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The Slovak Spectator reports that archaeologists are excavating a crypt at Trenčín Castle, which is located in western Slovakia. Historic records suggest that there may be an entrance to a second chamber in the northern wall of the crypt located beneath the altar at Lord's Chapel. "We have successfully revealed the original staircase leading into the crypt, and have cleared about half the structure," said archaeologist Juraj Malec. The chapel and the crypt were built by Barbara of Celje, the Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, who remodeled the medieval castle in the fifteenth century. The chapel...

Archaeologists believe they have found the site where Emperor Otto I (936-973), known as the Great, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, died.Otto the Great is regarded by historians as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He earned a reputation as a defender of Christendom as a result of his victory over pagan Hungarian invaders in 955 C.E. He used his self-proclaimed divine right as a ruler and his dealings with bishops to tighten his control over his kingdom and to begin his aggressive expansion into Italy. His son Otto II would succeed him after his death in 973 C.E.Archaeologists from...

As of this writing, the year is 2020. But what if the year was ACTUALLY 1722? What if hundreds of years ago there was a conspiracy by a few European noblemen to change the modern calendar? This may sound crazy, (and, admittedly, it is a little crazy), but is it possible? Stranger things have happened. It all has to do with the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope, and (maybe) the Byzantine Empire circa AD 1000 (that’s important for later). There's this weird theory called Phantom Time Hypothesis suggests that Dark Ages (614-911 A.D.) never happened...The Phantom Time Hypothesis was first...

Modern banking has its auspicious beginnings in the early to mid Middle Ages. Primitive banking transactions existed before, but until the economic revival of the thirteenth century they were limited in scope and occurrence. By the dawn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, bankers were grouped into three distinct categories: the pawnbrokers, the moneychangers, and the merchant bankers. But with these economic specializations came religious denunciation and backlash. However, these bankers persevered and a new industry was born. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the late fifth century, there followed centuries of deep economic depression, sharp deflation of...

Germany’s defence minister has confirmed that “a united EU military is becoming a reality,” after her ally and Chancellor Angela Merkel backed Emmanuel Macron’s call for a “real European army.” “Europe’s army is already taking shape,” Ursula von der Leyen wrote in an opinion piece for Handelsblatt on Thursday. “Germany and France are the driving forces in defense,” Ms von der Leyen boasted, adding that “We’re moving even further ahead with our close partner France” after the two countries agreed to sign a “new Elysèe Treaty” which, amongst other efforts to, in effect, merge aspects of the two countries, includes...

French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated calls for a European Union army, this time saying that it is needed to protect the bloc from China, Russia, and even the United States. The progressive leader, a proponent of greater EU federalisation which will result in the reduction in sovereignty for European nations, told Europe 1 Monday night that the bloc needs a “real European army”. “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron said, according to Agence France-Presse. (snip) “We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a...

A German mathematician, physicist and astronomer, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss rose from humble origins to become one of the world’s greatest minds. Born in 1777 in Brunswick, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, Gauss was the only child of poor parents who had received little or no formal education. His mother was illiterate. But when Gauss started school at age seven, he was quickly recognized as a child prodigy who could solve complex math problems in his head. While still a teenager, Gauss became the first person to prove the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity, a math theory to determine...

“To wage war, you need first of all money; second, you need money, and third, you also need money,” goes the famous saying of Raimondo Graf Montecúccoli, an Italian who served in the armies of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations. Consequently, with the debate on the U.S. Navy’s budget for the next fiscal year raging on (see here and here), it is perhaps time to assess not how much money is spent on the American navy, but whether it is spent wisely. The discussion surrounding China’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities and the costs that these capabilities impose on...

Her speech, weaving historical events with present crises, was replete with some subtle and other not so subtle hints that she believed Britain belonged in the European Union – her most public stance yet that she wished to avoid Britain voting to leave in a referendum.

Francis laments that world powers did nothing to save Jewish, Christian, gays from Nazi death camps.ROME — Pope Francis on Sunday denounced what he called the “great powers” of the world for failing to act when there was intelligence indicating Jews, Christians, homosexuals and others were being transported to death camps in Europe during World War II. He also decried the deaths of Christians in concentration camps in Russia under the Stalin dictatorship, which followed the war....

