Today in History, the death of Olaf the Black

On today, May 21, we profile Olaf the Black, or Óláfr Guðrøðarson for three reasons. First, Olaf the Black died today 775 years ago. Second, we couldn't pass up profiling someone named ... "the Black". Third, we couldn't pass up profiling someone with so many odd characters in his name, Óláfr Guðrøðarson, out of 16 "letters" in his name, five are a pain in the but to type in English. Thus, we simply had to let everyone know about old Olaf.

Olaf was King of the Island of Mann (Isle of Man today), as well as territories on the Hebrides and the island of Lewis (present day Scotland) and other areas of modern Scotland and the U.K. Olaf had ties to Icelandic sources and Norway and are chronicled in both these countries vast histories, called sagas. Basically, Olaf was a viking, who spanned both the pagan and Christianization of the Vikings. His legacy at the time was as a lord of the Kingdom of the Isles, a kingdom made up of small islands in between Ireland and the modern day United Kingdom. His historical legacy though is as the father of a number of Scottish tribes, which is likely poppycock. Just like his famous sword, the Manx Sword of State, this tie to Olaf is probably mythological rather than factual.

The sword, though claiming to have belonged to Olaf, picked up sometime on a Christian pilgrimage to Spain, is likely to have been made in the 15th century, a few hundred years after the black had gone dark (died, for our readers not familiar with our heritage). Olaf though represents much of what the late viking age was. He was a raider that terrorized people all over the Atlantic. His journey to Spain, if it happened at all was probably an event that the contemporary Spanish didn't appreciate. It was probably accompanied by copious amounts of death, rape and plunder. But, in subsequent years it was turned into a pilgrimage where he visited the miracles of St. James (Santiago in Spanish). For me the Christian whitewashing of vikings is fascinating. It represents both a modern and historical ideal, that of a Christian warrior, a pious man that could still kick some booty. In many ways these Viking missionaries probably garnered the kind of fascination that early 20th century mob bosses get today in American pop culture. We idolize them for their lifestyles while simultaneously thanking God that we didn't have to survive their exploits. But, let's face it, the only reason I'm profiling him, aside from his terror inducing name, is because his exploits are worth noting nearly 800 years into the future and thus, 800 years into safety. Had I been writing this blog 800 years ago I likely would have profiled Hrolf, the farmer that lived on one of Olaf's isles because Hrolf posed to me no danger. Since though I'm nearly 810 years younger than Olaf, I can think he's cool. Had he been my contemporary I'd like to have thought him a bully, or worse a dictator to be feared. But this is the beauty of history. We can relive terrifying events in Hollywood cinemas and enjoy the historicity and dramatic elements of the story. And since we don't actually have to face the sword that inspired the impostor that is the Sword of Manx, we can enjoy the debate of what is historical and what is dramatic. Methinks that if I had told Olaf that I doth beleiveth his sword to be of dubious origin, my head might have been wrest from me shoulders.

On this day in History, The Battle of Rovine

The highly unstable region of Wallachia (modern day Romania) grew out of a rebellion against the first king of Hungary sometime in the late 13th, early 14th century. This independence was all fine and dandy but they found themselves in the middle of constant competition for land. The Hungarians, the Serbian Empire, the Bulgarians, the encroaching Ottomans and even the decrepit Byzantines were all players in the area. But at the time of the Battle of Rovine, May 17, 1395, Wallachia was about as stable as she was ever going to get, under the good care of the Warlord Mircea the Elder. But, the good warlord had managed to enrage the Ottoman Empire by aiding the Christian Hungarians against the Muslim Turks.

