We're Not So Different

folks, we've made it 209 episodes into the show and we still haven't done one on the end of the Middle Ages, well that stops now. we conclude out series on Constantinople with The Fall. and this one really lives up to the name, unlike the Western Roman Empire. we say goodbye to Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Theodosian Walls, and all the rest as the Ottomans wash it away in a tide of gunpowder, olive oil, and so many soldiers. enjoy the spectacle as we talk the Fall of Constantinople.

folks, we continue the series on Constantinople with the real decline hours. last week, we started looking at the long, slow decline of the Queen of Cities and the Byzantine Empire but that pales in comparison to the final 400 years. after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, it's all downhill as the Byzantines step on rakes, shoot themselves in the foot, and are the victims of just plain bad luck and historical circumstance. from Manzikert to the Fourth Crusade to the Black Death to the final, bleak years before 1453, it's nothing but true, unmitigated decline leading to the inevitable fall next time.artwork is The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, Gustave Dore

folks, we're back after a brief hiatus, and back into our series on Constantinople. this time, we take a look at the beginning of the decline of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, which started in 567 after Justinian I's death. but, as civilizational declines go, it wasn't so bad for the first 500 years or so. however, the myriad factors that would lead to the fall of Constantinople were beginning to pile up even before Justinian's reign and they would only get worse as things went along. factors such as the city's propensity for riots and civil wars, the rise of Islam, Iconoclasm, the East-West Schism, and more! so this time, we talk about these factors and follow the gradual decline through the first five Medieval Byzantine dynasties. then next time, we will talk about real DECLINE.

we decided to take a look at some Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg news that has come up in the past month. first, and more seriously, we look at a study of how Holy Roman Emperors governed from the road through a practice known as itinerant rule and it can be used to trace the rise and decline of the power of the imperial office. then, we move onto the real fun: an article about the recent Habsburg convention in Plano, Texas that occurred in April 2024. and folks, if the first part seems a little dry, this article is nothing but schadenfreude and the chance to point and laugh at some of the worst people alive, which we all use from time-to-time. links:Rulers on the Road: Itinerant Rule in the Holy Roman Empire, AD 919-1519 by Carl Muller-Crepon, Clara Neupert-Wentz, Andrej Kokkonen, and Jorgen Moller, dated April 24, 2024: https://www.carlmueller-crepon.org/publication/itinerant_rule/MNKM_itin_rulers_20240424.pdfFeeling Blessed: At the Habsburg Convention in Plano by Christopher Hooks for The Baffler, published May 8, 2024: https://thebaffler.com/latest/feeling-blessed-hooks

folks, we're continuing our series on Constantinople. last time we introduced the city via its geography, Constantine making it the capital of the Roman Empire, and the Theodosian Walls. this time, we get into the early Medieval history of the city, which also happens to be the real golden age for Constantinople. beginning under Emperor Justinian I, Constantinople took the mantle of "Rome" seriously and began a long revanchist campaign to take back parts of the former Western Roman Empire, turned it into a religious and cultural capital, made it unbelievably wealthy, and had some zany fun on the way too. everything after Justinian I's rule is the long, slow decline toward 1453 and the Fall but it takes a while before anyone notices, so the Golden Age continues for at least a couple of more centuries. we talk about all that today!

folks, we were delayed one week due to the storm of the century in the American southeast but things have thawed a bit and we're back on track just in time to start a series on the Queen of Cities, Constantinople. Eventually, it would become the crown jewel city of Medieval Europe, a hub of culture, religion, trade, defense, and more, and, briefly, the most important city in the world before falling to the Ottomans and gunpowder. But that's a story for later in the series, for now we must introduce you to Constantinople and to do so, we must discuss three separate factors that turned it in THE Medieval European city: the vagaries of geography that combined to make it one of the most imminently defensible locations in the world, Constantine the Great founding the city and making it the capital of the Roman Empire, and the building of the Theodosian Walls.

folks, here is an unlocked bonus episode because a winter storm of the century in the American southeast made recording impossible this week. enjoy! the bonus is back for a new year and Luke and Eleanor have been thinking about things and stuff and it's time to ruminate on them. first, Eleanor talks about the way in which rationality and a loss of spirituality supposedly went hand-in-hand with the Enlightenment. it's really been grinding her gears and she's going to speak on it. then Luke answers a discord question from patron, everyzig314, who asked him to compare and contrast the Holy Roman Empire and the Galactic Republic from Star Wars. so we get another installment of the podcast's favorite game show: Is It Like The HRE?

folks, we all love trains. they're great for moving people and cargo and famously not as bad as cars but did you know that the first railways and trackways were built in the Classical and Medieval eras. that's right, despite what Victorian era propaganda would have you believe, the train didn't simply appear fully formed in the English mind in the 18th century where it was then bestowed upon the rest of humanity. it does in fact have a very long and often sordid history and that's why we've brought on Rail engineer and writer Gareth Dennis to talk with us about Medieval railways, what the modern narrative about the early modern invention of trains gets wrong, and why trains are just so neat.Gareth's most recent book, How Railways Will Fix the Future: Rediscovering the Essential Brilliance of the Iron Road, was published in November 2024, check it out! https://garethdennis.co.uk/

folks, so this is the new year? well, we could start with a new series or something but a lot of shit has happened the past few weeks and Eleanor and Luke haven't chatted in a while, so they take some time to catch-up on recent events, both hilarious and horrifying. then, to get back into the swing of Medieval things, we talk about an excellent new academic paper that sheds light on a truly bizarre Late Medieval witchcraft trial, which has all the hallmarks of the Early Modern witch trials but is like 200 years too early or a cloistered conspiracy in the vein of The Name of the Rose. but in this case, it really happened, and that's only scratching the surface of the weirdness.The article is: The Devil at Citeaux: The Trial for Witchcraft of Regnault Robergeot (1481-1482) by Maxime Gelly-Perbellinihere's a link to the article: https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/16417

folks, it's our final episode of 2024 and our 200th regular episode of the show and to celebrate, we've got the conclusion of our year-end mailbag episodes. we answer questions about how cathedrals were cleaned in the Middle Ages, favorite Star Wars ship, banishment, Medieval takeout, mountaineering, early Church politics, and more! enjoy and have a happy new year from us here at the show!