The Holy Roman Empire

By: James Bryce

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Contents

Chapter 1: Introductory
Chapter 2: The Roman Empire Before the Invasion of the Barbarians
Chapter 3: The Barbarian Invasions
Chapter 4: Restoration of the Empire in the West
Chapter 5: Empire and Policy of Charles
Chapter 6: Carolingian and Italian Emperors
Chapter 7: Theory of the Medæval Empire
Chapter 8: The Roman Empire and the German Kingdom
Chapter 9: Saxon and Franconian Emperors
Chapter 10: Struggle of the Empire and the Papacy
Chapter 11: The Emperors in Italy: Frederick Barbarossa
Chapter 12: Imperial Titles and Pretensions
Chapter 13: Fall of the Hohenstaufen
Chapter 14: The Germanic Constitution - the Seven Electors
Chapter 15: The Empire as an International Power
Chapter 16: The City of Rome in the Middle Ages
Chapter 17: The Renaissance: Change in the Character of the Empire
Chapter 18: The Reformation and Its Effects upon the Empire
Chapter 19: The Peace of Westphalia: Last Stage in the Decline of the Empire
Chapter 20: Fall of the Empire
Chapter 21: Conclusion and General Summary

Public Domain (P)2017 Audio Connoisseur

Broadened my knowledge of this time in history.

I'll be honest however this is a quite a labor to listen to for long sittings. Having a historical companion map is helpful to see where these events take place.

Short listens and repeat listening in definitely required if you want to grasp the material.

As dry as it is informative

Certainly, the language used made it difficult at times to listen and decipher what was being said.
That being said, a more compete history of the Holy Roman Empire shall not be found, I think

NOT an easy but addicting listen!

This is an advanced study that focusses on causes and consequences. Know your history first. The names and dates go by so fast if mentioned at all that I found myself constantly trying to catch up with what was being told. That being said, once I got into the book, I couldn`t stop listening to it and I did learn more than I expected by the end. NOW, I going to go back and listen to some more history of the period and may, just may listen to this book again. Griffin does an outstanding narration.

Unique coverage of the subject

Excellent overall view of the Holy Roman Empire, covering not only the historical events but also the philosophical, religious issues, political forces and people's beliefs of the different times in which the institution of the Holy Roman Empire either prevailed or coexisted with the Papacy, the Eastern Roman Empire and other kingdoms. Beautiful performance, with fitting old fashioned British accent and great care in pronouncing names in the correct way for listeners conversant with vernacular languages, including latin. Some repetition of ideas here and there in the story to reinforce them, but at times somewhat otious.

you got what you asked for.

this is a very informative book. It's not necessarily big on giving you exact dates of when every little bit of History happened. However it does convey the feelings and the ideals behind the Holy Roman Empire at each point in time. After every Epoch it show what the lasting effects were. but along with this very informative positive. It also comes with a strong negative. You have to remember that this is a book that was published in 1864. the sentences are very complex and long and drawn-out. the translations into Latin words are not given. and the history they convey may sound a little confusing because their contemporary is not our contemporary. But, if you are looking for information on the Holy Roman Empire and find it scares and hard to find. This is the book for you.

Please stop the faux-Brit accent.

It makes it much harder to understand what you're saying when you're focusing on your pronunciation rather than the meaning of the text. Yeah, I know this particular author happened to be English, but Plutarch wasn't. Nor was Mommsen. Thanks!

Downgrade for style

Although I have a great interest in the subject matter and believe that there is much good content here, I found the pedantic writing style and the matching reading more than a little off putting.

As an audiobook, it just doesn't work.

Pretentious 19th century British accent

Pretentious 19th century British accent. The style is excessive elaborate. You easily lose track of the story and wonder what on earth is this writer, and narrator, trying to convey.

You won’t learn much about The Holy Roman Empire

Like others have said, the narration was a bit dramatic for a non-fiction book but my main disappointment was that it really didn’t teach me much about the Holy Roman Empire. It did help me fall asleep though so there’s that.

Cannot Understand the narrator

Although what I was able to discern sounded interesting, I simply could not understand the narrator. I was missing at least 2/3 of every sentence. It wasn't his accent, but rather the undulation of his sentences that caused the problem.