King Henry VIII famously ran into a world of problems trying to get out of his numerous marriages. And interestingly, we can find a similar story of royal marital strife all the way back in the ninth-century - during the reign of Lothar II. When this Carolingian ruler tried to divorce his wife, Theutberga, he ran headlong into a clash with the pope. Professor Charles West explains the story to David Musgrove and reveals what it can tell us about how power, politics and passions were intertwined in the ninth century.
(Ad) Charles West is the author of The Fall of a Carolingian Kingdom: Lotharingia 855-869 (University of Toronto Press, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fall-Carolingian-Kingdom-Lotharingia-855-869/dp/1487545169/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Second Barons’ War: everything you wanted to know
Renaissance eugenics
The First Crusade | 2. On the road
1960s Britain: smashing the status quo?
Life of the week Trailer
Disney at 100
Weimar Germany: everything you wanted to know
Slave traders: the men who built a brutal empire
The First Crusade Trailer
The First Crusade | 1. The call to arms
Re-examining women in the Roman empire
History Behind the Headlines Trailer
Is black history still being overlooked?
Cat history: everything you wanted to know
The Huxleys: how one family shaped our view of nature
Great Reputations: Gandhi
The Cultural Revolution: a Chinese catastrophe
The brutal WW2 battle for Italy
David Mitchell on a new history of England’s monarchy
Archaeology’s golden age: everything you wanted to know
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Gone Medieval
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Not Just the Tudors
American History Hit
Empire