The Armour Archive

I recently found a copy of the book for sale, but it's out of print and a bit on the pricey side. Has anyone on the archive read the book, and if so, would you recommend it for someone thats trying to acquire in depth knowledge of the politics of the region during the 14th century?

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Otto von Aachen
Kingdom of the Outlands, Canton of Hawks Hollow

That is one of two books on late medieval germany that I'm familiar with the other is by Joachim Leuschner. Another more recent but probobly shorter account of 14th century Germany is going to be in the Cambrige New Medieval History Vol on the 14th century. But honestly your not going to get any depth in Germany history without knowing German. Another book written in English that will be usefull to you is the _Medieval Germany : an encyclopedia_ its very recent in 2001. Beyond that look in the bibliographies of all of these works for things written in English.

Brent

Challenge of trying to understand the politics of the 14thC of Germany is that you really need to fully understand the 13thC (Hohenstaufen) dynasty and politics of each region. (And don't forget the Austrian impact.)

Thank you both for your replies.
Peder, Im probably going to sign up for a German language class at the beginning of the next semester, and im seriously considering just going back to school full time to get a degree in history since my employer is willing to pay the tuition. Who knows, maybe i'll actually get my teaching certificate while im at it.

Friedrich, thank you for the suggestion. I should have realized myself that i couldn't expect to understand the 14th century without knowing a lot more about the 13th then i do currently. I guess i was just trying to narrow down my research scope too far.



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Otto von Aachen
Kingdom of the Outlands, Canton of Hawks Hollow

Understanding a previous century is obvious. But in this instance, there is even a much greater political impact hence why you need to know. With the collapse of the Hohenstaufen dynasty (which inherited the Holy Roman Empire (Burgundy/France, Germany, and parts of Northern Italy), the "country" lost it's unity. From 1250-1350 or so, Germany was ruled by sovereignty of princes. So struggles between regions were commonplace. (Not to mention that regions without princes were ruled by bishoprics so the church has a huge hand in this especially in both sides of southern Germany and their development.) I had read in Barraclough's book that the period might be best described (1250-1350) as having no real accepted framework for government and political life.

On the other hand, if you are trying to develop a more noble persona, you have a wide variety of regions and area politics to choose from based on culture and local economics. I think perhaps an easier way to develop your "persona" is who do you want to interract with and what profession do you want to portray.

Gruß Gött!
FvH

Friedrich,

This started out as an attempt to flesh out my "persona", but it's turning into more of an obsession with me. Technically, my persona is that of a younger son of a minor noble family from the vicinity of Aachen(born 1350, dying in 1412). Since i have several brothers and don't stand to inherit much in the way of lands, I've turned to warfare to earn fame and fortune by 1370. I suppose that might be enough for the average person, but im one of those that feel like i need to know all the little details to really get things right, and the more i've read, the more fascinating the intricacies of the region have become to me.

Since Aachen was technically an independent city, and sits close to the borders of several different countries i've been trying to figure out just where/who i would be serving. I've found some references to German "Free Companies" in both France and Italy during the HYW period, but im not sure if that was a typical theater of war for them, or if i would be more likely to be in the service of one of the regional Princes, Bishops, Towns, or if i might even be heading up North into Prussia to fight alongside the Teutonic Knights. The only battles that im aware of that took place in/close to my region during that time period are the battles of Baesweiler(1371) and Doffingen(1388), but the details I've dug up are so sketchy that i can't decide if i would have been a participant at all, let alone which side i would have fought on.

Now, my thinking is that i can acquire enough knowledge about the politics of the regions that i may be able to narrow things down to the point that i can say with some degree of certainty that i would or would not have been serving so & so at any particular period in my life, and be able to cite reasons why. Maybe im just being too ambitous, but once I've embarked on something like this im just not capable of settling for anything less then perfection(or as close to it as it's possible to get).

Edit- Just as a side note, I have some knowlege of the region during the 13th century from general histories of the HRE, but nothing really in depth. Most of what i've read has focused on the Empire and Papacy issues, and hasnt gone into the politics of the individual regions/towns.

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Otto von Aachen
Kingdom of the Outlands, Canton of Hawks Hollow

[This message has been edited by Edmund Greyfox (edited 09-22-2002).]

to quote my history teacher: "There are three things wrong with that name(HRE). It wasn't Holy, Roman, or an Empire."

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on a sword:
Extorque removere.
(twist to remove)

Oooh, you have a much better one you can use... have you ever read Otto Brunner? I strongly suggest it. If you want to be "vaguely dispossed," your family can have lost a running dispute with the local bishopric over who *really* owns the land... according to the bishopric's records, the land was donated on your grandfathers' death (funerary donations: very common!), but according to your Dad, it wasn't ALL the land, but just the vineyards... but your family comes up on the losing side of the dispute.

Also, being from West-Central Europe, you can play with inimicitiae capitalis, or blood feud, and really add some color to your persona...