HISTORIOGRAPHY BETWEEN MYTHS AND LEGENDS: THE "RICHARD THE LIONHEART AFFAIR" AND OTHER BABENBERG STORIES

YouTube "From Kreisky's living room" 

RUDOLF SCHOLTEN IN CONVERSATION WITH WOLFGANG MADERTHANER
HISTORIOGRAPHY BETWEEN MYTHS AND LEGENDS:
THE "RICHARD LÖWENHERZ AFFAIR" AND OTHER BABENBERG STORIES

In the second instalment of their conversation about myths and legends in Austrian history, BKF President Rudolf Scholten and historian Wolfgang Maderthaner take us back to the Middle Ages, to the time of the Babenbergs.
One of the ruler personalities they talk about is Leopold V (1157-1194), Duke of Austria and Styria, who went down in history because he had the English King Richard the Lionheart captured on his return journey from the Crusade, imprisoned in Dürnstein and then handed over to the German Emperor Henry VI. He invested his share of the ransom that the English had to pay for the release of their king in the founding of the mint in Vienna and the city of Wiener Neustadt as well as the renovation of Vienna's city wall, among other things. The Habsburgs later gave him the nickname „the Virtuous“ ...
His son Leopold VI, known as the Glorious, and his successor Frederick II, known as the Belligerent and the last duke of the Babenberg dynasty, also left their mark on their time and posterity with their actions. They played a part in the game for power in Europe and founded myths and legends on which the Habsburgs later skilfully built and expanded their rule.

Wolfgang Maderthaner, Historian, Association for the History of the Labour Movement

Rudolf Scholten, President of the Bruno Kreisky Forum