Prof Duncan Hardy is one of the leading experts in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and one of his main topics is the Imperial reform of 1495, making him the ideal guest for our show.

In his first book, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire he tries to define what the Holy Roman Empire was a question we will almost certainly spend quite some time discussing today.

His forthcoming book, which he had so kindly sent me an advance copy, should be familiar to you all, since I do use it as a source for the show. It is titled Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany and contains a large number of edited and translated primary sources illustrating German history circa 1350 to 1550.

As a special treat, listeners to the Hstory of the Germans can order the book at Manchester University press with a 30% discount. The discount code is mentioned at the end of teh interview, so listen out. You can order ithere:

Manchester University Press - Law, society and political culture in late medieval and Reformation Germany

Duncan has a PHD from Oxford University, fellowships from Cambridge, Erfurt and Bielefeld and currently teaches at the University of Central Florida.

And he is a fellow listener of the show. So this will be the time where all my mistakes and random speculations will be dragged into the glare of academic scrutiny.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com

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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs