Episode 7.9 - Matthias Corvinus

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Matthias Corvinus became King of Hungary as it was beginning to deal with the Ottoman threat. He united the fractured kingdom, bringing powerful magnates to heel and creating a strong centralized state. He created a significant power in Southeast Europe that was able to hold of the Ottomans and take lands from the Holy Roman Empire.

Sources

  • Janos Bak, A History of Hungary

  • Miklos Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary

  • Janos Bak, New Cambridge Medieval History, “Hungary: Crown and Estates”

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.8 - Margaret I of Denmark

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Margaret lived in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, and was the daughter of the King of Denmark. Despite obstacles, and general opposition to ruling queens at the time, she not only became the Queen of Denmark, she also was able to gain the crown of two more Scandinavian kingdoms, uniting them in a personal union that last more than century.

Sources

  • Mary Hill, Margaret of Denmark

  • Knut Gjerset, The History of the Norwegian People

  • S.C. Rowell, New Cambridge Medieval History Volume 6 – Baltic Europe

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.7 - Alauddin Khalji

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Alauddin Khalji became the Sultan of Delhi, and greatly expanded the kingdom. He fended off multiple Mongol invasions, and he in turn invaded most of the Indian subcontinent to his south. He turned a relatively small Sultanate into a great power, and ruled over most of India.

Sources

  • K.S. Lal, History of the Khaljis

  • N.C. Banerji, Life and Times of Sultan Alauddin Khalji”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress

  • Cambridge History of India Chapter 2 - The Medieval Past: Continuity and Disjunction

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.6 - Baibars

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Baibars was the Sultan of Egypt and Syria in the 13th century. Born on the Eurasian Steppe, he was enslaved as a teen, and became a slave soldier. He rose through the ranks to become a general, and eventually the Sultan of Cairo. He helped stop the Mongol advance into the Levant, and effectively ended the Crusades in the Middle East. And he stabilized the Cairo Sultanate for generations.

Sources

  • Abul-Aziz Khowaiter, Baibars The First

  • Christian Müller and Johannes Pahlitzsch, Arabica, “Sultan Baybars I and the Georgians”

  • Edmond Shutz, Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, “The Decisive Motives of Tatar Failure in the Ilkhanid - Mamluk Fights in the Holt Land”

  • Amina A Elbendary, The Sultan, The Tyrant, and The Hero: Changing Medieval Perceptions of al-Zahir Baybars

  • D. J. Cathcart King, “The taking of Le Krak des Chevaliers in 1271”

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.5 - Liutprand

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The Lombards made their way into Italy in the 6th century, and were the bridge between the rule there of Roman Empires, both Western and Eastern, and the Holy Roman Empire. Liutprand was perhaps their greatest king, pulling together a kingdom from the various disunited Lombard dukedoms and creating a state that was the most powerful one on the peninsula for centuries earlier.

Sources

  • Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardum, translated by William Dudley Foulke

  • Neil Christie, The Ancient Langobards

  • David Harry Miller, “Papal-Lombard Relations during the Pontificate of Pope Paul I”, The Catholic Historical Review

  • Jan T. Hallenbeck, Pavia and Rome: The Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.4 - Songsten Gampo

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Songsten Gampo was the king of a small state in southern Tibet, which had only just begun to expand beyond its perhaps centuries-old domain. From this, he created a long-lasting Tibetan Empire, which ruled most of the Tibetan Plateau for centuries and, thanks in no small part to Songsten Gampo, became the center of Buddhism for perhaps the whole world.

Sources

  • Christopher I Beckwith, The Tibetan Empire in the Struggle for Central Asia

  • H.E. Richardson, Tibet and Its History

  • Tsepon Shakabpa, Tibet A Political History

  • Acharya Kirti Tulku Lobsang Tenzin and K. Dunlop, Early Relations Between Tibet and Nepal (7th and 8th Centuries)

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.3 - Dion of Syracuse

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Dion was born in Syracuse and became a trusted advisor to the city’s tyrant. But Dion’s relationship with the next tyrant was no so hot, and after falling out, Dion became a reformer. As a student of Plato, he saw an opportunity to implement the philosopher’s ideal Republic, and he seized the moment, trying to build something special.

