OKish overview of German and bits of French and Italian history, Hard to follow at times, since it tends to degrade into a sequence of names, places, and dates, and almost everyone seems to have the same few names, Marred by the tendency to use Anglicised forms of names it's annoying when it's Charles or Henry because English readers can't handle Karl or Heinrich, but the reference to “Lewis the XIV of France” was worse, and referring to Aachen almost universally as “AixlaChapelle” is just perverse particularly when calling it a “purely German” city.
Would have particularly benefitted from some maps for an author who seems to think his readers
will be perplexed by German personal names, he seems to have great faith in their knowledge of German geography.
I could make a good guess at locating major cities, states, and rivers, but tell me that a particular border was drawn from the mouth of one river to a particular bend in another river near a particular town, I'm probably lost.
Similarly, timelines and family trees would help, especially given the number of generations where fathers and sons or uncles and nephews had the same names, and a tendency to introduce said sons and nephews without mentioning straight away that they weren't the same person.
On the plus side, it does a decent job of explaining the development of the feudal system, in particular how it differed from France and England and how it differed in practice from the theoretical ideal.
I can't help but think that I could only make much sense of a lot of this book because I had some idea of the history of Germany after about.
"The Germany of modern history, the Germany of the Holy Roman Empire, lies partly within and partly without the general limits of the ancient or unholy Roman Empire, Taking as a rough limit the line of the Rhine and the Danube as the boundaries of the actual possessions of imperial Rome, it will be seen that all Germany east of the Rhine and north of the Danube remained practically unsubdued, or if partially subdued, unconsolidated.
Great part of modern Germany lay outside the empire, and the part that lay inside it was counted to belong to provinces not in themselves radically German the portion of Germany west of the Rhine was accounted a part of Gaul and the German regions south of the Danube were for the most part regarded as Illyrian.
The Germans of the heart of Germany had withstood successfully the attacks of Rome, although they had, it would seem almost of necessity, been leavened by her civilisation, and affected, after the adoption of Christianity in the empire, by the influences of her religion.
. . " William Stubbs
Contents Germany at the opening of the Middle Ages The Migrations The Franks The Alemanni The Bavarians The Saxons Clovis The Lombards Neustria and Austrasia Fall of the Merovingians Charles Martel The conversion of Germany The reign of Pipin The reign of Charles the Great The Saxon Wars Annexation of Bavaria The Huns and the Avars Charles the Great as Emperor The yearThe division of the empire on his death The birth of Charles the Bald The division of Verdun,The reign of Lewis the German,Lotharingia Arnulf king and emperor,, and his son Lewis,Otto of Saxony and Conrad of Franconia The reign of Henry the Fowler Hungarian wars Otto I.
The first Civil War Henry the Quarreller's conspiracy The reorganisation of the Duchies The second Civil War Battle of Lechfeld The Bohemians and Danes Europe in the middle of the tenth century Otto I.
and the Papacy Otto II,Otto III. ,The year. Accession of Henry II. His Wars with the Bohemians, Poles, and Flemish Conrad the Salic,Conrad visits Italy Coronation at Rome Henry III,Henry III. and Otto III. , their characters The influence of Hildebrand Henry III, 's European position Accession of Henry IV, His character Quarrel with the Papacy Growth of papal influence The Saxon revolt Canossa and after War between Henry and Gregory VII, Death of Gregory VII. War in Germany Revolt of Conrad Character of Henry V, The Concordat of Worms,Election of Lothair II, Papal schism Lothair's relations with the Normans of Sicily Henry the Proud Election of Conrad III,The Second Crusade Death of Conrad III,The accession of Frederick Barbarossa Frederick's first and second expeditions to Italy The diet at Roncaglia Frederick's later expeditions to Italy The Lombard League Henry the Lion His quarrel with Frederick Downfall of Henry the Lion His eastern expedition and death,The reign of Henry VI.
,The attempt to make the imperial dignity hereditary Philip of Swabia crowned king Otto of Saxony also crowned king as Otto IV, Death of Philip,Otto IV, emperor Frederick II. crowned king,The geographical and national divisions of Germany The German dukedoms Growth of the hereditary idea Gradual extinction of the dukedoms, William StubbsJuneAprilwas an English historian and Bishop of Oxford, The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in, obtaining a first class in classics and a third in mathematics.
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