A Very Bad Way to Die

I want to share with you a tale of foul play today.

In July of 1184, King Henry VI had a problem. Two powerful figures in his kingdom—the Holy Roman Empire—were virtually at one another’s throats.

Archbishop Conrad of Mainz was incredibly influential and powerful. Ludwig III was a wealthy noble who controlled Thuringia, right on the border of the territories under the Archbishop's influence. It was almost inevitable that disputes over land would eventually come to a head.

This was no good for Henry. Turmoil and instability made ruling virtually impossible, so Henry called a meeting of all the nobles—a hoftag—to Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt. All of these towns are in today’s modern Germany, for context.

The nobles all gathered in a large meeting hall within the citadel. It was a huge hall, but the hundred or so nobles, servants, and so forth just about filled it up.

Unsettlingly, the floors began to creak underneath their feet. These old wooden floors had not been designed to support t…