War II, the Battle for Castle Itter!
Photo: Castle Itter in 1979 by: Steve J. Morgan July 10, 1979
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” – William Blake
The year is 1204 and a Latin Christian army stands victorious over… Constantinople, the still-beating heart of ancient Rome and largest city in Christendom. It was, without a doubt, the greatest betrayal in medieval history and the implications of the Fourth Crusade that carried out this brutal attack would have long reaching effects ranging from the rise of the Ottoman Empire to the 95 theses of a certain German priest. This is the sad story of the Fourth Crusade, betrayal, mistakes, excommunications and all.
Photo: Prise De Constantinople (The Taking of Constantinople) By Palma Le Jeune circa 16th-17th century
Learn about the city-burning, army destroying saint who brought Christianity to the East Slavs and changed the course of Eastern European history!
Learn about the craziest governor and senator in 20th century American politics, Huey P. Long, rebel, populist, rabble-rouser and rival to Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
“I warn you against shedding blood, indulging in it and making a habit of it, for blood never sleeps.” -Saladin
“We, however, place the love of God and His honor above our own and above the acquisition of many regions.” -Richard the Lionheart on Phillip II of France’s early departure from the Holy Land.
The year is 1163, for nearly a century the crusader lords of Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli and formerly Edessa have been a dominant regional power, but the cracks are showing. Soon, succession crisis and civil war will tear the Kingdom of Jerusalem apart at the seams. Meanwhile, a new power would rise in the Muslim world to unite Egypt and Syria. This new empire, ruled by the legendary Saladin, would push the Christians back to a single lonely city on the coast of the Levant and prompt the calling of a new crusade. From across the sea the new King of England, Richard the Lionheart would come to avenge Christendom against Saladin. In time, the two men developed a legendary rivalry and mutual respect for one another. This is an age of legends, of the clash of titanic personalities and armies. This is the Third Crusade.
Photo: Areal view of the modern city of Acre in Israel. It was the site of several battles from the Third Crusade onward and it served as a key base of operations for the Christians of the Levant through the late 12th and 13thcenturies. Source: Israeltourism July 25, 2012
Intro by Alex Appelbaum
“Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10
When the crusader army stood victorious in Jerusalem in 1099, I don’t think a single one of them knew what they were going to do with the kingdoms they had just conquered. Though, the reality of the situation must have set in quickly for the handful of men who stayed behind to build these new Christian states from the ground up. Meanwhile, Islam, still much more focused on the east, had an interesting relationship with the Crusader States, a land the French called Outremer, Muslim rulers were either stalwart allies or bitter enemies of the Christians. Sometimes they were both at once. It was an age of religious devotion that would give rise to the Knights Templar and the Order of Assassins, an age of warfare that would see great leaders rise to pull the forces of Christendom and Islam to great victories and shattering defeats, and paradoxically, it was an age of learning. Latin Christians and Muslims, for centuries they were distant heathens but now they were neighbors. Curiosity spurred an exchange of knowledge and the cultures of east and west mixed to form the one-of-a-kind but unfortunately short-lived land of Outremer.
Image: Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, Sunrise – Edward Lear, 1859
Link Mentioned in the episode: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/christ-muslim-debate.asp
When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Joshua 6:20-21
Deus Vult! With those words, Pope Urban II launched the first of a series of wars we now call the Crusades. Led by nobility from across Europe, the First Crusade would travel a world away to conquer Jerusalem, the city of King David and the place where their messiah Jesus Christ had his earthly ministry, death, and resurrection. Along the way they would pave the way for the Komnenian Restoration; a new golden age for Byzantium. The crusader states the leaders of the First Crusade would found shook up the political landscape of the Near East and left a legacy that still lingers with us today.
Image: Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, 15th July 1099 by Emile Signol, 1847
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye not be troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” Matthew 24:6
With the Roman Empire gone a new world was born from its ashes in the early medieval era. By the dawn of the 11th century that world’s conflicts, largely religious in nature, were coming to a head. They would soon erupt in a series of wars over the very land that Moses, Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad all walked. In this episode I explore how the world of the crusades came to be and the histories of the people who fought in them.
Photo: “Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours” by Charles de Steuben, Date Unknown
“The trees in Siberia are miles apart, that is why the dogs are so fast.” – Bob Hope
Siberia, a land most often thought of as an endless frozen wasteland, is actually one of the most important and dynamic regions in Russia. The sparsely populated, resource rich, and rather cold region east of the Urals is home to Russia’s greatest infrastructure project, myriad native peoples and cultures, and is Russia’s great frontier. This is the story of Siberia, a land shrouded in mystery and stereotypes even to many Russians.
