This is an exercise in “Speculative History.” It requires a knowledge of what has been discussed in class as well as an understanding that History turns on small changes that no one can predict. In answering these questions, yes, there is a wrong answer, as well as a right one. No book or online r

39630You are Pope Boniface IX, and have consulted with your counterparts, Pope Clement VII and Benedict XIII. Although helplessly outmatched against an enemy whose technology is a millennium ahead of your own, you have suggested to your counterparts to raise an army and fight. You have three candidates as commanders of this force: Edward the Black Prince of England, who is a superb military leader and is also ruthless and brutal, Charles IV Wenceslaus, who added Silesia to the Holy Roman Empire and was known as “Good King Wenceslaus”, and Charles III of Navarre, called “Charles the Bad”, who conquered Sardinia, Sicily, and crushed peasant revolts in France, where his armies captured Paris as allies of the English. You are writing a letter to your fellow Popes, telling them what happened in the war. Who would win? Why would they win? Take into account the biological, ecological, technological, and military considerations. A weapon is anything that you have at your disposal. Remember to address your fellow popes as “Your Holiness” and refer to kings and princes as “His Grace.”