As a consequence of the Eurozone crisis, racism is on the rise, in the same way that the 1929 crisis inspired anti-Semitism. But this time the scapegoats are Muslims, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told a Brussels audience on Thursday (15 January). […] One important message was that the EU, and the West in general, had missed the opportunity provided by the Arab revolutions. The West didn’t mobilize, as it did for Eastern Europe, after the end of the Cold War, Davutoğlu argued. More concretely, he blamed the West for not having supported the “moderate young generation” in Syria, the...

Britain is already a lame duck within the EU’s internal governing structure and is losing influence “by the day” in Brussels, even before David Cameron holds a referendum on withdrawal. This self-isolation has upset the European balance of power in profound ways, leading ineluctably to German hegemony and a unipolar system centered on Berlin. […] Such is the verdict of Roman Prodi, the former Italian premier and ex-president of the European Commission. […] “Germany is exercising an almost solitary power. The new presidents of the Commission and the Council are men who rotate around Germany’s orbit, and above all there...

German scientists have announced after almost 26 years of research that the bones interred for centuries at Aachen Cathedral are likely to be those of Charlemagne. Researchers confirmed on Wednesday evening - 1,200 years to the day since Charlemagne died - that the 94 bones and bone fragments taken from the supposed resting place of the King of the Franks and founder of what was to become the Holy Roman Empire came from a tall, thin, older man. The team first opened the sarcophagus of the first emperor in western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire in secret...

Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has warned Israel to face a periodic United Nations Human Rights Council (U.N.H.R.C.) Periodic Review—or face severe diplomatic consequences, according to a Haaretz report (Sunday). … In a personal letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Westerwelle warned that Israel’s failure to attend the periodic evaluation—a review infamous for its anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian measures—would alienate Israel’s allies and cause “severe diplomatic damage”, Haaretz reports. …

In Brussels, Germans have shrugged off their postwar reserve and make no apology for shaping Europe’s future, taking key posts in EU institutions and pushing Berlin’s trade interests with vigor.As Angela Merkel forms a new coalition government after a third successive election triumph, the conservative chancellor can build on efforts, in place since her first term in 2005, that have increased not just the number of Germans in senior jobs in Brussels but the extent to which they answer to Berlin. And where that fails to ensure EU policy acceptable to the bloc’s biggest economy, Merkel has shown she is...

With the spotlight this week on Germany’s foreign policy, The Local asks if Europe’s biggest economy should play a greater role in world affairs? Foreign policy expert Professor Walter Russell Mead explains. … Professor Mead argued German foreign policy has been relatively successful in Europe. Asked if Germany should play a greater global role, he said: “Germany is playing a larger role in the world than people appreciate.” But he added: “Germany should play any role it thinks it ought to play. The Europe we see today is a Europe that US presidents from Washington on would have given anything...

The Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire were at war.  Vienna had been under siege for months.  On 11 September a coalition of Christian forces, a Holy League blessed by Bl. Pope Innocent XI, arrived with Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland, to lift the siege.When he saw that the Turks were about to breach the walls of the city, Sobieski attacked earlier than he had intended.On 12 September at 4 am the battle was closed.   Sobieski had called on the protection of Our Lady of Czestochowa before the battle.He sent his forces of 81,000 against the Turks’ 130,000. ...

One in five Germans would like to see the monarchy restored, according to a survey released on Thursday. Young Germans were even keener on replacing the president with a new Kaiser. … Despite swelling support among the young, most Germans still oppose the idea. 51 percent of all respondents said that having a king or queen would cost too much money. Sixty nine percent said they were completely against the idea. …

His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Tuesday, 4 October 2004:The decisive duty of the Christian is in seeking the will of God in everything, in knowing it and carrying it out. This daily challenge was addressed by the man of state and Christian Charles, of the House of Austria. He was a friend of peace. In his eyes, war was “something horrible”. Ascending the throne in the midst of the storm of the First World War, he tried to take up the peace initiative of my predecessor Benedict XV. From the beginning, Emperor Charles understood his task of sovereign as...