Image: Photo of the Siberian wilderness by Sijana99 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
“Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content. But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Russia recovered quickly in the reign of Tzar Mikhail but when he died it was still far from the superpower it was destined to become. It was Mikhail’s son Alexei who would take the nation from regional to European power. He could permanently cripple the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia’s age old enemy and lead the nation through a religious crisis and numerous peasant revolts. Alexei would make Russia worthy of the title "The Third Rome". Despite his success, his legacy would result in further instability for Russia but that instability would lead to the coronation of one of Russia’s greatest leaders, Alexei’s youngest son, Peter.
Image: Portrait of Tzar Alexei, 1675, artist unknown. On display at the Hermitage.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” – Genesis 3:19
When Ivan the Terrible strangled his first-born son he inadvertently kicked off a series of events that would almost bring about the end of the Russian state before it really got started. Ivan’s heir Fyodor was in no way fit to rule, feeble in body and mind. When he died childless in 1598 the throne passed to Boris Godunov, an unpopular Tzar who faced revolts and invasion from pretenders. Russia would suffer the worst famine in its history and a series of invasions from its enemies. More than one third of its population would die. The nation would be reduced to ash, yet from the ashes it would rise like a phoenix under a new dynasty, ready to face a changing world. When the dust settled, the Third Rome would be ready to assume its place among the great empires of history.
Image: Minin and Pozharsky by Mikhail Scotti (1814-1861) Oil on Canvas, 1850. Located at the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum
“Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Oh Constantinople / Why did Constantinople get the works? / That's nobody's business but the Turks” – They Might Be Giants, Istanbul (Not Constantinople), 1990
The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 solidified Moscow as the third Rome, politically and spiritually. It became the beating heart of the Orthodox Christian faith. As the city rose to prominence it became the seat of a burgeoning new empire, one that three successive rulers would turn into the powerhouse of Eastern Europe. This is the rise of Russia and the birth of the Tzardom. The new Casears would rule from Moscow and they imitated their predecessors in more than name, they had their Julius Caesars and their Caligula’s.
Image: Tsar Ivan The Terrible by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, 1897 (cropped)
“Russia has only two allies; its army and navy.” – Tzar Alexander III Romanov (reign 13 March 1881 – 1 November 1894)
While most of Russia languished under the Tatar Yoke, to the north the city of Novgorod grew wealthy from the trade routes it dominated. While it’s a relatively minor city today, there was a time when it fell to Novgorod to defend Russia from invaders. In the process, an national hero would be forged. To the west, the rise of Lithuania split the Belarussians and Ukrainians off from the Russians and they continued to form their own distinct cultures. Russia would move in a different cultural direction as Moscow grew into a major hub of the Orthodox Christian faith. To the south of Novgorod, the Muscovites under Dmitri Donskoi would begin to assert their independence from the Tatars. The world was changing and so was Russia. This is the story of how Russia took shape in the Medieval era and took its first steps on the road to Empire!
Image – Flag of the city of Veliky-Novgorod
“I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.” – Genghis Khan
As the 13th century dawned Russia was divided into a number of warring principalities. They were too busy fighting one another to worry about the world conquering force thundering across Asia. The Mongols had become the greatest power in the world under the rule of the Great Khan Temujin. His descendants would lead the armies of the Mongol Empire from Europe to the Middle East to Asia. They formed the largest contiguous empire in human history and were only beaten for overall size by the British centuries later. The Mongols changed everything for the world, for Europe, and especially for Russia. Join me as I explore the history of the Mongol Empire and its role in Russian history.
Image: 14thcentury painting of Temujin by a Yuan dynasty court painter. The likeness of Genghis Khan was never captured while he was alive so we don’t know what he looked like. Different cultures portrayed him in different ways. Unless his body is recovered and we can reconstruct his face we will never know.
“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” – Winston Churchill
Russia stands between east and west, never fitting neatly into either paradigm. It’s found itself at the center of global events for the past several centuries and its influence can be felt the world over. In this episode, join me as I explore Russian history from a broad view before delving into Russia before it was Russia, the foundation, rise, and fall of the Kievan Rus.
Image: Yaroslavl The Wise - Postcard by Ivan Bilibin - Date Unknown
Wherein I ramble about series 2 and my opinion on histories that are routinely forgotten or ignored in the Western World today.
