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Hell on Earth - Episode 3: KINGS (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-25 12:01:00
Edited:
2025-08-19 18:34:32
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

The royal dynasties of Europe strain to confront reformation, centralization and modernization in their own distinct ways as we bring them up to the eve of the Thirty Years War.

Interactive atlas, bibliography and credits for the series can be found at: hellonearth.chapotraphouse.com

Files

Comments

Shauna Seroquel

Yes!!! I've literally been checking for this to drop every time I've woken up to tinkle. 😻😻😻

Middleton

HERE. WE. GO. Can't wait to join you all in hell next Wednesday.

Sharilyn Neidhardt

I have already learned SO MUCH from this podcast - thank you x a million!

Gubriel

Great live show, sorry about the drunk man behind me who was yelling and heckling, I turned around and gave him some glares but his glassy eyes saw nothing wherever they turned

Connor

Listening to this on a train through Osnabrück, where the peace of Westphalia was signed. So that’s kinda fun.

Jon W

Matt and Chris edging us into the 30 Years War.

Erik Bourre

Yesssssssssssssssss. Im fcking edging

Of course

The set up for this episode (the Protestants came to build the Kingdom of God on Earth, but only succeeded in unleashing Hell on Earth) sounds like every liberal/conservative take on Communists (they came to liberate humanity but left only civil war, famines, and gulags in their wake).

Paco

I clap like a seal whenever they mention the name of the series

J Vladcliff

Another great one guys! I fucking love this

Blorst of times

Best miniseries since streetfight’s shocktober

drewb

Boy, catholics are an absolute nightmare. Let's hope these protestants are a bit more sensible and level-headed

JN

Live show was great. This is great. Thank you for the slop.

Arjun Jayaraman

The theme music is so good. Starting out with harpsichord and ending with 🎸.

Patrick Burke

Can’t get enough of this. Anyone have any more obscure YouTube or anything else recommendations where I can get more about this time period?

C. Ries

That’s because people like this have always existed. The Conflict of the Orders in Ancient Rome, the peasants revolt in Germany, the Protestant Reformation and eventually the Jacobins and Marxists are all manifestations of the same oppressed social force.

C. Ries

It kind of owns that all the dead Amerindians helped cause the final rending of the premodern social order in Europe. Karma is actually scientific because causality exists.

Of course

Yeah, I went right for, "Hey Chapo, don't be so 'tragic hopelessness of human agency, progress is impossible' reactionary..." But you always risk that conclusion when you compare historical periods.

Jonathan Szerszen

Matt just can't stop winning folks, we love to see it 👏👏👏

Jonathan Szerszen

And Chris, it's just as much his podcast as Matt's, they both contribute so much to how great this thing is. Absolutely loving it and learning

etienne

funny to have two guys named Chris and Christman talk about protestant reformation so much

calvin kilby

If you ain't dutch you ain't much

calvin kilby

It's more illuminating to describe this process as class struggle, especially when you consider the oppression from above because that too is also a form of class struggle, only waged by the haves against the have-nots

Jon Spiegler

Wedgwood Thirty Years War is a hundred years old but insanely readable/ listenable

Do Golems Dream of Ceramic Sheep

also, fun fact, the period of lower solar activity, or at least the dearth of sun spots, overlaps basically exactly with the reign of Louis XIV (Le Roi Soleil)¹. All things considered l'm gonna call that one a Proddy W. Fine the Sun King had a spotless sun, but the Sun King also had a weaker sun. [1] https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:8288411 (Only the abstract is in the link, but basically every paper on the Maunder Minimum points this out).

