SAJONIA (Hombres de Hierro) - Documental
Los sajones (en latín, Saxones) fueron una confederación de antiguas tribus germánicas vinculados en el plano etnolingüístico a la rama occidental. En la Alta Edad Media, una amplia región cerca de la costa sobre el Mar del Norte de Germania empezó a ser llamada Sajonia (en latín: Saxonia), en lo que es en la actualidad Alemania. En el Imperio romano tardío, el nombre de sajones se usaba para referirse a invasores costeros germánicos, en un sentido similar al término posterior de «vikingo» (esto es, como piratas o saqueadores). Se cree que sus orígenes estuvieron en la costa alemana sobre el Mar del Norte o cerca de allí, donde aparecieron posteriormente, en épocas Carolingias.
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00:00How did they survive ambushes with tents and besiegements?
00:05How did they survive ambushes with tents and besiegements?
00:10How did they survive ambushes with tents and besiegements?
00:15How did they survive ambushes with tents and besiegements?
00:20How did they survive ambushes with tents and besiegements?
00:25How did they survive ambushes with tents and besiegements?
00:31How did they win unique battles?
00:36Or great battles?
00:41Why did they fight in tournaments?
00:46And what made them a legend?
00:56Our story does not begin in any castle, but in forests and fields, with free peasants.
01:04And we know the name of one of them.
01:08Heinrich Tangel, from Tannroda.
01:12Every summer, when the campaign season began, he waited for his king to call his weapons.
01:28Since he was a subject of King Otto.
01:36Watch out, tree!
01:42The Hungarians are destroying everything!
01:45To the expel in a week!
01:47Where is it?
01:48Near Augsburg!
01:49That is impossible!
01:51They are orders of the king!
01:53Do not stop!
01:57Bring my horse!
01:59Heinrich was neither a professional warrior nor a member of the Saxon nobility.
02:03But at the beginning of the High Middle Ages, free men had to follow their kings to war.
02:13Hey, let's go to war!
02:15And the harvest?
02:16Women and children will do that, hurry up!
02:20Fast!
02:22The Hungarians are fearsome warriors.
02:24Follow me!
02:27Peasant soldiers and horsemen had to provide their armor and weapons.
02:40You are a Tangel, my son.
02:43Honor your name.
02:48Be careful and come back alive.
02:53For the king! For Tangel!
02:56For the king! For the king!
03:03The first knights were only horsemen with helmets and coats of mail, armed with swords and spears.
03:12They were not nobles, but soldiers.
03:16In France they were called chevaliers.
03:18In England, knights.
03:20In Italy, cavalieri.
03:22And in Germany, riders.
03:28In the year 955, the Holy Roman Empire had often been attacked by bands of Hungarian riders.
03:35They were dedicated to looting Germany and even crossed the Rhine.
03:40King Otto summoned his subjects in Lechfel near Augsburg to fight a decisive battle.
03:53The soldiers of Otto's reserve arrived in Lechfel in just three weeks.
03:58Some after riding day and night.
04:01For Otto, everything depended on his iron men.
04:09Soldiers, we will show strength and courage against these infidels.
04:16It is better to die fighting than to live as servants.
04:22And now...
04:31Let our swords speak instead of our mouths!
04:42Heavenly Father, give us victory and life!
04:497,000 armed riders came to the call of their king.
04:54The chosen battlefield, Lechfel, was an open terrain.
05:00In all of Europe, there were no more feared enemies than the Hungarian steppe riders.
05:05Because they did not seek a singular combat, as the warriors of Otto preferred.
05:13They mainly used long-range weapons, so Otto had his riders.
05:24And he hoped that the Hungarians would advance enough for one body to one body.
05:29Be brave! God protects us!
05:32The Hungarians were able to use their bows even to gallop.
05:36A rain of arrows fell on the men of Otto.
05:44An experiment can illustrate the effect that the Hungarian arrows would have had.
05:55Andre Breneke is one of the few specialists in Hungarian bows.
06:02It took several weeks to manufacture this one.
06:12This compound bow is made of three different materials.
06:15The outer layer is made of tendons.
06:18The central structure is made of wood.
06:21And the inside is covered with horn.
06:24The compound structure stores energy that is released with the arrow.
06:30Andre will launch an arrow with this high-tech bow at a meter.