Image: Red Square, Moscow at night
Image: Notre Dame Cathedral by Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer courtesy of Brown University and Wikimedia Commons
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” – Revelation 21:1
The High Medieval Age dawned over a Europe and Middle East completely and utterly transformed from the world the Romans knew. Through the chaos of the collapse of Rome, new nations have been forged and two civilizations have risen in the former lands of the empire, Christendom and Islam. The coming series of conflicts between the two civilizations would define the High Medieval Era. Tune in to the last episode of From the Ashes of Empires to hear about some of my personal thoughts on history, the age of Jihad and Crusade that followed the time discussed in this series, and some information on series 2!
Photo: “The Course of Empire – Desolation” – Thomas Cole, 1836
“And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” – Revelation 6: 3-4
The Byzantine Empire, last remnant of the Roman Empire enjoyed a golden age under Emperor Basil II. Under his reign the economy boomed and the people enjoyed unparalleled levels of prosperity and social mobility anywhere in the medieval world. No golden age can last forever though and following Basil II’s death in 1025 the empire was subject to a succession of weak and ineffectual rulers who were little more than puppets to the nobility. The nobles caused Byzantium to rot from within, crippling the military and destroying the economy completely. The empire appeared strong from the outside but within it was hollow and decaying. It was a prime target for the rapidly growing empire of the new invaders from Central Asia, the Seljuk Turks. This is the beginning of the end for Byzantium, though they would struggle against the Turks for the next four centuries, the Seljuk invasion of Anatolia and the Battle of Manzikert were the mortal blow for the old empire. The holy wars ushered in by this invasion, the Crusades, would define the High Medieval Era.
Photo: Bataille de Malazgirt - Boccace, De casibus - 15th Century - at the National Library of France, Paris
“But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” – Matthew 12:25
The 10th and 11th centuries saw huge changes come to Europe, the Slavic peoples living East of the Holy Roman Empire were brought into the Christian fold. One of the most important of these conversions happened at the hands of one of the most brutal men ever to rule from Kiev but it would define European and eventually global history. The Rus finally became Russian and the seeds of the Third Rome were planted when Vladimir of Kiev was baptized into the Orthodox Church. The division between the two halves of Christianity was brought to a boiling point as the Slavs became Christian and it would become official in 1054 thanks to mutual excommunications. As Europe moves farther from its Roman past the High Medieval Era will begin to take shape. These are the stories of the birth of the Russian people and of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and their birth in the splintering of Christ’s empire, Christendom.
Image: Mural of Christ in the Hagia Sophia – 537
“See – I have taken England with both my hands” – William the Conqueror after having fallen face first on the beaches of southern England with his first step in the kingdom.
The year is 1066 and King Edward the Confessor of England is dead, the nobles of England choose Harold Godwinson as his successor but two other men held a claim to the throne. Harald Hardrada, the last of the Vikings claimed the throne through his nephew King Magnus (whom he attempted to depose.) Harald had served in the Varnagian guard and travelled all across the Viking world, the conquest of England would be his crowning achievement. Edward had also promised the young Duke of Normandy, William, the throne and the Bastard of Normandy fully intended to collect what he was promised. The fate of England hung in the balance and the winner of this war will decide the future of the English people. This is the end of the Viking Age and the birth of High Medieval Europe!
Portriat of William the Conqueror - Artist Unknown, 1597-1618
“It is best to search while the trail is new” – Edda of Saemund the Wise
As the 9th century became the 10th, Europe was the playground of the Vikings. While the Danes and Norwegians went west, their Swedish counterparts explored east and charted the river networks of Russia. They traded with lands as far away as Arabia and India and did battle with the last of the Romans. Eventually they would be pulled into the orbit of Constantinople and Christianity would take root in the lands of the Kievan Rus. The man from Nazareth edged in on the territory of Thor and Odin until in the 960s when the king of the Danes, Harald Bluetooth, would embrace the God whose people they had mercilessly raided for the better part of the last century. This is the beginning of the end of the Viking Age and the dawn of High Medieval Europe!