Matty C

3 On Reeks

d'egg

The music for this series slaps

Norman X. Picklestein

You say you don't really understand the economics of this time period, so let me offer a few corrections: - The "price revolution" was really just a big bout of inflation. Importing a shit-ton of silver from the New World is basically the closest thing that the Spanish economy could do to printing money since -- guess what -- silver was the basis of currency of the time! When you have a huge increase in the money supply and basically no increase in production (since we're talking about a stagnant feudal economy here) you will get the exchange value of that money falling, aka inflation. - The development of serfdom in Eastern Europe in this period was not a process of the decline of serfdom being arrested, but rather was an imposition of serfdom where it had never existed before. Hence the name (thanks to Engels) "second serfdom." Before the feudal reaction that started ~1400 or so Eastern Europe had possessed one of Europe's freest peasantries. - 1602 / the founding of the VOC can not be characterized as the birth of capitalism, but might be more properly portrayed as a concentrated expression of feudalism. The VOC (and other similar ventures) were merchants that made their money from buying cheap in one place and selling dear in another. Their business was crucially premised on being granted monopoly trading rights, i.e., calling on the state to suppress competition from other firms. The development of capitalism is, in part, a process of *eroding* these monopoly merchant trading rights so free trade can actually take root. (The merchants are not unusual in seeking monopoly rights from the state; many other feudal actors e.g. guilds did the same.) - Lastly, and most importantly, capitalism first emerged in England as a result of the changing social-property relationships in the agrarian economy. It had nothing to do with the Thirty Years War and, in fact, the TYW only was a blow to a Continental European economy that was feudal both before and after its occurrence. (I reiterate the pleas of other commenters in previous weeks to familiarize yourselves with the work of the leading expert on this subject, Robert Brenner.) If you guys need any pointers / references, I would be happy to help, as someone studying this stuff currently.

Ian H

I'm pretty sure all the episodes have been recorded already.

Antipaganda

This is fan-bloody tastic!

Slamp

Just curious: do y'all think that the Spanish fall from economic and political power was somewhat predestined due to their centuries long war of reclamation of the Iberian peninsula from the caliphates? I'm a little blurry on the details of that time period in Spain. How much did it hamper the development of the urban burgher class and the development of economically independent tradesmanship positions within Spain as a whole?

Slamp

I mean I deeply understand how stupid it was for Phillip to commit so thoroughly to religious war, but how much of that was him just looking at the material conditions around him and going "what else can I do motherfuckers? My power base is the church."

Karlo Houwen

BLIDENSTURM 😂 het is beeldenstorm

Slamp

Also... Did the black death of the fourteenth century have the same impact on rural nobles that it did in much of central Europe? Specifically, did it drastically turn the landlord-serf relationship into a landlord-tenant relationship the way it did in, say, German and French lands?

KIDBOOYA420

Keep up the good pod Mr. Chapo

Darius Arian

I love your show with Nick Mullen. Thanks for the laughs!

eijy

They did point out that the VOC was not the birth of capitalism, and that that was gonna take place in England.

Ian H

To your first question, I believe that was touched on in a Cushvlog a while back where he discussed Lachmann's First Class Passengers On a Sinking Ship. As paraphrased/remembered the answer was yes, the slow, regionally contested reconquest devolved a ton of power to the warrior aristocracy who were also heavily indebted to Genoa, causing them to successfully resist the central authority of the crown and hamstring the development of domestic banking in Seville.

Pierce

YOU guys are the real KINGS

etienne

the Spanish owning themselves by creating inflation out of thin air is one of my absolute alltime historical fuckup. it's almost as if ... currency was a method of resource allocation, not actual resources

bruce

Raise up your glass for good king john

Jason McGuire

These rule, fit right into the Mike Duncan sized hole in my brain

leonard

you guys are fuckin killing it with this series. will always tune into chris and matt history productions

matt davis

Fantastic job with this series. "street fighting" history with you guys is always a pleasure

T

Radio war nerd had an episode drawing a parallel between 17th century Spain and 21st c USA.

Mitch H.

Now on tour. Hell on Ice.

Kyle Petty

I love the show, not going to pretend I know their production schedule or what it takes to produce something like this but I do wish they'd released the first 3 at the same time or even all of them at once. I just feel like a podcast isn't the same experience as a TV show, especially when it comes to a dense history podcast where all the episodes build on top of each other, it'd be more enjoyable having the whole season (or the 3 prologue eps) and then being able to relisten. It's just a denser media format and source material so I don't think the weekly releases is as effective.i could just be a greedy piggy as well 🤷

Neil Y

The Reconquista was in many ways a proto-Colonialism. You ask an interesting question, but asking if the Reconquista contributed to the fall of the Spanish Empire would be to ignore that it directly contributed to the rise of the empire. Perhaps the answer is still yes; that the habits, systems, and ideologies that grew out of the Reconquista doomed Spain to be capitalism-adverse from the start. But as has been mentioned in this show, the Colonialism brought about by the Iberians was essential to the funding and development of of the proto-Capitalism in Europe. Perhaps Spain had to walk so the Dutch and English could run. I don't know for certain but that would be my answer to your question.

Luke Metzler

This series is so incredible. Thank you so much for this excellently sourced historical overview with a materialist framework.

Michelle

Any of y’all know a lot about how the Puritans were actually batshit crazy and were sent to The New World to get them out of sight? I loathe how these wackos are praised in the US and still pervade way too areas of our current lives.

G

do you know which ep that was? very interested

T

I think it would be funny and cool if they hired a frenchman, a german, a spaniard, etc. just to come on the show to teach them how to pronounce these names. We could listen to Matt practising how to say "Armada" instead of "Marmada".

jay bone

De Guise these nuts

Julie Baxter

Enjoy seeing "history" unfold as a series of accidents and fuck-ups!

Marcus Stove

Matt and Chris should make history podcasts forever and ever. This hog needs more slop.

Major bit me

Recently I had to grow a spine and take care of some stuff that was seriously stressing me out, and then the thought crossed my mind that if neurotic, ugly, constipated failson could stand in front of the universal monarch and talk shit, then I would be fine

Kyle Petty

That's weird I had an email that somebody had told me to beat my head with a brick for 3 weeks but that isn't showing up... Damn I'm always open to new advice 🤣

Boaz Corey

Matt groaning "Fraaaaaance" made me laugh harder than I have in at least 48 hours.

T

RWN episode 314. Enjoy!

Ben

Not me dancing to the Jingle

Jerry

Kangz

Khemith

That person is a prophet.

etienne

all I was saying is that you could pretend they dropped 3 eps at once by waiting 3 weeks, but then I deleted because whatever who cares

Justin Comer

hey my music is in this one (39:20)

Justin R

Mmm nutritious slop

Steve Seal

Any chance y'all will post your script/notes to facilitate following along? This shit is awesome but very dense.

Max Harris

MATT SAID THE THING HE SAID IT

Chae Heuer

The Wilhelm Scream when they talk about a sword plunging into someone’s mouth is hilarious.

Mark Kreitz

So well done. All aspects

Brock Landers

incredible media, thanks for the great work fellas

Holton Grossl

Anyone watched “The Serpent Queen”? I had to pause it at the mention of Catherine De Medici’s flying squadron of sex spies and see what that was all about and I guess there’s a recent and decently rated tv series about that very subject.

Jim Prosser

Give me an animated version where Chris is Sherman and Matt is Mr. Peabody. That’s what I picture in my head every episode. (Loving the project, lads.)

Dr. Ron Jambo

Now that you've mentioned the Gevena Psalter – which I didn't expect – it occurred to me the hit songwriter Martin Luther would also have been a good subject for Ep. 1. But I guess we can't have it all. We have a lot as it is.

Thomas Mullane

I'm sure it's already been said, but DJ airborne after each stupid truce and edict really says everything about why I'm so excited to listen for these as soon as they come out. Well done guys.

Colin Taylor

God this shit fucking rocks I need them to do all of history like this

Ahmed Razick

France is when you hate someone so much you'd ally with heretic.

PJA II

An era of the shredding of thin global alliances and rampant religious fervor. Sounds similar to another age we live in…lol

S W

Ellen Harold

Those were made for Marie de Medici, wife of Henri IV, I thought.

Ellen Harold

The Gallician church was the result of the Pope’s gratitude to Francis I his help in the Italian wars of the early 16th c.

Ellen Harold

It was the Huguenots who wrote pamphlets saying it was ok to kill unjust kings— after the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. But the Catholics copied them. The Huguenots also became fans of republican government. You kind of glossed over the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, a pivotal event of enormous importance. The Protestants destroyed property—priceless statues—the Catholics killed Protestants. (Elizabeth refused to come to the aid of Protestants in Europe. She talked a good game.)

Mauve_Avenger

"Queen Soandso died without issue..." Great! No better way to go! 😜😜😜😜😜

Greg Lizza

Did the church ( or religion) fill the role of “law enforcement” ?? Is that what the church was really doing ?? Was it just constraining the behavior of the peasants much like the modern system of “law” constrains our behavior ??

Jillian Summer

so far i have listened to each episode twice. really well done, guys, having an awesome time listening to this series.

Dr. Ron Jambo

You gotta listen twice though b/c it's way too fast and dense for human consumption. At first listen I find myself adding commas and periods with the space bar.

kenton

it's my lived experience that this episode is too dense for dumb guys

Mark Kobzik

Anyone pick up on Matt’s 30 rock reference? The man can’t help himself

Ellen Harold

There was no separation between Church and state. The Monarch was the head of the church appointed by God. To criticize either was the equivalent of blasphemy— a crime against God. Heretics were regarded as traitors, for whom no punishment was too severe.

Michael lefsky

Hell on earth is exceeding my stratospheric expectations. Listening twice but it's a pleasure

Jared Adams

Loving this series. But I'm a massive history nerd so of course I do. Moar please.

Aura

Wait what about herring covered in sigils?? Where can I find more about that google doesn’t say anything

snafujesus

Again, love the content, but I wish for fewer asides breaking into the middle of paragraph-long sentences tracing out obscure historical figures who all have the same name. Maybe my brain is tired but this isn’t helping.

SparkSolidarity

That's how history is, though; you can't understand the full picture without having the entire complicated series of events laid out. No one ever said history was easy to understand, nor would it be easy to explain that history without a bunch of run-on sentences and obscure facts.

Ellen Harold

The French Wars of Religion 1559–1598 by R.J. Knecht (1989–1996), Longmans Group, is also very good at about 150pp

Aaron Lazar

Listened like three and a half times

Conner

“That’s why you want a spare” a spare heir lmao

Hall wingfield

No they comprised the intellectual and spiritual institution that gave the ruling classes their legitimacy. While exceptions exist, they were less often the guys stomping your face in and more often the guys saying that getting your face stomped in was right and good actually, you nasty little heretic

James Proulx

I also watched the Orsen Welles narrated "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow" a number of times as a child. Very cool and creepy shit.

JV

still less confusing than the trueanon utah episodes

Big Paul of Philly

This inspired me to start an euiv reformed france save

Ellen Harold

What you say may be true, but the riots were committed by lay people, egged on by secular authorities, in many cases. I'm not taking sides here.

Jesse DeStasio

Just watched the film Queen Margot (fantastic film) and had to come back and relisten to this.

Moji A.

Does añyone know how one can listen to the theme music?

Camden

Is there a list of stuff read for the series? Would like to read more on the Dutch relationship with Eastern European estates. Read wallerstein on this but would like more.

BT

I'm trying to figure out where the reference to Finns experiencing apocalyptic visions comes from - would love to know more!

Jason Scardamalia

I doubt you got any props for the incredible opening… tense riser into “ON” Brilliant

burpdizzle

Hell on Earth Whose necks are gonna be first? The projects is front line And the enemy is one-time I ain't gotta tell you It's right in front of your eyes

Christine Pizan

actually coligny was killed by the retainers of the duke of anjou and duke of guise i think characterising henri iii as an oaf is a bit unfair, that reflects pre 1980s scholarship, but he has been completely re-evaluated since then by specialists of the period (i would recommend le roux, bouchard, chevallier's work on him) the notion that the massacre of saint bartholomew was premeditated has been dead in the scholarship for over 100 years interestingly by 1598 henri had alienated many of his prime noble protestant backers from his earlier years (turenne, thouars etc.) who were disgusted by the favour he showed to his former catholic league noble enemies (like mayenne, brissac etc.) the league never offered the crown to philip ii, there were negotiations in 1593 at the league estates general and the spanish proposed marrying philips daughter (a descendant of henri ii) first to duke ernesto von habsburg (which all but the hardline parisian leagueres were horrifed by), and then to the young duke of guise, however henri iv's conversion to catholicism killed the momentum of the estates general

Gubriel

ok Mr. Correct Historical facts is here to harsh the vibe

Christine Pizan

ms. correct historical facts, thank you very much

Robbie H.

Okay melting down your enemies cannon, then forming that into a statue of you trampling them and putting it in their city is some King shit. I like this guy.

Ryan O

Snap

Luke S

What kind of scumbag would kill a saint smh

John

The guys are saying that the dutch east india company was the birth of capitalism. Was trading along the silk road not considered capitalism ?

Brent Buckley

No. Capitalism consists of the social relations we recognize in our modern world. It is not simply trade.

Brent Buckley

Also, I'd hesitate to label any single event the "birth of capitalism". History doesn't really work like that, as much as our stupid monkey brains want it to.

John

Thanks for the reply. What are these social relations or where can i read more on this topic ?

s

Late reply, but if you google marxist theory of labour, or look on youtube for Prof. Richard Wolf explaining Marxism , you should find the kind of definition of capitalism that this podcast uses in this context.

Michael

Maybe I missed it, but did they ever explain why the Italian city-states didn’t embrace Protestantism? They propose that the Catholic/Protestant divide is largely a matter of material interests and economic conditions, but weren’t the 15 th century Italian city states financial hubs with significantly urbanized populaces ( guilds, textiles, banking etc)? If so, why did they remain Catholic — proximity to Vatican?

Aj Champigny

On Dead Dogs, beet money I've ever spent on patreon without seein' tiddies

The Children of Jack Acid

I think the whole point of this podcast is that the 30 Years' War is the birth of capitalism? Or at least it's its placenta. Or its parents' marriage bed.

Marxist-Swoletarianist

I imagine it was a combination of many different factors with geography being a major one. Germany having Martin Luther himself was a huge deal too since he translated the Bible into a vernacular German that was able to spread through Germany’s easily navigable network of rivers and printing presses in a way that couldn’t be done in the more mountainous northern Italy (and even southern Germany, with Bavaria and Austria famously remaining Catholic) where city-states were less connected. I’d also suspect that any nascent Protestant movements were unable to gain traction in the environment of constant warfare between varying Catholic entities (France, Spain, Austria, Papal States, etc).

WyattM

Honestly this is a great question. It's not covered in the episode, a definitely interesting omission. I don't think the italian city-state exception at all invalidates the argument that the hosts lay out, but it is for sure the most interesting exception. It might be as simple as stating that the proto-capitalist city states where already so far head in their grindsets that their motives were entirely material, not needing the mutually reinforcing/intention shielding para-motive of religion. they were already rich enough to afford mercenaries aplenty and didn't need the galvanizing force of a spiritual reformation to enlist their nobility and population to armed conflict, because they could afford to hire others to fight their battles for them. But then neither did the lowlands, so maybe its all about timing. The HRE was already engaged in war with the city states for sevaral years by the time the martin luther situation really cracked off, and had as yet never been burdened by the imperial yoke. There was no need for the peripheral nobility in particular to rely on the dual purpose of religious difference to justify/legitimize their material competition with the center, because the city states were already exogenous enemies. the center of power in the city states was the republican organization, not a monarch. so there was no intra-hierarchial conflict like that between princes and king that had to use religion to obscure the obvious political aims.

Kerri

4f.

Kerri

,

Kyle Erickson

I was fucking around doing genealogy shit and found out that my direct ancestor got his property confiscated by the goddamned Duke of Alva

Tony Bonacci

i don't know that they said that it was premeditated, and in fairness I think oafishness is a legitimate appellation, the stakes are high there is only genius and oaf.

Marxist-Swoletarianist

6:42 does anyone know where I can find this arrangement of old hundredth?

Alex Bazis

HI I h I H The The Best h hhBest h H I The h is he h hh hn Y hhhhe a man h huhgood and and h he h y hmm he y h H H H I