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Please find attached the document that will serve as a base for our strategic reflections.

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Historical Context of the Holy Roman Empire.
Last year, we had the opportunity to write about the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations. We published a specific chapter about the historical context and the evolution of Germany since Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Empire crowned by the Pope in 800 CE. Find the URL here: https://eleonoraescalantestrategy.com/2023/02/10/from-the-enlightenment-to-business-models-episode-5-who-moved-the-ways-of-the-enlightenment-part-b-the-german-historic-context/ – Click and read this chapter, please. Despite that the latter link episode belongs to a different saga, it is convenient for all of you to go back in time there, and read the most general details about the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nations (from now on we will mention the Empire, every time that we address it).

Today, we are going more in-depth analysis of the Empire. Additionally, to understand the philosophic rationale of the Empire’s expansion during the 15^th century, we are obliged to provide a general timeline of the most important events of the Empire since the year in which the papacy established a straightforward tie with the kings and emperors of the epoch, by crowning them and validating their political regimes. The fragmentation of the Empire principalities, duchies, marquisates, etc. only shows us the importance of that leadership feudal structure sustaining the conceptualization of nobility at the service of the King. The “nobility title”, its “rank”, and the “geographic piece of land” associated with the favor and protection of the king through his “military knights” was an essential element of the feudalist scheme that was installed and accepted as a political-economic-social system in Europe.

Between the 11^th and the 15^th century, Europe was living in the last passage of the Middle Ages. Medieval life in Western and Central Europe was characterized by the following aspects(1) :

1. Christianity was almost spread everywhere. Practically everyone was Catholic and acknowledged the spiritual and political leadership of the Pope who lived in Rome.
2. The educated class shared the knowledge of Latin and the vernacular language of its geographical location.
3. Europeans were united in opposition to the Islamic religion and Muslim communities.  Islamic invasions and attacks coming from the Arab East territories were the norm. In the Iberian Peninsula, the situation was complex because the Arabs invaded and lived in it for centuries.
4. The Mediterranean Sea connected commerce and trading between the East and the West.
5. Most European territories (polities) had similar social and political feudal structures: Self-Governing cities run by an elite of lords, guildsmen, and magistrates. At the top of the social pyramid, were the aristocracy, the higher clergy, and the military knight princes (when the location demanded military service and counsel in return for protection and the confirmation-increase of land holding). At the bottom of the pyramid, the peasantry paid feudal dues to their lords in return for protection and tithes to the Church in return for spiritual guidance.  The peasants couldn´t read or write not even in the vernacular language, and less in Latin.
6. The feudal contractual relationship was managed by a judicial-fiscal figure that was named differently depending on the territory: The English, Irish, and Scottish parliaments; the States General of the Dutch Low Countries, the Estates General of France, the Cortes of Castile and Aragon; the Hungarian, Polish and Swedish Diets, and the German Reichstag. These assemblies between the lords and the cities´ leaders were equivalent to “corporate strategy collective decision-making meeting places”, where governance was determined. Some of these “courts” allowed intense public or at least semi-public debate about rights, privileges, responsibilities, and negotiations about getting into war with other estates, how much taxes should be paid, getting a loan for warfare and from whom, military mobilization to expand or defend territories, etc.
7. Medieval Times were the cradle of the “state-building process” at the service of Christendom. Europeans identified by heart that they lived in the far west periphery of the core of the world: Jerusalem and its Holy Land. European Christendom implied the need to go and protect the Holy Land. The routes to visit the home of Jesus Christ were already at risk to the Muslims, and in consequence, European kings and Lords expanded and built their “sovereignty” with the logic of “self-defense”.
8. Europeans lived on a divided and conflicted continent. The aristocracy and the kings of territories were fighting all the time for everything. The disputes were always solved through warfare: The conflicts proliferated in violence: between the emperor and the pope, between the kings or key monarchs, between villages and territorial princes, between duchies, barons or marquisates, between rival cities, and between the peasants and the lords.
9. The Catholic church’s abuse of power was omnipresent. Anything that wasn´t under their own “authority” was considered as heresy. The Medieval Church became a corrupt institution, ignoring the foundations of the apostle Peter. Since the Catholic church held the keys to eternal salvation, most of its bishops and priests made a living by requesting money or properties in exchange for God´s pardon of sins. Heaven, hell, and purgatory were regarded as the truth. The Inquisition was the strategy to convert to Christianity, and the tactics of persecution, torture, massacres, and being burnt alive in public were the normal punishment for the heretics.  The Catholic Church got involved in secular matters in every kingdom of Europe, to the point that the Church could participate in upheavals, by raising its militia, engaging in crusades and military campaigns, bullying disobedient monarchs, and organizing the conquest of new lands. During the Medieval times, the main 6 belief systems that were directly accused of heresy were punished by the Church Inquisition: the Paulicians, the Bogomils, the Cathars, the Waldensians, the Lollards, and the Hussites. On the top list, the Muslims were characterized as “devils”, while the Jews as “Christ Killers”. The clergy´s mission was to convert them to Christianity no matter the violent measures utilized for that objective. The result: the new conversos continued to be intimidated, secluded to “specific ghettos” and sometimes massacred or imprisoned because of the difficulty of leaving their cultural traditions bundled with their former “pagan” religion.

About the Holy Roman Empire:
The Holy Roman Empire was an association of a multitude of territorial principalities located in the center of Europe. The extension of the Empire began from Brabant and Holland in the west to Silesia in the East, from Holstein in the north to just below Siena in the South and Trieste in the southeast. It included all the territories on the map below.