Photo: Rorik of Dorestad (Rurik the Rus), by H.W. Koekkoek, 1912
“He has need of his wits who wanders wide” – Edda of Saemund the Wise
As the 8th century gave way to the 9th the northern storm that ravaged England finally hit the continent and the Vikings descended upon a crumbling Frankish Empire. The Vikings would ravage what is now France and there was no Alfred the Great to save them, only a series of incompetent and ineffectual rulers who did nothing as the Vikings raided France with impunity. Viking raiders from Denmark fell the hardest on the Franks with the likes of Ragnar Lothbrok and Rollo the Walker setting the mold for a new type of ruler, the great Viking Sea Kings. As the Danes attacked the French the Norwegians would strike out across the North Sea and discover Iceland, Greenland, and even the new world, centuries before a certain confused Italian would set sail for India for the Spanish crown. This is the height of the Viking Age and the beginning of Europe’s final transformation before the dawn of the High Middle Ages!
Photo: Tor's Fight with the Giants by Mårten Eskil Winge – 1872
“In prosperity a man often destroys the good he has done; amidst difficulties he often repairs what he long since did in the way of wickedness." - Alfred the Great
In the late 8thcentury a storm descended upon Europe. Raiders from the icy lands of Scandinavia burst from their homeland in search of loot, lands, and trading opportunities. The land hit hardest by the Viking storm was England, a land that had come to enjoy some peace after centuries of constant warfare. The Vikings struck first at Lindisfarne, long a center of Anglo-Saxon intellectualism, it was reduced to ash. Following that the Vikings raided monasteries and coastal villages until a large force of them arrived in what was called the “Great Heathen Army” these Danish Vikings nearly conquered the whole of England and likely would have done if not for the rise of an unlikely hero, Alfred the Great. He became the first King of England and drove the Vikings back. His children continued his work and his grandson was the first to rule over a truly united England for the first time. This is the story of the birth of the English people!
Photo: Alfred in Neatherd's Cottage - James William Edmund Doyle - 1864
“We cannot build the future by avenging the past.” – T.H. White, The Once and Future King
In the early 5thcentury, the land that is now known as England was a Roman province on the frontier of the known world. Over the course of the 5th, 6th, 7thand 8thcenturies, the face of the island would change with the arrival of a seaborne wave of Germanic invaders known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons. The clash of the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons would be disastrous for the native Celts of Great Britain and all that would remain of their civilization is now called Wales. The Anglo-Saxons would soon be incorporated into Christendom although their pagan past would go out in a blaze of glory in the form of Penda, king of Mercia. Finally, Offa would lead the kingdom of Mercia in domination over the rest of Britain and come close to forging a unified nation from the fractured kingdoms. This is the story of the birth of England although it would take another wave of invaders and another leader worthy of being called “the Great” to finally unite the English.
Photo: The Round Table Experiences a Vision of the Holy Grail by Evrard d'Espinques, 1475
“So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them.” - St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God
When Charles, King of the Franks became Charles, Emperor of the Romans he became in name what he was in fact. Charlemagne had brought about a new period of peace and prosperity in Western Europe that had not been seen since the 5thcentury. Chaos in the Byzantine Empire meant that Charles had become the sole protector of the western church as Europe faced a new wave of invaders like the Bulgars in the east and the first Viking raids from the north. Charles united Europe under God and even though his son Louis the Pious brought about the end of the empire his father, grandfather, and great grandfather had built, Europe remained united under God in a sense through the idea of Christendom. The nations born of the collapse of Francia would one day become France and Germany. The High Middle Ages are about to dawn, Christendom and Islam have splintered and the shadow of the Romans, which still looms large over Europe, is beginning to fade as the world leaves the Classical Era behind and truly takes its first tentative steps into the Medieval.
Photo: Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire, likely made in the 10th century. While never used by Charlemagne personally, the crown represented a large part of his legacy as all Kaisers of the Holy Roman Empire were crowned by the Pope and inherited the title bestowed on Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800.
"Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right" - Charlemagne
The year is 769, following Charles Martel's stunning victory at Tours-Poitiers, the peoples of the Christian world have some breathing room. While the Muslims have been thrown into turmoil by the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphs there is no doubt as to which religion is winning this fight. Byzantium, long the protector of Christendom is on life support as heresies again rise up to split the empire. The Church would soon gain a new protector and a new Roman Emperor, Charles Martel's grandson, Charlemagne. This is the story of his rise to power and the birth of a new empire in the west!