Sources

  • Plutarch, Lives, Dion

  • Diodorus Siculus – The Library of History

  • J.B. Bury, A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great

  • Encyclopedia of Plato

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.2 - Leukon

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Leukon was the tyrant, then king, of the Cimmerian Bosporus, a territory on the Crimean Peninsula, at the very edge of the Greek world. He took the territory, capitalized on its relationship to the rest of the Greek world to create an important Hellenized kingdom that would last for centuries.

Sources

  • The Cambridge Ancient History; Volume 6: The Fourth Century BC, 2nd edition

  • Plutarch, Lives, Pericles

  • Sergei R Tokhtas’ev, The Bosporus and Sindike in the Era of Leukon I, New Epigraphic Publications

  • Aeschines, “Against Ctesiphon”

  • Polyaenus, Strategems

  • D.E.W. Wormell, Studies in Greek Tyranny – II. Leucon of Bosporus

  • Stanley M. Burstein, The War between Heraclea Pontica and Leucon I of Bosporus

  • Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae

Names Mentioned

Episode 7.1 - Shutruk Nakhunte

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Shutruk-Nakhunte was the most powerful king of Elam. He took this often times disunited culture, and created an empire out of it. Elam existed for thousands of years, but under Shutruk-Nakhunte they managed to be one of the great powers in the region, a rarity for them despite their long-lived civilization.

Sources

Names Mentioned

Episode 6.6 - Burgundy Pt 6 - Mary and the Rest

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Burgundy is in turmoil after the death of Charles. His daughter Mary is his heir, but France, as well as the Netherlands, aren’t going to allow her to take power easily. Burgundy, though, survives in some way, beyond Mary, through her marriage into the powerful Habsburg family, and leaves a lasting legacy, at least in the Low Countries

Sources

  • Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold

  • Richard Vaughan, John the Fearless

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Good

  • Richard Vaughan, Charles the Bold

  • Henri Pirenne, “The formation and constitution of the Burgundian State (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)”, American Historical Review

  • Laetitia Boehm, “Burgundy and the Empire in the Reign of Charles the Bold”, The International History Review

  • The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned

Episode 6.5 - Burgundy Pt 5 - Charles the Bold

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Charles inherited a truly powerful state in Europe upon the death of his father. He was learned and brave, a strong military commander, and looked like he was going to be a leading man in European affairs for generations. But his obsession with his eastern frontier, coupled with a few tactical blunders, made it so that never happened, and ended Burgundy’s dominance.

Sources

  • Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold

  • Richard Vaughan, John the Fearless

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Good

  • Richard Vaughan, Charles the Bold

  • Henri Pirenne, “The formation and constitution of the Burgundian State (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)”, American Historical Review

  • The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned

Episode 6.4 - Burgundy Pt 4 - Philip the Good

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Philip the Good became the new Duke of Burgundy after his father’s murder. He worked to expand Burgundy’s power, and ruled during its height in a way that kept it strong and secure. But he also missed real opportunities to make it something more.

Sources

  • Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold

  • Richard Vaughan, John the Fearless

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Good

  • Henri Pirenne, “The formation and constitution of the Burgundian State (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)”, American Historical Review

  • The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned

Episode 6.3 - Burgundy Pt 3 - John the Fearless

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With Philip the Bold’s death, his strategy of adding more territories to his heir is fulfilled, and John the Fearless inherits what is becoming a Burgundian state. John is even more ambitious than his father, seeking to control France, add to his own territory, and use any means at his disposal to accomplish his goals

Sources

  • Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold

  • Richard Vaughan, John the Fearless

  • Henri Pirenne, “The formation and constitution of the Burgundian State (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)”, American Historical Review

  • The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned

Episode 6.2 - Burgundy Pt 2 - Philip the Bold

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The history of the Duchy of Burgundy continues with the first Valois Duke, Philip the Bold. Philip was a master statesman who help grow the duchy into a state that would eventually rival France itself.