06:39At a standard combat distance, Andre tensioned the rope of his bow and aimed at the meter.
06:48Nine-millimeter steel rings riveted on a padded jug, the gambeson,
06:53against a sharp tip of 11 grams.
07:03A warrior without a meter would not have survived such a shot.
07:07But I am protected with it.
07:10In this case, the tip of the arrow managed to cross the mesh.
07:16We can see that the tip broke at least one of the rings.
07:21And then he drilled the padded gambeson.
07:26As you can see, it went through the fabric and then stuck to the glycerin soap block.
07:33You can see the possible damage or wound here.
07:37With almost six centimeters deep.
07:40That means that without a doubt, it would have reached the soft tissue.
07:46The mesh tip did not serve as protection against a well-directed arrow.
07:50They could only defend themselves with their shields.
07:54And wait for the order to attack.
07:57Soldiers, attack!
08:00Otto knew that if they managed to keep the Hungarians at bay
08:03and use their swords and spears body to body, they would have an advantage.
08:18In hand-to-hand combat like this, ordinary riders became noble knights.
08:31Otto's men won the battle of Lechfel.
08:34No Hungarian left that field alive.
08:37There were no prisoners.
08:42Victory secured the German border once and for all.
08:47In the year 961, Heinrich Tangel received a sword in the name of the king.
08:53Heinrich de Tannroda, the king has made you his vassal.
08:56Kneel!
09:00Be wise and magnanimous.
09:03I will not be defeated.
09:05I will not be defeated.
09:07I will not be defeated.
09:09I will not be defeated.
09:11I will not be defeated.
09:13Be wise and magnanimous.
09:17Be brave with the nobles and charitable with the poor.
09:22Take care of widows and orphans, but above all,
09:26honor God and fulfill each of his commandments.
09:31I swear complete loyalty and obedience to my king.
09:35With the help of God, for Jesus Christ our Lord.
09:39Amen.
09:42The sword symbolized that it was already part of the warrior elite of the Holy Roman Empire.
09:51It would be the last time he would have to tolerate a blow.
09:57Since then, he would have been allowed to unclasp his sword to defend his honor until death.
10:02It was a symbol of power and freedom.
10:06In the 11th century, many soldiers of chivalry, men like Heinrich Dangel,
10:11were elevated to the status of nobles and knights.
10:17The ritual backstabbing when delivering the sword evolved into a more delicate version,
10:22also known as the stranglehold.
10:25Only a king could make such a gesture, and it was a great recognition and honor.
10:3290% of the medieval population were peasants who worked for the nobility.
10:38The knights occupied their lowest step.
10:41Above were the counts, dukes and princes.
10:45And at the top of the social pyramid was the king.
10:48In times of war, the knights fought for him.
10:54One of the most famous examples of this ritual is the one in which
10:59a blacksmith works with the four traditional elements.
11:03Fire, fed by the air, earth that provides the mineral, and water that hardens it.
11:14In the Middle Ages, it was believed that a good sword had magical powers.
11:18Many had a name.
11:20Siegfried's sword was called Balmung, that of King Arthur Excalibur.
11:25Many swords received the name Ulfberht.
11:28It was not a mythical name, but the name of a blacksmith who was of great quality.
11:33There were also imitations of poor quality,
11:36although a sword like this could be lethal to the man who fought with it.
11:44Swords and knights were closely related.
11:49In war, swords were their weapons.
11:52In peace, they were symbols of their status.
12:01Stefan Roth needs two months of hard physical labor
12:04to polish a sword until it shines.
12:07He says that the price did not matter in the Middle Ages.
12:11A sword made by a blacksmith cost a fortune.
12:16Swords have always been a reflection of their time.
12:20They were a technical product, and even high-tech.
12:24It was the best thing that craftsmanship could produce.
12:33And what effects did this high-tech product have?
12:36How did the knights use these weapons and protect themselves against the enemy?
12:42Andreas Kruger has studied medieval weapons in depth
12:46and learned to fight with them like a knight.
12:57The sword was the life insurance of a knight.
13:00It was often the reason they survived a battle.
13:04This sword is an example of that.
13:07It is a one-handed sword.
13:10The blade is relatively wide and the tip is quite short.
13:14It is very sharp.