Well, Sultan Bayezid I wasn't too thrilled with this and took up 40,000 men and impressed 8,000 or so Serbian vassals to go up into Wallachia to teach Mircea a lesson. Mircea was able only to muster 10,000 troops so he avoided open conflict for awhile until the jig was up on May 17. The battle was fought along the banks of the Argeș River in Southern Romania in a spot where the numbers game wouldn't absolutely hobble the overmatched Wallachians. As the Ottomans and Serbs advanced, the Wallachians unleashed a hail of arrows that decimated Ottoman lines. After another hail of arrows the Wallachian cavalry came in and caused mass panic. Some of the Ottomans fled over the Danube to the south. The most powerful lord of the Serbs at the time, Marko Mrnjavčević was killed in battle. But, many Wallachian troops were lost in the fighting. While the Ottomans and Serbs were thoroughly routed, the undermanned Mircea was forced to flea Wallachia after the battle. The Ottomans were able to install an usurper to throne named Vlad Uzurpatorul (I'll let you guess what Uzurpatorul means...). Within three years time Mircea was able, with the backing of the Hungarians to crush Vlad and retake Wallachia. During his reign over Wallachia, Mircea consistently stopped the onslaught of Ottomans crossing the Danube. And, at a time of political turmoil in the Ottoman Empire, teamed up with some fellow Christians and actually marched into Ottoman territory. At the height of his power, Mircea was actually able to install his candidate as a co-Sultan of the Ottomans. For all of his success against the Empire though, Mircea was wise and made peace, ensuring the independence of Wallachia for a short spell.

Michele Mercati & The Mighty Mighty Thunderstones

Have you heard the new album by Michele Mercati & The Mighty Mighty Thunderstones? It's an awesome new ska-swing band that blends classical trombone and French horn melodies to produce a deceptive cadence and then rush in with guitar accelerando to create stretto effects that are truly breathtaking.

I'm completely making this up. Michele Mercati is not the frontman to a ska-swing band, but if I had been a bit more musically inclined in the mid 1990's I could have rode the wave of Ska to the top with a band name like Michele Mercati & The Mighty Mighty Thunderstones. We could have toured with Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. If we were good enough, we could've maybe opened for the Squirrel Nut Zippers!!!

Leafs from the Metallotheca showing
Mercati's skill at drawing natural history.

Now that I've wasted your time with that, we'll go ahead and discuss Michele Mercati and the thunderstones we briefly mentioned on the Mesolithic Podcast. Mercati was an Italian physician that ran the Vatican Botanical Gardens in the 16th Century. He probably did a good job at attending the plants, but frankly that doesn't interest me in the slightest. His work with thunderstones is what whets my whistle.  He had access to a trove of data, which we take for granted today, but at the time would have given him special privilege to conduct research. So he popped his head into the wunderkammer that had all these thunderstones. A wunderkammer is a "Cabinet of Curiosities" that contained cool stuff that was unclassified and un-categorized. They were popular in the Renaissance. But, Mercati was wandering around through wunderkammer and decided that these stone items that looked like tools and decided that they were in fact tools. He proposed that these tools weren't made of metal because primitive man hadn't discovered metallurgy. This breakthrough helped anthropological studies immensely and got the ball rolling on our modern study of the subject.

It seems pretty obvious today that these items were tools. But, the reason this was such a breakthrough in the 16th century was that these items were thought to be thunderstones. Basically, the rocks they found all over Europe that had indentions on them were thought to have occurred naturally through lightning strikes. This assuaged enough of man's curiosity for the time and the thought stuck around. But, as more and more of these items were being gathered to a place of learned men, this folklore answer wasn't going to last long. Mercati died before his work was published, but his book, Metallotheca had enough good stuff in it to warrant a printing over a hundred years after he died.

On this day in History...

On May 11, 1498 the Friar Girolamo Savonarola was excommunicated by the Pope Alexander VI for disobedience. Savonarola was born in 1452, in Ferrara. In 1475 a religiously convicted Savonarola left the wold he had contempt for and joined the Dominican Order. While in Bologna, he became well versed in Scriptures, Logic, the Classics and Aristotelian, Thomistic theology and philosophy. When he wasn't dedicating his time to studying he was showing his reformist tendencies, rabble-rousing the Bologna Dominicans about their loosening rules. He wanted strict asceticism and criticized his superiors for not staying on this path. It could have been the annoyance of his superiors that led him to a placement away from Bologna to go back to Ferrara to do some administrative work. When that assignment was up he opted to go to Florence, rather than return to Bologna. It was in Florence where his fiery reformist proposals would eventually lead to his excommunication, torture and hanging.

He arrived in Florence in 1490 and became an instant hit when he preached. He railed against tyrants and their allies, the rich who exploited the poor. Using apocryphal language and backing his social and political views with I John and the Book of Revelation, his blend of populist preaching and sharp rhetoric earned him a name among the poor and enmity among the elite. Around 1493 he really began to turn up the heat and started to profess to have received visions and prophecies about a new Cyrus bringing the sword of the Lord. A year later it seemed as if the prophecy was coming true. King Charles VIII of France crossed the Alps and through the Italian peninsula into a tail spin.

