Medieval Europe

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>>2570381
"A History of Charles the Great" - J.I. Mombert

Covers Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, and Charles the Great all in one great collection. Politics, religion, law, war, and other usual topics are covered in great detail my Mombert. He also provides some neat translations to primary source material.

The Carolingian Renaissance is something interesting to look into. It helps counter the idea that the "Dark Ages" were nothing but bleak and destitute.

A peasant become a monarch in the Late Middle Ages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivaylo_of_Bulgaria

The Bulgarians were able to defeat the Byzantines and Mongols simultaneously under this peasant-turned-rebel. They should really make a big-budget movie about his life.

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The Hussite Wars

>You will never be a peasant gunning down knights with your bros from your war wagon

>>2572530
Lead by a blind dude to boot! Jan Zizka is badass.

The best medieval admiral
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_of_Lauria

>>2572567
It's criminal how the Sicilian Vespers is overlooked. The same for the Hussite Wars or the Albigensian Crusade.

>>2572628
Or any ERE related thing. I mean specially the big public, history nerds love the ERE (and Rightly so) but your average normie...
I love the Catalan company train-wreck in the ERE too, so much treachery, dickery, loot and battles.

>>2570381
the wars against the hordes of giant killer snails

>>2572642
>Catalan company
Post-1204 Byzantium was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. It was the perfect test bed for campaigns that are straight out of tabletop games like what Roger de Flor's Catalans wrecking havoc or Osman rallying ragtag cattle-rustlers and dissatisfied Greeks into a future power.

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In central Germany, the Lord Abbot of Fulda, Balthasar von Bernbach, headed a mobile Inquisition in search of witches as part of his drive against Protestantism. Hunting witches predominately in prosperous villages, within three years von Bernbach put 250 witches to death.

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>>2572658
>Osman
Osman Gazi? It seems a good tale to be told. And yeah, the ERE is a very good rpg source, like Spanish medieval history in general (There's a good one called Aquelarre, BRP based, awesome art, based on a Medieval Spain, but with all the myths being real).

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>>2572645
Too soon. Too fucking soon.

>>2572697
Iberia too is the stuff of larger-than-life figures and no clear defined Good vs Evil. You had Christians fighting as mercenaries for Muslim rulers and Muslim-Christian alliances, Muslims fighting Muslims, Christians against Christians, and actual Christian vs Muslim conflict.

Muhammad ibn Mardanis (The Wolf King) is probably the most fascinating figure during the Reconquista in my opinion.

The city of Córdoba became the intellectual center of Europe. Manuscripts accumulated in the city's library and Córdoba became famous for its philosophy, with translated works of Greek writers and philosophers. It would be from Córdoba that Christendom would acquire its knowledge of ancient works, including the works of Aristotle and achievements in medicine, mathematics and astronomy.

Rahman III expanded Córdoba's mosque, one of the more splendid of Islam's structures. He died in 1961 around the age 70 and was succeeded by his son, Al-Hakam II.


Al-Hakam's army repelled Norman attacks in 966 and 971 and defeated the Fatimids of northern Morocco in 974.

Al-Hakam was decidedly homosexual. He was known to have openly kept a male harem. To produce an heir a concubine was dressed as a boy and given the masculine name of Jafar.

>>2572756
>Al-Hakam's army repelled Norman attacks in 966 and 971
Wait, Norman as in the ones based from Normandy or are they referring to the Vikings since Norman means Northman? Because the earliest instance of the Normans attacking Iberia was the Siege of Barbastro in 1064.

>>2572731
>Muhammad ibn Mardanis.
this one is a very obscure but cool dude, one of the most polemical dudes of his time.
I like the Musa Dinasty too, Muslimiced Basques/visigoths trying to make they own kingdoms every time they could get away with it. Or the cathars, poor boys. OR the whole Knightly orders.

>>2572504
Before the fall of communism this uprising was interpreted as the first peasant uprising in Europe. And there is in fact a film made about it, Ivaylo (1964). It'd be surprising if the communist party had not made a film about Ivaylo, bearing in mind the nationalist fever that had taken over the country since 1944.

>>2572770
I think the first Vikings mentioned was in the 844, they tried to raid Galicia but were turned away (to go to try to raid the muslims).

>>2572797
2 of China's greatest dynasties, the Han and Ming were founded by commoners. Hongwu was a peasant who joined the Red Turbans so that they could overthrow the Mongols.

>>2572817
I guess at times the situation gets so unbearable that the common peasants take defending their own lands into their hands. The situation we have in the Eastern Balkans during the Late Antiquity is the vanishing of the village and the villa as settlement forms in the valleys, the spread of fortified settlements and the mass movement of people toward the mountains. This is also documented in Thrace in 12-13th centuries. Why didn't the people of Northeastern Bulgaria move, but chose to fight?

>>2572770
>Normans
>not knowing about rollo
>not knowing about the Norman Italians
>not knowing about the crusader states

>>2572530
The Ottomans respected the tabor so much that they adapted it as well.

