A History of Italy

037 – The Normans run out of room and the papacy out of patience

1061 - 1073 The Normand, having conquered as much as they could in Southern Italy, head for Sicily while the struggle between the papacy and the empire heats up.

036 – Introducing a beard, a hunchback and Matilda

1052 - 1061 Bonifacio Attone of Canossa dies leaving his wife Beatrice and stepdaughter to first look to the pope and then marry Godfrey the Bearded while in the backgrounds a couple of popes come and go and we also see a change of emperors.

035 – The lion, the fox and the Great Schism

1047 - 1054 Once pope Leo IX takes power, we follow his rather disastrous decision to challenge the Normans and Robert Guiscard. After that, we have a quick look at the start of the Great East- West Schism.

034 – Another Henry, too many popes and naughtiness in the church

1039-1046 We follow the descent of Henry III into Italy and see how he deals with the church as a reform takes route

033 – Here come the Normans, there goes the neighbourhood

We take a look at the arrival of the Normans in Southern Italy at the start of the XI century and follow their participation in the anti-Byzantines rebellions of the 1040's.

032 – Saxons to Salians and a fake news legend

1024 - 1037 We look at the passage from Henry II to Conrad and look at the trouble caused for the new emperor by Bishop Aribert of Milan while he tries to consolidate his hold on Italy with the help of Bonifacio of Canossa and the new pope. 

031 – A rebellion in the south, a lion in the north and how Henry II got on

1009 - 1024 We take a look at a forgotten rebellion in the south of Italy headed by an apple tree, check in with the Canossa family to observe their growing power in the north and then see how Holy Roman emperor Henry II got on when he made his way across the Alps.

Special episode 05 – The massacre of Monte Sole

Between the 29th September and 5th October 1944, the Nazi occupiers of Italy, along with their Fascist allies, rounded up and killed almost 800 civilians, mostly elderly, women and children in the worst single episode of violence against the civilian population in Western Europe. The massacre occurred on the slopes of Monte Sole, south of Bologna.

030 – Saxons, Saracens, Sardinia

We leave Henry II waiting for a moment to look at the increasing Saracen raids in the early 11th century before taking a look at the unique history of the Sardinian "Giudicati".

029 – New millennium, nationalist myths, same old mess

1002 - 1013 As a new millennium dawns on the Italian pensala, we see that nothing much has changed, at least for the moment, as we see Henry II of Bavaria attempting to take power in Italy and then become emperor.