History of the Germans

The year is 919 AD and things are not going well. The mighty empire of Charlemagne has splintered into a multitude of puny kingdoms. Its feeble rulers are being pushed around by their formidable barons. The frontiers are breached. Cometh the time, cometh the man/woman?

Henry the Fowler ended the tradition of splitting the kingdom amongst the male heirs. So far, so wise. But, and there is always a but, what he did not work out was what to do with the spares.

His brother and his biggest vassals are rebelling, the kingdom remains under threat from Hungarians and Slavs - and now the king of France comes in on the side of the opposition. Only a series of very fortunate events can rescue king Otto, or a man of short stature, fierce temper, extraordinary bravery and a dislike of apples and women?

After the civil war Otto gets to reorganise the kingdom and focuses on foreign policy. There is conflict on all borders, with the Slavs, the Bohemians, the Hungarians, and the French. The most interesting story plays out in Italy where we find a beautiful young heiress with the key to a kingdom languishing in a jail....

Adelheid's rescue creates tension not only in the family of king Otto but across the realm. Younger members of the powerful families feel cheated out of the gains of the Italian campaign and worry about their prospects. And the Otto makes one of these mistakes he is so adept at, resulting in much bloodshed and pain...

The devastation of the civil war lures in the largest Hungarian army anyone had ever seen anywhere. Enticed by the disinherited sons of former Bavarian dukes, the mighty host makes for Augsburg, a city whose walls are as weak as their defender is steadfast. This time they are here to conquer not just to plunder. Otto has to run hell for leather south gathering an army from wherever he can get his hands on to face the most amazing military of the times on a battlefield of their choosing.....

955-963 AD After the battle on the Lechfeld Otto has almost reached the zenith of his career. All he lacks is the formal recognition of his imperial position within the ancient realm of Charlemagne. For that he has to travel to the malaria-infested swamp that is 10th century Rome where a 23 year old promiscuous and duplicitous pope awaits him...

Otto's final desire is to be recognised as a fellow emperor by the Basileus in Constantinople. When the Byzantines refuse him the purple-born princess Anna he wages war. The new emperor, John Tzimiskis comes up with a better solution and sends across the most glamorous figure of German medieval history - Theophanu Skleraina...

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H...

When Otto II succeeds his father Otto the Great he inherits a strange construct of interwoven rights, relationships and privileges. He might rely on the church's resources to a degree but to succeed he needs military skill, charisma, proof of the grace of god and luck. With his father being the luckiest man in German history is there any of that elusive substance left for his son...

Having suppressed the customary early reign rebellion, Otto II makes some poor appointments that result in war with France and estrangement with his mother. Once that has been patched up, he embarks on his major project, incorporating the south of Italy into the empire and thereby bottling up the popes.....