13:16It was used to fight against opponents who wore light armor.
13:27One thing is obvious.
13:29That sword is as sharp as a Japanese knife.
13:33Would the coat of armor provide any protection?
13:40Yes, in the face of a mandoble.
13:45The sword bounced against the armor.
13:53But what would happen when the tip of the sword was nailed?
13:58Swords are sharp objects suitable for movements such as stabbing and cutting.
14:03In this case, the object could not penetrate the coat of armor.
14:07The coat absorbed all the energy.
14:10And therefore, the result would have been that a penetrating wound would not have occurred.
14:16If the coat of armor had penetrated the armor,
14:19the sword would not have been damaged.
14:22It would have been that a penetrating wound would not have occurred.
14:26However, the glycerin block shows a contusion.
14:31The place of impact can be seen.
14:34Therefore, we can assume that one or two ribs would have broken.
14:38But a deeper injury would not have occurred.
14:43The effect of the coat of armor could be comparable to the bulletproof vests used by the police today.
14:53And this is how the medieval equivalent of a bulletproof vest was made.
14:58Gerald learned how to make a coat of armor by carefully joining up to 50,000 rings to make a single piece.
15:06The process requires 1,500 meters of an expensive steel wire and four weeks of work.
15:12A fortune, even in medieval times.
15:17A complete coat of armor weighs 20 kilos.
15:20Coats like this protected generations of knights.
15:26A coat of armor from the time of the Crusades was used during the 700-year cold war.
15:33Fire!
15:37A rebel from Madrid used it in a charge against British troops in the Battle of Omdurman in 1898.
15:44Unfortunately for him, the British had acquired a Maxim machine gun, the first weapon of this type.
15:55A member of the British army decided to use the valiant warrior as a kind of trophy.
16:03Today, this old coat of armor is kept in the closet of a castle in southern Germany.
16:09It is probably the oldest and best preserved medieval coat of armor that exists.
16:16It was reinforced and enlarged on several occasions.
16:20Some American soldiers were the ones who, in 1945, finally buried the brave warrior.
16:29The king also gave Heinrich Dangel a fief that he had to produce enough to feed him and pay for his weapons,
16:36since he was now a professional warrior.
16:39He also granted him the privilege of building a castle.
16:45The castles followed a very basic structure.
16:48A fortification on a mound, like the Verla Castle in Saxony.
16:53An impalizada surrounded the dependencies of the servitude, the corrals, barns and the house of the lord.
17:02The tower of the homage or tower served as a tower of surveillance and the last bastion of defense.
17:09The castles were built as refuges against wars or conflicts.
17:16The life of a knight was nothing like the life of a soldier.
17:20The life of a knight was not luxurious at the time of Heinrich.
17:25A contemporary of his complained.
17:27The knights hear the sheep.
17:29There are cows, cattle and people with guns wherever you look.
17:32And only worries and hard work, one day after another.
17:43For centuries, this was the daily life of many knights.
17:46They had to collaborate, and often they stained mud to the knees.
17:51The life of a castle revolved around ensuring its self-sufficiency,
17:55and the task of a knight was to manage his lands.
17:58A man like Heinrich Tangel would have remembered with a smile the adventures and challenges of war.
18:05After all, he was a warrior.
18:08And the noble ladies?
18:12They were born to conceive.
18:16The main goal of medieval marriage was reproduction.
18:23Without children, especially without a male heir to keep the dynasty alive,
18:27all effort would be in vain.
18:30And the noble ladies?
18:32They were born to conceive.
18:34Without children, especially without a male heir to keep the dynasty alive,
18:37all effort would be in vain.
18:48People believed that love was not what led to marriage, but rather the opposite.
18:53The families of the knights were mainly interested in increasing their power, wealth, and social position.
18:59A marriage was an alliance between two families.
19:05Neither the bride nor the groom had much to say about it.
19:09Today, some medieval marriages would have been called forced marriages.
19:14A knight was the guardian of his wife and was forced to protect her.
19:21After the wedding night, she received her dowry.
19:24A mansion, cattle, servants, furniture, clothes, jewels, and shoes.
19:30With them, she would have to survive in the event that she got widowed,
19:34and she would have to pay the price for it.
19:38She owed her home and family, and above all, her seamstress.
19:44And while her husband lived, she would remain under his authority.