Charles VIII marched onto Florence and briefly occupied the city after booting out the powerful Medici family who was ruling it at the time. Savonarola however had intense negotiations with the king that led France to continue their march south. A whole sack of cash promised by Savonarola might have helped Charles VIII in this decision. Savonarola preached a new Florence, one that was powerful and the center of a new empire of reforming the Church. He predicted spiritual and temporal riches, glory and might. So, now, a de facto an ally of Charles VIII it was no surprise when Pope Alexander VI sent Savonarola a letter demanding that Florence join the papacy in the war against the heretic Charles VIII that Savonarola decided not to oblige. The Pope excommunicated Savonarola.

With the threat of an interdict hanging over the heads of the Florentines, Savonarola was forced to back off the public stage. A rival suggested that Savonarola prove his prophecies, visions and spiritual mettle by walking through fire. When this didn't happen, public opinion turned against Savonarola. After this whole debacle Savonarola was arrested. While imprisoned he was tortured and he recanted his visions and prophecies. A few days later he was hanged.

The legacy of Savonarola however, is far reaching. His works were admired by Martin Luther, especially his thoughts on love and grace. Luther declared that he was a precursor and kindred thinker on Luther's revolutionary ideal of justification by faith alone. His works and sermons were translated into French and became a building block in the coming Huguenot reform. His political thinking and prophecy/vision thoughts were whitewashed a bit by the Dominicans and they revered him for his reformist zeal. Then much later, his puritanical bent was whitewashed and his political leanings were revived by the Il Risorgimento, leading to the Italian Unification in the 19th century. Savorna's teaching were used in at least two Italian political party formations in the 20th century albeit, tempered to fit their needs, but mostly focusing on his ideas of social justice. Today, the Catholic Church is considering him beatification. Not a bad little legacy you've got there.

On this day in European history...

Medieval depiction of the battle.

On this day in we'll focus on the Battle of Fontenoy. Not the later battle fought during the War of the Austrian Succession, but the earlier battle fought by the grandsons of Charlemagne. The battle during the War of the Austrian Succession was fought on May 11, 1745 and would be the obvious selection for this day in history. The earlier battle was actually fought on June 25, 841 and wouldn't necessarily qualify for the exact "On this day history" criteria, but this battle was far more interesting to research and so I'll relate it here rather than on June 25th which was already slated for a different historical occurence. I don't have to be exact. This is my blog and I'll do as I please, thank you very much!

Lothair I

Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious had ruled the inherited empire of his father seemingly well enough, but as he was getting on in age he decided to dole out his territories to his sons in keeping up with Frankish law rather than the eldest one getting the whole shebang. But, in keeping with many Medieval cultures (and ancient ones' too) Louis gave his sons co-ruler status while he was still alive.

Louis the German

Lothair, Louis' eldest son was given the title of Emperor of the Romans and King of Italy by his pops. His full brother Louis the German was given the title of King of Bavaria. Their half brother, Charles the bald was given Western Francia to rule over. Lothair and Louis the German decided that their half-brother had no claim to rule and decided to go to war with their father and Charles the Bald over the latter's promotion to rule. They fought three separate civil wars to show their dismay at Charles getting some territory. But, in the end Charles the Bald would have a chance to rule as Louis the Pious would beat down his two sons in battle. But, eventually Louis the Pious would pass away and after he did, all hell broke loose. Lothair decided he had had enough of his brothers and decided to try and take over the whole kingdom of Charlemagne and claimed it for himself. Louis the German and Charles the Bald balked at this assertion of dominance and war broke out amongst the brothers.

