August 10th, 2023
The book is written very casually, but that’s not necessarily a negative. It’s going to be an easy read. I wish the maps were interspersed in the reading, but oh well. There’s an introduction and it seems like the book is not just medieval in theme. I read the first chapter and a bit of the second. To start, the book’s title is Lotharingia. This is named for Lothair II, son of Lothair I, grandson of Charlemagne. The Treaty of Verdun, 843, split Charlemagne’s empire into three. At the time of its creation, Middle Francia was much larger and contained southern French and Italian, possibly Swiss, holdings. These were then divided and Lothair II received the northern bits, missing out on Italy, Provence, and the very confusing Burgundy (there are so many Burgundies, and I believe Lothair got the County and Duchy, but not Upper and Lower). The book will concern mostly with these northern bits, meaning the modern Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and their adjacent parts of France and Germany. Now that was just the first bit of the second chapter. The first chapter ran all the way from Neanderthals to Charlemagne in 30 pages, so it was very light in information. A lot of it tried to invoke the feeling of post-Roman Europe and dispel the idea of the Dark Ages, since the only reason they are “dark” is because we lack information. Buildings were lost or torn down and rebuilt, writing was scarce, people were probably the same as ever.
August 13th, 2023
I’m not really into this book so far. The structure of it is very strange. It just seems to jump around between anecdotes. I feel like the book hasn’t “started” but I’m already 100 pages in. What’s written is generally fine but it feels unorganized. It’s hard to even remember what I read because every 5 pages is an unrelated topic.
August 15th, 2023
There’s a little more structure, but not much. I should’ve mentioned earlier that Lotharingia got gobbled up by France and the Empire around 900 after someone died with no heir. I think it was Lothair II’s son, and his uncles east and west capitalized on it. Some other stuff happened here and there and now it’s 1400 or so. The author at least goes on for a nice run about Burgundy. France had some bad times and John II of France was captured by the English. He had to give up a lot of territory. After all this, the last duke of Burgundy died and the duchy returned to the crown. John made his youngest son, Phillip, duke. Where things get cool is that he marries Margaret, the heiress to Flanders. Once she became countess, Phillip the Bold had a huge swath of territory which would grow with his heirs. His son John the Fearless rivaled the Dukes of Orleans (Armagnacs). Both vied for power as Charles VI descended into madness. John had Duke Louis murdered and was in turn murdered years later by the Dauphin’s orders. His son, Phillip the Good, was now an enemy of the French kings. He allied with the English in the Hundred Years War, supporting the claims on infant Henry VI. He was also good at grabbing land. His holdings, through various means, extended to the Duchies of Luxembourg and Brabant, and the Counties of Holland, Zeeland, Artois, Hainult, Namur and more. This does not include neighboring lands under Burgundian influence. His son, Charles the Bold, inherited all this. But nothing good lasts forever. The French eventually drove out the English and became stronger. Burgundy would eventually come under the king’s yoke.
August 21st, 2023
We are spending quite a bit of time on Burgundy. Unfortunately I’ve read a couple times without writing, so I don’t know if I remember much. I do know that it was interesting and that I actually would like to read more about the duchy. I guess we talked about Phillip the Good’s wheeling and dealing to grab land. Charles the Bold was a bit of a war-monger. He tried to unite his upper lands and his Burgundian lands. He did well, but made many enemies and could be cruel. His wife was Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV. Surely this could not please the French King Louis XI. But in the end, Louis won. Charles finally began to lose a few battles and then was killed, age 43. Louis swooped in to take what he could, but the now duchess Mary the Rich was playing the game. Instead of marrying Louis’ son, she went the other way. She married Maximilian Hapsburg, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. Mary died very young, and their son Phillip the Handsome inherited these vast Hapsburg lands. He also died young, but had married the future queen of Spain, daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand. Their eldest son, Charles V, got his grandmother’s Burgundian lands, his grandfather’s German and Austrian lands, and his mother’s Spanish and American lands. Amazing how that happens.
August 28th, 2023
I guess Charles V wasn’t so great at his job. From what I can remember, he lost the Swiss and thus the original Hapsburg lands. Unable to beat them, he chose to ignore them. I think this was Charles. He did get lots of money from his South American empire, but wasted it on wars in his wide empire. He also failed to keep an eye on Luther and this whole Protestantism got out of hand. He ended up retiring and splitting the empire into eastern and western, his son getting Spain and his brother getting the Empire and Italy. Who gets the Dutch? Somehow Spain. Then there’s some 80 years of war between them. At least in the end, he kind of beat Luther. Catholicism reforms and escapes little Europe and the threat of being swallowed by Islam. It spreads worldwide. Protestantism splinters more and more. I don’t remember much else, a lot of bloody war between Spain and the Netherlands. The Dutch have a on-and -off relationship with Elizabeth, who eventually gets more involved. This raises the ire of her brother-in-law Phillip II (son of Charles V, husband of Bloody Mary), who sends the famous Armada. Fun side note: Charles V is Mary’s cousin, and both Phillip and Mary are great-great-great-great grandchildren of John of Gaunt. There will probably be more talk of wars, since this is the 17th century.
September 20th, 2023
I finished this book today. As you can see, I didn’t really write anything about it. I didn’t really enjoy it. Every chapter is sort of like an anthology story from a certain time period and the book goes from Charlemagne up to WWII. I feel like I would read a bit and then have no idea or recollection of what I read. Maybe some people like that. Either way, it wasn’t so bad that I wanted to give up on it