19:53Heinrich Tangel of Tannroda became part of the elite of the noble families of the Hohenzollern.
19:58He was the son of a noble family, and his mother was a noble lady.
20:03Heinrich Tangel of Tannroda became part of the warrior elite only for his merits.
20:13They did not demand that he be shown to be of noble origin.
20:18In the eyes of the nobility, that made him an adventurer.
20:24He had just come out of the swamp and the swamps.
20:29No one would have guessed that he would be the founder of a noble dynasty
20:33that lasted 30 generations, more than 800 years.
20:38In those days, the von Tangel would be from Rancio to Bolengo.
20:49On the contrary, Reinbold von Rappelstein was born a knight
20:53and had inherited everything necessary to be so.
20:56Title, horse, armor and weapons.
20:59But a knight had to show his worth.
21:07Aha! Who are you? Who are you?
21:11Sir Reinbold.
21:13Sir Reinbold? Sir Reinbold of what?
21:18Of Rappelstein. And you?
21:20I was what you want to be. Where are you going?
21:24I'm looking for an armed knight who can challenge the old man.
21:28His victory would be his glory.
21:30But if I win, he would be a hero with all the honors.
21:34I see.
21:38All right. If you are looking for a life of adversity and full of adventures,
21:43I'll tell you where you can find it. I'll tell you.
21:46Tell me right now.
21:49Or will it be worse for you?
21:50Sir Evald has organized a tournament here and here.
21:58I'll give you a reward.
21:59I'm a poor knight, as you see.
22:01Win a trophy and pay me then.
22:05For my honor.
22:06For your honor.
22:07Reinbold von Rappelstein, because that was his name, was looking for adventures.
22:14In German there is still the ancient form of the word adventure.
22:18And going in search of adventures was what the knights used to do.
22:23They were looking for a feudal lord or a woman.
22:25And it was not easy to get any of the two things.
22:29They had to show their worth.
22:34A knight like Reinbold could show his worth in a tournament.
22:39The first tournaments were not held in places built to such an effect or luxuriously decorated.
22:44Rather, the knights met in a field or in a clearing of the forest.
22:53That one.
22:54Do you see it?
22:55Yes.
22:56It's von Rappelstein.
22:57I'll leave it to you.
22:58It will be a tough rival.
23:00Excellent.
23:03Von Rappelstein will be worth a good rescue.
23:05And when the tournament is over, it will be all mine.
23:08The knights not only fought for honor and fame, but for helmets, swords and to win rescues.
23:23There was not much difference between a tournament and a real battle.
23:30The tournaments were war games with contenders and real weapons.
23:38The fight was only prohibited in the corners of the field, where the wounded could take refuge.
23:44Apart from that, there were few rules.
23:50The wounded were treated by barbers.
23:57An extremity could always be lost.
24:02Those who survived a rough surgery were lucky.
24:08No!
24:11The church was very against what it considered a bad and violent pastime.
24:16And it prohibited it.
24:24But almost no gentleman did it.
24:28And the ladies?
24:31As a poem said, they watched with reddened eyes and hearts exalted by their men.
24:37They had to be prepared to lose them.
24:44Whether in a fair or in battle, the gentlemen were addicted to strong emotions.
24:49And they longed to show their bravery and courage.
25:00Their motto was, try it.
25:03Little did it matter that some left the tournament wounded, crippled or even dead.
25:12So you give up, Hohenstein?
25:16Peace, peace.
25:24Peace was the word that put an end to a fair one.
25:27The rival gentleman had to respect it.
25:33A tournament that often only ended when night fell.
25:40Many extremities could remain in the so-called field of honor and fame.
25:51And also dead, who left behind widows and orphans.
25:55Because no matter how famous a gentleman was, he only had one life.
26:03We have a guest!
26:06Sir Hohenstein, yes!
26:10After a tournament, the winners received prizes and were distributed in the booth.
26:16Tell me, noble lady.
26:19What will you pay for your husband, Sir Hohenstein?
26:22A woman could get her husband back for a price.
26:26Believe me, Reinbold, we'll meet again.
26:29But first, go home.
26:30Ah, I see.
26:33Go then, we will celebrate it!
26:39I will show these ladies how the Rapplesteins dance.
