About this episode

This episode explores the political landscape of early 16th century Europe, focusing on Charles V and the Battle of Pavia.

In 1521 four men dominated Europe. They were all in their twenties: King Henry VIII of England, born 1491, King Francois I of France, born 1494, Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan, born that same year, 1494 and the youngest of them, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, Sicily, Naples and Sardinia, lord of the Netherlands, duke of Austria and Count of Tyrol. How the world had changed. In the days of Charles’ predecessor, the emperor Maximilian, European politics was a impenetrable maze of alliances and enmities involving roughly a dozen mid-sized powers trying to get a leg up on each other. Now we are down to four guys, dancing a political Ceilidh, all elegantly dressed, swiftly moving and swapping partners at every turn. In this episode we are going to look at the first rounds of Gay Gordons and Dashing White Sergeants up to the point where Charles V gets a lock on Francois I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 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…

People in this episode

Host: Dirk Hoffmann-Becking

Topics covered

• European politics
• Charles V
• Battle of Pavia
• historical alliances
• Renaissance leaders

Keywords

• Charles V
• Battle of Pavia
• European politics
• Henry VIII
• Francois I
• Suleiman the Magnificent
• Maximilian
• Renaissance

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545

Places: Europe

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