Charles the Bald

The war between the brothers was brutal and the Battle of Fontenoy was decisive in nature. Lothair brought in his nephew, Pepin II, King of Aquitaine and Gerard II, Count of Paris. Louis the German and Charles the Bald were able to muster about the same number of troops as their older brother Lothair through their barons. The battle started off well for Lothair as Pepin's troops pushed back the forces of Charles the Bald. But, the troops of Lothair started to lose ground to the men of Louis the German. As Lothair's men got beaten back further and further the troops of Bernard of Septimania decided that the victors would be Louis the German and Charles the Bald. He entered the fray and turned the victory into a rout. Lothair would retreat from battle, but on his way back to his capital of Aachen in modern Germany, Lothair would pillage and plunder and grab a whole bunch of treasure. If he wasn't going to rule all of Charlemagne's kingdom he was going to take as much of its wealth as he could. He lost the battle and the chance to rule like Charlemagne. Charles the Bald and Louis the German retained the rights to their kingdoms, but Charles the Bald would find that he had a rather impoverished kingdom to look after. And that's what happened on this day in history, sort of...

The Ruins of Dmanisi

Dmanisi. We've heard it here before on the podcast, episode 2 here when we discussed the remains of Georgie, (Homo erectus georgicus to those who have sophisticated degrees). We profiled Georgie on the post Twiggy & Georgie, which you can get to by checking out the other Georgia tags over there on the right. Go ahead. Click them. I'll wait.

However, the town itself has a bit of an interesting tale that we'd like to relate to you. Dmanisi seems to have been occupied by modern human beings as early as the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age episodes are coming in the following weeks so don't fret too much over this. But the historical record of Dmanisi comes into focus when the town was controlled by the Emirate of Tbilisi. Today, Georgia is predominately a nation of Christians and rightly so, considering that the legend tells us that the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Church was founded by none other than Andrew, the brother of Peter mentioned a time or two in the Bible. But, Christians did not found Emirates, usually. Emirates were founded by Muslim rulers. The Emirate of Tbilisi was no different.

The Arab conquest and domination of Eastern Georgia lasted from around 736 AD through 1122 AD. During this time the city of Tbilisi became a Muslim hot spot in the surrounding Christian territory. So a Muslim minority ruled a Christian majority. But, it was backed up by the massively influential Seljuq Dynasty that the 1st Crusade took major issue with. The Seljuq Turks would control the area around Dmanisi until around 1122 when King David the Builder liberated the city from Turkish control.

David the Builder is an intriguing fellow. He was a hawkish warrior, often seeking out battle with the Muslims in Georgia. He successfully ousted the Muslims in a serious of battles like the ones at Didgori, Shirvan and lastly in Dmanisi. Dmanisi was the last stand of the Seljuq Turks in the area. David the Builder made Georgia the overlord of the Caucuses. In spite of his prowess in war he gave birth to a son who would become a poet. Ironies of irony what things hath thou wrought!

The successors of David obviously focused more on their poetry than war because after a few hundred years Dmanisi was conquered by the Turco-Mongol Armies of Timur, whose progeny would go on to found the highly influential Mughal Dynasty. In 1486 the Turkomans would eventually have enough of this little city and razed it to the ground. Dmanisi would never recover and declined to the point of being nothing more than a tiny little village a full hundred and fifty years before Georgie's remains were found.

So there you have it, the extremely concise history of Dmanisi. It was once a stomping ground of Homo erectus, then an bronze age settlement, then an arab outpost, then a medieval Georgian commercial center and then a heap of ashes laid waste by the marauding Turkomans. Not a bad little history for a largely forgotten corner of South central Georgia.

The Duplicitous Dubrovnikians

Today, I was in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. First, allow me to plug this delightful seaside town. Cabarete is among my favorite places that I have ever been. Even then it is a bit of a backwater, it is incredibly cosmopolitan. I stayed at the Kite Beach Inn, which was unbelievably affordable, well kept and fantastically run. The place is owned by someone from Chicago, but currently run by an Italian couple and they were delightful. We stayed there for two nights for under $65 in an air conditioned room. It is among the best places I've stayed in Cabarete. The only drawback is to the hotel is that it is a bit removed from the center of the town where our favorite places are. However, because of its boonies status, we found this incredible breakfast nook next to the Dare2fly Kite School. The breakfast nook was run by a Yugoslavian refugee that fled to the Dominican Republic after she and her family fled Belgrade after a bombing in 2000. 