26:43The gentlemen celebrated the victory with the same impetus with which they had fought.
26:48Although it was by taking them out by the strength of their armor.
26:54Get the helmet out, we have to celebrate it.
26:56Get the helmet out, we have to celebrate it.
27:02They shared the booty and the rescues among all.
27:07Take what you want!
27:09The motto of many was, what comes easily, goes easily.
27:14But if a gentleman wanted to be admired, he had to be generous.
27:18That's it!
27:20The gentlemen participated in those tournaments for the booty, for the profits.
27:25But they did not keep what they won.
27:28But they threw it away and that was due to two reasons.
27:32On the one hand, they needed allies and when sharing, they made ties with other gentlemen.
27:39On the other hand, they wanted to distance themselves from the plebeians.
27:43The plebeians sought security and accumulated their possessions, but they were not like that.
27:48Their ideal was that of a free man, who was not only free to kill others in a battle,
27:55but to plunder their profits.
27:58That was true freedom.
28:06The Castles of the Knights offered refuge in peace and protection in war,
28:11both to them and to their vassals.
28:14But above all, the castles were symbols of power and the prestige of the nobility, visible from afar.
28:23In the thirteenth century, in the heyday of the knightly culture,
28:27there were 13,000 castles only in the Holy Roman Empire.
28:33And how were they built?
28:35Often they were raised on top of a hill without using any modern machinery.
28:39We can see how they were made in Guédelon, near Paris.
28:43Guédelon is an experimental archaeological construction site,
28:47a laboratory outdoors, in which medieval construction techniques are being rediscovered,
28:53since we know little about the assassinations of the nobility.
28:57In the thirteenth century, the castles of the Knights of the Knights of Guédelon
29:02were raised outdoors, in which medieval construction techniques are being rediscovered,
29:07since we know little about the practical aspects of the construction of a castle.
29:16Everything is done by hand and learned on the go.
29:20Fifty people have participated in this unique project since its inception in 1997.
29:26Experienced carpenters work with the greatest precision
29:30to ensure that the stone blocks fit perfectly.
29:37There are carpenters, blacksmiths, bricklayers, a dozen different trades.
29:43In the Middle Ages, everyone worked together, without an architect.
29:47The fortifications and the senior residence
29:51do not necessarily require a master of work
29:55who has a culture and a mastery, as happened with the Gothic cathedrals.
30:02They were craftsmen who were limited to obeying
30:07and raising constructions that were a little repetitive
30:12and similar to each other to the style of the time.
30:17The medieval castles were regional buildings.
30:21All the materials came from the surroundings.
30:25Wood, stone and clay for the tiles and bricks,
30:29since transport was expensive.
30:35In the modern world it would be an optimal environmental practice
30:40to build castles in the middle of the mountains.
30:43In the modern world it would be an optimal environmental practice.
30:47And the construction of castles was also a source of sustainable employment,
30:52although some workers were not exactly volunteers.
30:56We can imagine that the lord of the castle would hire small teams
31:02and that 50 people would be enough for the construction work.
31:07Some texts allow us to imagine that a construction could last between 10 and 15 years.
31:14The wheel crane is one of the attractions of Gedelon.
31:18This magna rota was built following medieval plans.
31:22A wheel, an axle and a rope.
31:25The necessary to build the medieval version of a crane.
31:29A man could operate the wheel and lift stones that weighed several tons at any height.
31:33Gedelon illustrates all the aspects of the construction of a medieval castle.
31:38There are still 15 years left for the castle to withstand the siege of a medieval army,
31:44or what is most likely, of tourists.
31:53For many centuries a castle was the ideal refuge against an attack or siege.
31:58Only a handful of knights and armed men were needed to defend a well-fortified castle.
32:12Castles used to have only one entrance.
32:16That was the weak point against any attack.
32:20A raised bridge over a moat helped to keep out unwanted visitors.
32:25The door used to have near an almond tower to give the alarm.
32:30And although the attackers managed to cross it, they would encounter more obstacles.
32:50From the moat a rain of stones would fall on them.
32:56Then they would have to make their way through the courtyard.
33:03Towers and high walls protected the home of the knights and the work areas.
33:08That was where the biggest loot was.
33:11But an attacker would not only face armed knights,
33:14but also blacksmiths and peasants with hammers, axes and forks.