The Empire was governed by one emperor, and he ruled in consultation with the Papacy in Rome. The Investiture of the Emperor had to come directly from the Pope, as it was stated by Charlemagne. The imperial crown was a core affair for all the German princes, but it also included the envy of the French kings. The king elected as the Holy Roman Emperor was the Universal authority as successor to the grandiose Roman Empire.  Every king or prince in Europe was passionately interested in receiving the investiture of the Emperor and many conflicts were tied to that process. With the Golden Bull (1356), the German princes accepted the following selection process: The Emperor had to be chosen by seven electors coming from lands that were declared indivisible to prevent further disputes over these rights: Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Bohemia, the Palatinate, Saxony, and Brandenburg. The Habsburgs and the Bavarian Wittelsbach were excluded as electors then. We have prepared a brief timeline for the Empire from the year 800 to the year 1508. Slides 4 to 6 can provide a general overview of the most relevant settings and circumstances of the Empire and its relation to the Papacy. Don´t forget that the main challenge of the Empire was its protection and survival from the Muslim sieges. In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks and this situation provoked a mega panic across Western Europe. In the case of the Spanish Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, they were also battling against the Muslims to “reconquest” their territories. The kingdom of Castile and León was concentrating its efforts in mainland Iberia, while the Aragonese kings were trying to keep the Mediterranean free of Islamic power and extend their dominions to Italy, next to the Pope.  

The study of the Aragon-Catalonia Kingdoms between 1198 to 1500
Slides 7 to 13 describe the different relevant facts that occurred to the Aragonese-Catalan rulers during this time. We advise you to read these slides (which are self-explanatory) next to the genealogical trees of the three main houses of Hispania: the House of Barcelona, the House of Aragon, and the House of Castile. These were shared in our last episode.  We concentrated our efforts on Aragon, given its international diplomatic allure and strategic vision towards the Mediterranean. By the time of the Catholic Kings ruling Iberia (1469), the kingdom of Castile resources were exhausted after 700 hundred years of reconquest, and we truly doubt that their consecutive rulers were ready to expand to America, despite that Portugal was already exploring other lands in Africa. The knowledge of a new continent didn´t come from Castile but from Aragon’s connections with the Venetians and Genoese maritime power. It also might be possible that Portugal used Columbus to gain the attention of Castile & Aragon’s participation. The Valencian Pope (from the Aragon kingdom) Alexander VI provided a stamp of approval to this hypothesis with the Tordesillas treaty in 1494. The presence of the Templars continued in Iberia, particularly within the Aragonese kings. Despite that the Templar Order was formally dissolved by the Pope in the Council of Vienna in 1312, it mutated into new military orders in Spain, where the Knights and their money were needed to expel the Muslims from its lands.  

Strategic reflections of this chapter.
We have already prepared slide 14 with some of our inferences. We would like to plunge into four main ideas that will help us to make sense of what was coming to America with the Conquistadors at the beginning of the 16^th century.

1. There is a direct relation between the military orders of the Spanish kingdoms and the modus operandi that was utilized during the conquest of America. If you read about the Inquisition and the cruel measures of punishment while converting “pagans” or “heretics” in Europe, there is no difference when we read the testimonies of what the conquerors’ crusades did against the Aztecs, Incas, and the rest of native-indigenous communities.
2. The kingdom of Castile wasn´t exactly leading the conquest and colonization of America. Queen Isabella of Castile died in 1504. It coincides with the same year that Columbus was completely aware that America wasn´t only the “West Indies islands”. There are laboratory reports that show that Isabella had higher concentrations of mercury in her hair at the moment of her death, and we truly do not know if she was being cured with mercury or if she was being poisoned (2). Joanna of Castile, Isabella´s daughter, was declared unreasonable to lead, and King Ferdinand II of Aragon was selected as Regent and main decision-maker until Joanna´s son (Charles V Habsburg-Castile-Aragon) was able to rule. Everything happened so quickly between 1506 to 1516 (the year of death of the King Ferdinand II of Aragon). In addition, the cause of death of Philip the Handsome (Burgundy-Habsburg husband of Joanna) is not well understood yet in history.
3. The role of the Templars wasn´t secondary. We truly believe that the Templars (converted into military orders) were economic investors, organizers, and perpetrators of the Discovery of America project. The degree of participation of the Templars is still a question mark to us, but we can observe a clear pattern of its partaking within the Hispanic kings’ strategy through all our historical readings.
4. The emperor Maximilian I Habsburg wasn´t far away from Charles V. Maximilian´s daughter, Margaret of Austria became the regent of the Netherlands-Burgundy, and she raised the kids of Joanna of Castile. This action demonstrates that the Habsburgs were not only interested in the Spanish Iberian lands but more in the new Spanish American territories. We will explore the life of Charles V in our next 2 episodes.

Announcement.

Next Friday 1^st of November, is the turn of the next Episode 5 “Charles V: An Overlooked Identity”. See you then. In every episode, we disclose content that will help us to understand the economic model of domination, sometimes with affliction and discrimination that was installed in Central America. Ever since its colonization. Blessings of joy to you for reading our academic material.

Musical Section.

Our melodious selection of music during this saga will be served with songs and concerts that could have been listed on the most important Billboard during the century of our themes. Today, we have chosen the following one: Music at the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1485-1520), from the YouTube channel Early Midi Music.

Thank you for reading http://www.eleonoraescalantestrategy.com. It is a privilege to learn. Blessings.

Sources of reference and Bibliography utilized today. Shown in the set of slides.

(1) Simms, B. The Struggle for supremacy. From 1453 to the Present. Penguin. 2013. Chapter: Introduction.

(2) https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=22439 Mercury Poisoning in the hair of the Catholic Kings.

Disclaimer: Eleonora Escalante paints Illustrations in Watercolor. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. All are used as Illustrative and non-commercial images. Utilized only informatively for the public good. Nevertheless, most of this blog’s pictures, images, or videos are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images unless otherwise stated.