The breakfast was excellent. It was the first good bagel I've had since I was in Brooklyn in 2011. As we were leaving the place though I mentioned that I might be going on a honeymoon to Split, Croatia because of its history. She however suggested that we go to Dubrovnik, as it was in her estimation, one of the most gorgeous cities in the world. Interested, I checked the place out and saw that it had a fascinating history. So without further ado, here is the brief history of Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is currently a Croatian city on the Adriatic coast. There are a couple of theories as to when it was founded. The older theory suggests that it was founded sometime in the 7^th century AD by some refugees. However, another theory suggests that the city is much older and was founded sometime prior to the BC/AD switchover by Greek sailors who would have likely made it a port between two other Greek settlements in the area, Budva and Korčula. This alternate theory is boosted by the presence of a Byzantine basilica from the 8^th century that was large enough to suggest that Dubrovnik was quite populous in its time. It would have been unlikely to grow so rapidly in an hundred years to warrant such a large church.

If the latter theory is to be believed the ancient Greek settlement would have fallen into the hands of the Roman Empire during the conquest of Dalmatia and then became part of the Ostrogothic kingdom upon the fall of the Western Empire. From there it seems to have been protected by the Byzantine Empire in the east and grew to a respectable maritime power in the region. But, another more famous maritime power decided that this little city could not be allowed to grow into a more serious threat. Venice began as early as 948 AD, though with no success. Venice wouldn’t give up on this though and eventually took over the city and its lands in 1205 during the fourth crusade.

Venice ruled over Dubrovnik for about 150 years. When the city finally broke free they became the Republic of Ragusa. Being a smallish kingdom they searched for a big brother to keep them safe. This led them into the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Ragusa remained free, but paid some cash to the Ottomans for protection. This fended off the Venetians. It also paid off some dividends. Ragusa got special trade permissions in the Ottoman Empire and did all of the Ottoman’s business along the Adriatic Sea. The Republic became quite wealthy and was a viable alternative and fierce rival of Venice.

It was after it broke free from Venice when it tried its hands at the double game, playing both sides against the middle. Dubrovnik looked initially to the Hungarians for some muscle to back them up. Then, to make sure that Venice wouldn’t try any of its old tricks, the Republic of Ragusa cozied up to the Ottoman Empire, declaring their allegiance to the Sultan. This arrangement worked well for a while, but as the Ottomans pushed to far into Europe it made the Hapsburgs quite cantankerous. The Austrians got their crew together, including Venice and began to push back. For a little while the duplicitous Dubrovnikians found themselves paying homage both the Emperor of Austria and the Sultan of the Ottomans. After the Austrians and their allies defeated the Ottomans and the Ottomans had to give up a large chunk of their eastern European holdings Venice began to make a power play at Ragusa. Venice began to grab up all the land surrounding the republic, which would have given them a chance to attack Ragusa from both land and sea. But, Dubrovnik played another master stroke, giving some of their land to the defeated Ottomans to build a buffer between themselves and Venice. As much as the Austrians loved to quarrel with the Ottomans they weren’t about to start a new war so that Venice could snuff out their old rivals.

The double-dealings of the Ragusans could not save them forever though. After the end of the Austrian – Ottoman conflict simmered down a bit, the rest of Europe decided to duke it out over the 1700s. Ragusa however decided to stay neutral. They used their neutrality to trade between enemies and this somehow worked really well. Until of course Napoleon came along and screwed everything up for everyone. Napoleon pushed down into the Balkans and began to gobble up all of the cities and forts along the way. The Russians who were in the area came up to Dubrovnik and asked to use their very defensible city against the onslaught of Napoleon’s forces. Ragusa balked and the Russians besieged the city. But, it would be the French who eventually occupied the city. Dubrovnik would become a big fish in a small pond as a part of the Illyrian Provinces of the French Empire. But, Napoleon would have his Waterloo, which for Napoleon actually was Waterloo and the Republic of Ragusa would be folded into the Austrian-Hungarian Empire as the Kingdom of Dalmatia. The Hapsburgs decided however that Dubrovnik had been a seat of power for long enough. The capital of the newly created puppet kingdom would be Zadar. Dubrovnik would fall out of fashion and a number of the city’s noble families would move away. Dubrovnik would last in the Austrian Empire until 1918 when it was transferred into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. This little political experiment wouldn’t last and the city would become a part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia would go from kingdom to socialist republic to bloody civil war and in the end, Dubrovnik would wind up being in the modern state of Croatia.