Photo - Portrait of Charlemagne late in his life as the Emperor of the Romans by Louis-Felix Amiel
“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” - Matthew 16:17-18
A.D. 732, the Caliphs have conquered a vast empire that stretches from India to the Atlantic Ocean. The armies of the Prophet seem unstoppable having already ground one mighty empire to dust beneath their boots and permanently crippling another. The last of the Romans are in peril, Byzantium is faced by enemies on all sides while heresies threaten to rip what remains of the empire apart. Christianity might have been done for if not for two heroes that emerged in this time of chaos. In Hispania, a new kingdom made up of the free Christians of Iberia will rise from the ashes of the mighty Visigothic Kingdom. In Gaul, across the Pyrenees, a man known today as "The Hammer" will finally break the armies of Islam and end their period of expansion in the west. In the east, the mighty Tang Dynasty of China will clash with the Caliph with vastly different results.
Photo - Charles Martel in a much larger painting called "The Battle of Tours-Poiters" by Charles de Steuben
"With the sword will I wash my shame away." - Abu Tammam, 9th Century Arab Poet
632 A.D., the two great superpowers of the Classical Middle East, Byzantium/The Eastern Roman Empire and Persia, have exhausted themselves with war and are now ripe for destruction by a new force in the region, a religion and civilization started by an Arab merchant. From the chaos of Arabia a new empire will be forged whose armies will burst forth from the hot sands and wipe away the Persian Empire entirely. Byzantium will survive if only barely and Rome will lose even more of its empire, only clinging to Greece and Anatolia. The last remnants of the Classical World will be destroyed by the Sword of Islam. In the wake of this conquest the Umayyads will be replaced by the Abbasids who will bring about a period of culture and learning while the Christians undergo a similar process as the makings of another new empire stir far to the north in the fertile Rhineland.
Photo - Painting of the Court of Abd-Al-Rachman III in Cordoba by Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer
"Glory to God who has thought me worthy to finish this work. Solomon I have outdone you." - Emperor Justinian upon the completion of the Hagia Sophia
From the tumult of the 4th and 5th centuries, Rome will rise anew with its ambitious new emperor at the helm. The greatest Roman general since Julius Caesar will restore the western half of the empire and leave all of Rome's enemies broken at his feet, Goth and Persian alike will fall by his hand. The emperor's dream of a restored Rome will nearly meet an early end when an unseen conqueror enters the stage and it will cast a long shadow over human history. In the end though, Rome will be reclaimed and the empire reborn, Roman armies will march victoriously across North Africa, Italy, and Hispania, if only briefly. Ultimately, Rome's place in the sun will be taken by two new forces that will emerge in the 7th and 8th centuries, one from the hot deserts of Arabia, another from the fertile Rhineland, but Rome would have a glorius sunset before descending into the long night of its final decline.
Photo: Mosaic featuring Justinain (right) and Belisarius (left) from the Basilica of San Vitale.
"For not by numbers of men, nor by measure of body, but by valor of soul is war to be decided." - Flavius Belisarius, General
The Western half of the Roman Empire may be gone but in the East the empire lives on, surrounded by enemies on all sides, Persia sharpens its claws to the east, Germans squat on imperial lands to the west, and the great steppes to the north have always been a source of chaos. From the city of Constantinople a series of emperors from Leo to Justinian will see the last of the Romans through the turbulent times of the 5th century and the prosperity of the 6th. They presided over Rome's rebirth as something new, torn from its Latin roots the empire became the meeting ground of east and west: Byzantium. As Greek as it was Roman, the inheritors of the Roman Empire would survive for another 1000 years and was the most cultured and scientifically advanced nation of the Medieval Era. This is the story of how the last of the Romans became the first of the Byzantines.
Photo: The Imperial Eagle of John VIII Palaiologos, one of the last Byzantine Emperors
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." - Revelation 6:8
Rome is faced with enemies on all sides, barbarians come from every direction seeking to carve up their own piece of a dying empire. Within the Western Empire there are some who will struggle against the dying light of their civilization but to no avail. The light that Rome brought to the world, order, philosophy, security, prosperity will disappear and only embers will remain in the West, tended by monks until they could reignite the classical world a millennium later. As the West becomes the playground of barbarians and warlords, chief among them the Scourge of God himself, Attila the Hun, the Eastern Empire breaks the shackles of their would be barbarian overlords and keeps Roman Civilization alive.
Photo - Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire, Destruction
"The mother of the world has been slain" - Commentor upon hearing of the sack of Rome in 410.
The year is 476 and the Western Roman Empire is no more, this episode detalis German-Roman relations in previous centuries and the conditions that brought about the end of Rome. At the end the Empire had its loyal defenders who heroically struggled against the course of history but at the end of the day there was nothing that could be done. This is the beginning of the end of the classical world!
Photo - Thomas Cole - The Course of Empire - The Consummation of Empire