33:20The last bastion of the castle was the Tower of the Homage or Torreón.
33:28If necessary, the defenders of the castle destroyed the wooden stairs that went up to the tower
33:34and used another moat to defend the entrance.
33:37But if the attackers managed to knock down the door, everything was lost.
33:41They could only flee upwards.
33:44And to finish off the defenders, the attackers could resort to fire.
33:53But the knights were worth more alive than dead.
33:57This way they could get a rescue and few attackers would want to own a ruin.
34:02The alternative was to climb up fighting for the stairs.
34:08Although few attackers got that far.
34:14Before the siege machines were invented,
34:18castles like this were practically unbeatable.
34:21After all, dissuasion is the best defense.
34:25So the castles remained symbols of power for centuries.
34:32Historians estimate that a castle would suffer a siege only once every three generations,
34:38which meant that peace would reign in them for 75 years.
34:43There is a multitude of myths about castles.
34:52Well, I will draw the disposition.
34:55But researchers like Joachim Soina do not hesitate to reject them.
34:59People believe that castles were built for war
35:03and that their lords were despots who forced the peasants to build them.
35:08Most of the stories we hear about castles are quite bloody.
35:13But the nobles played an important role in the administration of justice
35:18and in the prosperity and security of the region.
35:22That is, they also acted as judges.
35:25And that is why for the medieval people, a castle represented a land at peace.
35:30The regions that had many castles were especially peaceful and did not suffer wars.
35:35Therefore, associating castles with war is a mistake.
35:40Castles were a symbol of peace and civil administration.
35:44That was their main function.
35:48But during the emergencies, the symbol of peace was also a last refuge for the desperate.
35:54An obligation of Reinbold von Rapplestein was the protection of his vassals
35:59and to be prepared for any contingency.
36:07The castle may not be an easy prey for looters,
36:11but the surrounding villages were.
36:28The mercenaries without land were known as looters or raptors in Latin.
36:45In case of attack, the villagers took refuge in the Lord's Castle.
36:53The duty of the nobles like Reinbold was to welcome his people.
36:59That was part of the division of labor between social classes.
37:04The peasants fed him and he had to protect them for his own interest.
37:19My own brothers!
37:22You loot and rob the peasants! You have no right!
37:25A thief! That's what you are!
37:28You left us with nothing!
37:31You have the inheritance!
37:34And we are eating land!
37:37Reinbold, how can I find a noble lady if I have nothing?
37:41No castle, no gold! I'm not a monk, I'm a gentleman!
37:45Do not disturb the peace of God and disobey the laws of chivalry!
37:49I will punish you myself, you will pay dearly!
37:51Get out of here, to hell with you!
37:54We will fight to death, you hear me? To death!
37:59Yes, we will fight to death!
38:02So be it! You wanted it!
38:05I'll finish you!
38:11The nobles used to fight each other.
38:14Fights and border disputes were on the agenda.
38:21Not even churches and monasteries were saved,
38:25who also suffered the attacks of the looting knights.
38:31That is why the Church decreed the peace and truce of God,
38:35which prohibited fights and looting at least from Thursday to Sunday.
38:40But how did they manage to apply it?
38:46Threatening the knights with the eternal storms of hell.
38:49If they were fearful of God, they would fulfill their truce.
38:57Some consider all these feudal contests
39:01as if they were private wars of the nobility.
39:05A kind of total anarchy that did not agree with a Christian lifestyle,
39:10and even that was against it.
39:13But in reality, they must be interpreted as a means to resolve conflicts that were legitimate.
39:17As long as they complied with the established rules.
39:21And those rules turned the fights into a legitimate means
39:25to resolve disputes over laws or properties,
39:28or clashes for personal honor.
39:33When the truce of God was over,
39:36the knights could resume their private wars
39:39with the tacit approval of the Church.
39:48The Law of the Strongest
39:55The Law of the Strongest was the only one the knights understood.
40:12In fact, their code of honor forced them
40:14to resolve any conflict in singular combat, life or death.
40:28You killed one of my vassals, so watch out!
40:38Mercy!
40:40In the name of God, the Merciful, I set you free!
40:45Go away!
40:51I don't want to see you again!
40:58There was still a long way to go for the ideal of the Christian knight to emerge.
41:14To be continued...