97 episodes
Byzantium And The Crusades Nick Holmes
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- History
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4.7 • 53 Ratings
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Ever wondered what the Crusades were and why they really happened? This podcast not only tells the full history of the Crusades, it also links them with the forgotten story of the fall of Byzantium. Listen to one of the most amazing tales ever told! Nick Holmes is a British historian, author and podcaster - check out his website at www.nickholmesauthor.com.
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The Fall of Constantinople Episode 1 "Byzantium - The Dying Empire"
In this new mini-series, we will hear about the fall of Byzantine Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. Many people see it as a turning point in history, marking the end of the Middle Ages. But what really happened? Find out here.
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The Fall of Constantinople Episode 2 "Seljuks and Ottomans"
In the thirteenth century, the Mongols destroyed the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. But after the Mongols left, a new Turkish dynasty began to rise to power in western Anatolia. This dynasty was that of the Ottomans.
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The Fall of Constantinople Episode 3 "Timur the Lame"
In the fourteenth century, the growing power of the Ottoman Turks seemed unstoppable. But there was one man who checked it. This was Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane, as he was called in Europe. Of mixed Turkish and Mongol descent, he created a vast empire at the end of the fourteenth century that was modelled on the Mongol Empire of the legendary Genghis Khan.
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The Fall of Constantinople Episode 4 "The Emperor and the Sultan"
The Ottoman onslaught against Constantinople is getting closer. Two new leaders emerge on either side. Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Emperor of Byzantium, and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, better known as Mehmet the Conqueror. Both men will go down in history as great heroes - discover why in this podcast.
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The Fall of Constantinople Episode 5 "The Call to the West"
With the Ottoman Turks closing in on Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologus made a last desperate appeal to the West for help. But would it be too little and too late?
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The Fall of Constantinople Episode 6 "Gunpowder and Cannons"
By 1452, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II had decided to launch a huge attack on the ancient city of Constantinople. But as he gathered his army from all over his dominions, he knew that he would need more than soldiers. To breach the ancient walls he would need gunpowder and cannons!
Customer Reviews
Epic!
This show keeps you on your toes excited to hear what happens next!
Excellent series
This is an excellent series, and wonderfully narrated by the Host.
Decent but outdated
This is definitely not a bad podcast, and it offers a good combined narrative of both the Latin and Byzantine perspectives (The History of the Crusades focuses on the Latin and Islamic perspectives, while the History of Byzantium’s coverage naturally focuses on the Byzantine perspective), but it’s not exemplary either. There are some standard problems (minor historical inaccuracies like saying Zoe died in 1055 and not 1050), and much of it is just excerpts of books (including one that the author is trying to sell, which seems to undermine the point of selling it) but what disappoints me about this podcast is that it largely draws upon very outdated scholarship. Runciman’s narrative is well written and, as far as I know, is still the standard secondary source for the narrative of the Crusades, but it’s 72 years old at this point and doesn’t take into account the massive developments in scholarship since then. As far as I can tell the author’s own book is similarly focused upon arguments that are at least two generations old. These old narratives are a lot more exciting as stories, which explains part of their appeal, but they’re just not accurate. For example, he repeats the narrative that Manzikert was the death knell of the Empire even though it continued to hold provinces in Asia for another two centuries and defeated Turkic armies several times during that period; Manzikert and especially its aftermath were devastating for the Empire, but it was able to recover like it always was. This sort of verges on Gibbon’s very outdated and incredibly patronizing narrative. This isn’t the biggest problem for a pop history podcast, but the best history podcasts (like THOB, The History of Germany, or Revolutions) have been able to incorporate new scholarship in a really exciting way. The episode comparing Psellos’ and Attaleiates’ accounts of Romanos Diogenes’ reign was easily my favorite, and shows the potential this podcast had if it was more up to date and rigorous. Thus this podcast is reminiscent of John Julius Norwich’s books on Byzantine history; well written and exciting as a piece of literature, but very flawed as a piece of scholarship.