Europe: The First Crusade - Lies - Extra History

He's been on the voting list several times, but I'm afraid he's never won! Perhaps one day...

Extra History

God damn it, I want Extra Credits to do a series about Alexander the Great! Is there any plans to do that, or no?

But it is not inaccurate to describe the region as Germany since that was what it was known at. It doesn't completely coincide with modern Germany, Austria and parts of Bohemia and modern Poland would be Germany at this time, the place was still called Germany. It is one of those cases where the word describes a modern country that didn't exist at the time, but also a general region which did exist under that name at the time. Beyond that, historians and archaeologist will often use modern regions to describe places in the past to try to give people a sense of where something is. So unless you're talking about matters of state and government, saying Germany for that region is the most technically accurate term available, as well as the one most likely to be understood by modern audience. Now, if you'd talked about the German emperor, on the other hand...

Christina Maria Jessen

O_O I want it :|

Martin Ockovsky

It won't be for at least a little while (we're due for a couple of "second chance" votes) but I agree, I'd love to see the Crusades come back some day!

Extra History

We cool.

Extra History

Cool! We were trying to do a good job with those questions. :) It's an experiment!

Extra History

You're totally right that "Germany" does describe a distinct culture and that the term existed, but using the name "Germany" specifically to describe a country which was not yet known as Germany is technically inaccurate. So it's a "Lie," but it's one that we were comfortable enough to include in the series for pretty much the same reasons that you describe. We just figured we would acknowledge our choice there since so many people pointed it out!

Extra History

I spoke to a YouTube employee once who was shocked by how many people watched Lies as compared to the main series - even more so by how many watched the entire episode and didn't cut out early. Sometimes, you gotta break with common wisdom.

Extra History

Penance as early crowd-funding is not a take I'd heard before, and now I'm fascinated by it.

Extra History

We could if it gets voted on! Also, as far as I'm concerned, the fact that you had a question about something that came up in the episodes, then went and read about it, is the best, most exciting thing about Extra History. So thank you for that.

Extra History

Todd, thanks for weighing in! We did try, and that puts our minds to rest a little more. <3

Extra History

Dressed to impress!

Extra History

Spoiler in this sense is more of a shorthand for "that's a really long story, and trying to summarize it would butcher the narrative, so maybe some other time." ;)

Extra History

That was one of the prints we sold at PAX! The full image looked like this: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ExtraCredits/photos/pb.127295683982334.-2207520000.1442728809./1046874248691135/?type=1&theater" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/ExtraCredits/photos/pb.127295683982334.-2207520000.1442728809./1046874248691135/?type=1&theater</a>

Extra History

Thank you guys, awesome as always! What about that framed picture next to James? It looks really nice :P

Martin Ockovsky

You're afraid of spoiling the fourth crusade? It is rather difficult to spoil history

Michael Waisfeld

That's a nice shirt, James.

Matthew James Davis

Hey james. I'm a Catholic priest and though I would use different terminology, your understanding of indulgences is accurate. Nice job with the series!

Todd Carter

Bagrat.... hahaha

Tnert

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome video!!

Kathyrne

Also free labor. They could tell the peasants to go work on Church projects as penance without having to pay them. It's all about control.

Kathyrne

True, the notion that "Germany" is a thing, and that the Germans are a people, is really old, even if it certainly didn't mean the same thing as the modern idea of nation.

Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!

Second comment, to say how happy I am James mentioned Tancred as a cool guy. I'm not familiar with the historical Tancred, but I know him as a character in Torquato Tasso's Gierusalemme Liberata, the most epic of epic poems ever! And of course, the part about Tancred was set to music by my favorite composer, Monteverdi, in his madrigal "Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda". <a href="https://youtu.be/qtmO_ou1a-Y?t=2m36s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/qtmO_ou1a-Y?t=2m36s</a>

Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!

Great episode, great series. Could you do a series about the medieval kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia? Here's why I think it would make a great topic. When James mentioned Bagrat, Baldwin's advisor, being related to the Armenian kings, I was like "wait a sec, I thought the Bagratides (or Bagrationi) were from Georgia". So I checked, and it turns out the same dynasty reigned over both countries. I started reading some more stuff on Wikipedia, and the whole history of the Caucasus and of the Armenian and Georgian peoples looks suuuper complicated and super interesting. Like, throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle-East, there were monasteries of Georgian monks who specialised in translating books from all parts of the known world (even Buddhist writings!) and they were responsible for sharing so much of the old world's knowledge... and I stop here because I'm ranting, but in short I had no idea these countries had such a rich and complex past (sorry Armenians and Georgians!) and I feel it would be a great topic for Extra History.

Matt Lakits doesn't have the mental energy to update their Patreon name anymore, but still listens to every episode avidly!

Indulgences were mostly used for anything. The whole point behind them was to bring in a surplus of cash into the church so that they could more easily fund their construction efforts. You could also buy cardinals with indulgences as well, something not many people are aware of. So, didn't really matter what they were for, it was just a way of early crowd funding through guilt by the church pretty much.

Sean Sarff

Length was perfect! I know youtube says short videos are better but this was great!

Alex Wiens

Speaking as a Danish historian, which is to say right on the border of and deeply in the shadow of, Germany, I can't really agree that there wasn't a Germany in the middle ages. It's absolutely true that there wasn't a political entity known as Germany, but the region was known as Germany and the population was known as Germans. Sure, they were also Hessians, Bavarians, Holsteiners or whatever, but they were German as well. Chronicles from the lands surrounding Germany, as well as laws, tax records, preserved letters and so on, generally talk about Germany in pretty broad, sweeping terms when they didn't need to specify a specific principality.

Christina Maria Jessen

Speaking as a Danish historian, which is to say right on the border of and deeply in the shadow of, Germany, I can't really agree that there wasn't a Germany in the middle ages. It's absolutely true that there wasn't a political entity known as Germany, but the region was known as Germany and the population was known as Germans. Sure, they were also Hessians, Bavarians, Holsteiners or whatever, but they were German as well. Chronicles from the lands surrounding Germany, as well as laws, tax records, preserved letters and so on, generally talk about Germany in pretty broad, sweeping terms when they didn't need to specify a specific principality.

Christina Maria Jessen

From what I remember, regular confession keeps you from going to hell for eternity, but you still go to purgatory for a time. Also, some priests or other clergymen were either known to be malicious and scared away confessors or would outright refuse to give absolution to heinous crimes. Indulgences would give you a clean slate no matter what and send your soul straight to heaven as long as you maintain your state of grace.

Franz

I like how the "Lies" episode gets extra dramatic crusader music than the other episodes.

Paul Chicagocanus

Very good episode of Lies. I liked the introduction of questions and response to comments. Didn't mind the length at all :)

Mikkel Kaas

Why let a few lies get in the way of a good Extra History series?

Luna

I very much hope that future Crusades show up on the poll for future topics. Hugely enjoyed learning about the First Crusade.

Indigo