Exsurge Auguste!
To rule this realm, you had to swear to defend the pope--- but on the plus side, you technically occupied the highest temporal office in Western Christendom
What is the Holy Roman Empire?
Having grown up in the lap of luxury and love poetry, this powerful duchess was dissatisfied with her monkish husband, the king of France, and sought instead the thrill of a lover willing to put her in jail
Who is Eleanor of Aquitaine?
Anglo-Saxon England definitively gave way to a Norman dynasty after this man sailed the Channel and stole Godwinson's winning streak
Who is William the Conqueror?
What is simony?
Fed up with lay investiture, this pope, whose birth name means "bright flame," issued his famous Dictatus papae to put the Holy Roman Emperor in his place
Who is Pope Gregory VII, a.k.a. Hildebrand?
Who are the Magyars?
Her husband, who was fat, insisted on testing the fidelity of this woman by an ordeal of fire
Who is St. Richardis?
This ambitious king issued the Constitutions of Clarendon, angering his ex-best friend, the archbishop of Canterbury
Who is Henry II of England?
While practical during the Viking invasions, nevertheless this political system based on land grants in exchange for obedience began to hold bishops hostage to kings
What is feudalism?
Infatuated with the pure beauty of God, this great mystic famously called Eleanor of Aquitaine a "daughter of Belial" for wearing too much makeup
Who is St. Bernard of Clairvaux?
The bishops were happy to be the Emperor's princes, but it came at the cost of receiving spiritualia at his hands in a struggle going by this name
What is the Investiture Struggle?
After the death of her husband/stepbrother, this locked-away Italian princess had to be saved by a certain highly motivated German
Who is St. Adelaide?
Concerning this hero for the liberty of the Church, a certain frustrated king allegedly said, "Will no one rid me of this meddling priest?"
Who is St. Thomas Becket?
Who is Charles the Fat?
On his way home from a rager, lightning struck in front of this saint's horse, inducing a one-hour coma wherein he converted to the Lord
Who is St. Norbert?
Otto the Great sought to respect the quasi-independence of these powerful German territories
What are the stem duchies?
Known for her extensive almsgiving, this wife of Henry the Fowler sadly had her lands confiscated by her greedy sons... who felt bad about it later
During this nearly twenty-year period of dynastic warfare, it is said that in England "Christ and his saints slept."
What is the Anarchy?
Bored by the dusty institution of marriage, these poets opted instead to sing the praises of passion and adultery
Who are the troubadours?
After a dazzling academic career, which included teaching a future pope, this saint sought solitude in the mountains where his monks could live quietly in little houses and make the French equivalent of moonshine
Who is St. Bruno?
The elective monarchy of the HRE stood in contrast to this French strategy for avoiding dynastic warfare
What is agnatic primogeniture?
She was one-time empress and matriarch of the Plantagenets
Who is Empress Matilda?
By virtue of his Norman blood and his wife's fief of Aquitaine, Henry II Fitzempress became the ruler of a short-lived empire called by this name
What is the Angevin Empire?
These symbols of office would be received "through ring and crosier"
What are the spiritualia?
Having internalized a deep sense of self-deprecation since his mother refused to breastfeed him in his infancy, this monastic reformer urged his followers to "take the discipline"
Who is St. Peter Damien?