{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Early Habsburgs","title":"Ep. 215: Charles the Bold (1433-1477) - Death in the Cold - History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2422,"description":"The rise of the Habsburgs to world domination pivots on one crucial moment, the marriage of Maximilian of Habsburg to Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold, last of the Grand Dukes of the West.\nThe usual story is that young Maximilian one day walked down the aisle of some splendid cathedral and was handed the richest principality in Europe on an jewel-encrusted golden platter by the father of the bride. All he then had to do was lie down and think of the Habsburg-Burgundian empire.\nThat is not quite what happened. When Maximilian arrived in Ghent in August 1477, his father-in-law lay dead in a ditch in Lorraine and large sways of ducal authority and income had gone. Within less than 3 years, 1474 to 1477 Charles the Bold had frittered away the mythical wealth of the Burgundian dukes. And not just that.\nThese years between 1474 and 1477 helped turn the medieval empire into the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. So please allow me to do this episode, even though very, very few of the protagonists or parties to the conflicts are Germans in the modern sense.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/K5ssYjFo_ppv8CxKlYFgSQPpu_Ye6hqe0bZT3IxjQjI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85NmMy/NmIyZTkyNzc2YWZk/YTllN2Q2Y2YyNjk2/NTk1Ny5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}