>>2572545
Zizka is probably one of the best commanders that Central Europe produced alongside Janos Hunyadi.

>>2572817
Gaozu of the Han Dynasty and Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty deserve more recognition. Having 2 peasants found badass dynasties is something Europe should've had more often.

commercial revolution of the 13th century

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Merchants sought a charter for their town – a guarantee of sorts – from great landowners or from monarchs. Monarchs offered towns protection from the jurisdiction of a nearby lord, and the towns offered monarchs a source of wealth, through taxation, that freed them from reliance on the nobles with whom they were in competition for power. Charters offered merchants guarantees of personal freedom and freedom from arbitrary seizure of property. Runaways from serfdom to a town might be considered free if they could elude capture while living in the town for a year.

In places where the trend toward freedom was blocked, attempts were made to establish it through violence. In 1070 the people of Le Mans formed a commune and rose against their lord – a rebellion that failed. In 1077 people of the town of Cambrai rebelled against an Episcopal overlord. And in 1112 a bishop in England who tried to suppress a commune was hacked to pieces.

>>2572530
not really Middle Ages, but I do enjoy this faithful tale

OP, here. Thanks a lot for the kindness and replies, Anons! Definitely going to check this shit out.

>>2572817

Ming was a shit dynasty though

>>2574507
>Norman Sicily
I see you are a gentleman of fine taste

>>2572504
>They should really make a big-budget movie about his life.

Why? Most of us would much rather see another movie about the holohoax instead.

>>2572756
>It would be from Córdoba that Christendom would acquire its knowledge of ancient works, including the works of Aristotle and achievements in medicine, mathematics and astronomy.

This simply isn't true though.

>>2575465
Yeah.

Rather than knowledge, it was more appreciation and skepticism.

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>>2570381
One development I find interesting is, after multiple plagues fucking everything up (think late Middle Ages) - people were very desensitized to death

I've noticed that depictions of martyrs got really gory in the 14th/15th centuries. In religious art, you had saints getting skinned alive and then their flayed body being decapitated in the next scene. Or St. Agatha having her tits chopped off. Lots of blood and agony, all in beautiful illuminated manuscript.

But the coolest is transi tombs. What better way to drive home the point of 'we all die in the end' than having your tomb effigy as your decomposing body?

>>2575595
whoa never saw these before

>>2575406
It was pretty good for internal peace. They just fell behind because they were isolationist.

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>>2575595
Imagine living in a time like that, though.
>Be 14th century peasant
>Hear about plague going around
>Rumors circulate about the plague that make it worse than it really is
>Hear about plague clearing cities
>Horrible symptoms again left to imagine
> Eventually it comes
>Your neighbors, friends, family, all die
>Very gory deaths and boils like eggs
>Since you're peasant they're everyone you know
>This happens in a month
>Don't die
>Don't understand how God could do this
>Would ask the priest, he ran to a monastery
>At least the turnips came in alright

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>>2572174
>Pepin the Short
I'm not reading about manlets.

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>>2575595
How come the Black Death spared Poland? It's not the climate, colder areas were affected. It's not the lack of trade, Poland isn't hardly isolated. So what is it?

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>>2575806
Then you're missing out on some Games of Thrones levels of palace intrigue and internal politics, with backstabbings, politico-religious fuckery, and foreigners and uppity vassals alike getting crushed.

>>2575829
Poland had a lot of jews in it at the time. They were known to be clean and washed daily. Because of this, the practice was used throughout the country preventing the spreaf into their country.

>>2575829
Poland was fairly sparsely populated for one, so it took longer to spread. Additionally, Poland did lose people to the plague, probably around 10% to under 15%. King Casimir the Great also quarantined their borders to lessen the blow. Also, the climate thereally was just harder to deal with.

>>2575829
Because the Black Death was obviously a Polish plot to seize control of Europe.

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>>2575856
Nice maymay

>>2575829
It didn't spare Poland, just the regions that weren't as densely populated. The plague didn't affect vast territories of the HRE as well.

My best guess is that the areas in question weren't part of any major trade routes at that time. Warsaw was of no importance at that time.

>>2575829
Christians thought cats were satanic agents and killed them off,allowing the plague carrying rodents to multiply

>>2575829

Screw Poland, what is going on with Milan? I could have sworn that it at least existed back during the 1300's, and it's close enough and accesible enough that it should have decent trade with places like Genua and Bologna. Why did the plague just walk around it?

>>2576552
Milan's bishop decided to wall the houses affected by the black death with all its residents (Including healthy ones) to isolate the disease.

>>2576809
Goddamn.

in my opinion reconquista was fun

>>2576552
>>2576809
>>2576918
The plague had several waves, Milan was probably hit hard the second time it came around.

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>>2575791
>At least the turnips came in alright
kek

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>>2575791
>remaining turnips ransacked by brigand deserters

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>>2570381
>recommend good books to read
I'll post my charts for those interested

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>>2579263

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>>2579265

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>>2579267

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>>2579271

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>>2579272
last one thats relevant

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This happened in Ireland