Sources

  • Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold

  • Richard Vaughan, John the Fearless

  • Henri Pirenne, “The formation and constitution of the Burgundian State (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)”, American Historical Review

  • The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned

Episode 6.1 - Burgundy Pt 1 - Origins

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Burgundy is a region in eastern France, which had once been an independent Germanic Kingdom. It became a Duchy of France before entering a Golden Age in the 14th and 15th century and turning into something even bigger

Sources

  • Joseph Calmette, The Golden Age of Burgundy

  • Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold

  • Henri Pirenne, “The formation and constitution of the Burgundian State (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries)”, American Historical Review

  • The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned

Episode 5.10 - Nzinga

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Nzinga was queen of an African kingdom in today’s Angola. She fought with, and at times allied with, the various colonial and indigenous powers in the region, lost most of her kingdom, gained another, and was able to resist European occupation and keep her kingdom relatively free for decades.

Sources:

  • Joseph C. Miller, “Nzinga of Matamba in a New Perspective,” The Journal of African History

  • John K. Thornton, "Firearms, Diplomacy, and Conquest in Angola: Cooperation and Alliance in West Central Africa, 1491-1671"

  • John K. Thornton, “Legitimacy and Political Power: Queen Njinga, 1624-1663,” The Journal of African History

  • Beatrix Heintze and Katja Rieck, “The Extraordinary Journey of the Jaga Through the Centuries: Critical Approaches to Precolonial Angolan Historical Sources”, History in Africa

  • Queen Ana de Sousa Nzinga Mbande of Ndongo, Black History Heroes

  • Miguel Júnior and Manuel Maria Difuila, Military History of Angola: From the Sixteenth Century to the Twentieth Century

Names Mentioned:

Episode 5.9 - Bayinnaung

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Bayinnaung was a prince and leading general of a small Burmese kingdom. He helped lead it to become a large empire, only to watch it dissolve when his king was killed. But he quickly restored it, before expanding it more himself, creating the largest land empire in Southeast Asia.

Sources:

  • G.E. Harvey, A Brief History of Burma from the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824

  • Victor B. Lieberman “Reinterpreting Burmese History”, Comparative Studies in Society and History

  • Victor B. Lieberman “Europeans, Trade, and the Unification of Burma, c. 1540-1620”, Oriens Extremus

Names Mentioned:

Episode 5.8 - The Hussite Wars pt 3 - Prokop and the End

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Jan Zizka was dead, but the Hussite cause was not. They continued to fight the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. They found a new leader in Prokop the Great, and were able to keep Sigismund at bay, but internal turmoil helped splintered the Hussites, but also helped usher in a real compromise.

Sources:

  • Hrabě František Lützow, The Hussite Wars

  • John Klassen, “Hus, The Hussites and Bohemia”, The New Cambridge Medieval History

  • R. Urbanek and N.B.Jobson, “Jan Zizka, the Hussite”, The Slavonic Review

  • R.R. Betts, “Social and Constitutional Development in Bohemia in the Hussite Period”, Past & Present/Oxford Journals

  • Radio Praha

Names Mentioned:

Episode 5.7 - The Hussite Wars Part 2 - Jan Zizka

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The Hussites, now fighting both the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire, find the leader they need to survive against impossible odds in Jan Zizka. Zizka was an incredible commander, who never lost a battle, and helped lay the groundwork for two centuries of a semi-independent Bohemian Church.

Sources:

  • Hrabě František Lützow, The Hussite Wars

  • John Klassen, “Hus, The Hussites and Bohemia”, The New Cambridge Medieval History

  • R. Urbanek and N.B.Jobson, “Jan Zizka, the Hussite”, The Slavonic Review

  • R.R. Betts, “Social and Constitutional Development in Bohemia in the Hussite Period”, Past & Present/Oxford Journals

  • Radio Praha

Names Mentioned:

Episode 5.6 - The Hussite Wars Part 1

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The Hussite Wars started in 1419 with the first defenestration of Prague. This episode we discuss the road to the war, including the situation in Bohemia, and the preaching and then killing of Jan Hus.

Sources:

  • Hrabě František Lützow, The Hussite Wars

  • John Klassen, “Hus, The Hussites and Bohemia”, The New Cambridge Medieval History

Names Mentioned: