Radio War Nerd EP #183 — Annibale's The Hundred Years War, Part VI: End of Burgundy & Triumph of Louis XI

This Charles “the Bold” seems like a real jerk!

Catching up with this incredible episode, I wanted to note - and I’m unclear if anyone will even see this 4-year late reply - that movies about Joan have quite a track record of catastrophic failure, regardless of their artistic merits or lack thereof. The worst is probably the 1948 one directed by Victor Fleming - who had been quite a good filmmaker before the years he lost directing GONE WITH THE WIND scooped out his brains - it’s truly the axiomatic stuffy, unwatchable, humorless Hollywood epic; show it to someone who sniffs at “old movies” and it’ll confirm all their worst fears. Ingrid Bergman played Joan a second time a few years later, this time directed by her then husband Roberto Rossellini. RR was one of the greatest directors of all - however I don’t know if this film is any good or not. It’s not included in Criterion’s Bergman-Rossellini box set, which may indicate … it’s not so hot. The less said about Luc Besson’s 1999 film, the better. (Only to point out that Milla Jovovich went from being a terrible actor to being one of our best, and coincidentally it happened after switching husbands…) There’s Otto Preminger’s atypically disappointing SAINT JOAN, talky and flat, nearly killed Jean Seberg’s career before it started. Appropriately, two of the best Joan films are by the French! Bresson’s super austere THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC and Jacques Rivette’s 2-part JOAN THE MAID. Many will cite the great Dane auteur Carl Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC as the pinnacle, but my vote goes to Rivette’s epic: it’s extremely thorough, earthy, lots of beautiful natural lighting. It runs 6 hours (split into two parts), so it may take most of us 2-3 evenings to finish it but it’s incredibly focused and driven, not a wasted moment. Some of my fellow degenerates in cinephilia like Bruno Dumont’s two Joan films, which are heavy metal musicals in period dress. That’s not my kind of party but your mileage may vary.

Yeah I can’t see them on the phone app but the show up on my PC web browser. Weird.

I became a subscriber recently. How come parts 1-3 aren’t available for download. Looks like the only ones available are 4 and up.

I was really glad to get a run of historical war episodes. Those are always my favorites. I hope there is an opportunity to discuss the hinted-at exploits of Louis XI at some point.

Great series with Annibale. Can someone help me out with this word that he used repeatedly, meaning intentional destruction of farms and villages? Sounds like se boucher? cebuchais?

Possibly amusing sidenote: "Bourgondisch" (Burgundian) is still used in The Netherlands to refer to an attitude to life that prioritises the enjoyment of food and drink and generally just living well. It's mostly associated with the southern parts of the country, which were indeed part of Burgundy in the past.

In part 1 of this 6 part series there was a discussion of how environmental changes brought about an end to growing grapes and making wine in England. This along with some other economic changes, which Annibale did a great job explaining, lead to the socio-economic situation that setup the 100 Years War. I would like to make a request for an episode of the War Nerd podcast. I would like to request you guys put together an episode on wars or conflicts that have some of their causes rooted in environmental changes. There must be other conflicts that have been caused by changes in climate and I would love to hear the podcast explore them. Climate change is the greatest problem humanity is currently dealing with. Possibly the greatest problem the human race has ever dealt with. And I believe that in the coming century we will see great conflicts arising from it. I would love for the War Nerd podcast to plumb history for knowledge that may help us better anticipate what's to come. Maybe just give us instances where climate played a large part in causing conflict and discover some perennial implications. Thank you and I love the show!

That was great. I think my favourite bit was when Charles VII commented on Louis being at the Burgundian court that his cousin had let a fox into his hen-house. Who was the egomaniac German Prince that was mentioned in an earlier episode? I think I missed the bit where he was mentioned? Also, who started calling Louis the Universal Spider?

Showing off was part of the standard politics of that age and yes, Louis open mocking of pomp and ceremonies and his plain manners were disorienting for most of his contemporaries. In fact one of the reason of the feudal hostilities towards Louis was precisely his refusal to "follow the rules" (and if you think about it it's something reflected in current politics too ;). This said Charles behaviour was considered "eccentric" even by some of his contemporaries. But remember that when Charles dies he was mourned by his peers as "brave but unlucky" while Louis death was cheered up by most

Charlie’s pose and facial expression has douche-bad written all over it.

Around the 48 minute mark, you guys discussed the idea that pure "terroristic" violence isn't really a good strategy, mostly because you'll convince the next town/army to fight to the death, which will result in a tougher fight. One exception that I thought of was the Mongols. The main thing I remember from learning about them in school was that (especially in their middle eastern campaigns), their main strategy was to completely demolish a town, leave a few survivors to flee to the nearest town, then it would usually surrender after hearing the stories I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it made me want a Mongol series even more from you guys. Does Annibale know anything about them?

I wouldn’t mind a tour of the iron century, or the wars of religion—I think Luther Blisset/Wu Ming have convinced me that you’d be the best for the job.

All hail the emperor! Come back and re-Annibalize us soon!

Some people claim the name Borgund in Norway is connected to the Burgunds. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgund_Stave_Church

Two back to back RWN episodes = perfect for a long flight

it grows the most powerful of mental erections each time an episode of this series come out

I want to be Annibale when I grow up.