This was tremendous, thank you so much for posting it! I'm just sorry I couldn't see it in person.

Can’t wait for the book!

First and only 37 minutes late, nice guest and fascinating topic. Edit: Maria Theresia was not instantly Empress and there never was a Kingdom of Austria. The Bavarians got elected Holy Roman Emperor and the Hungarian Crown was also not hereditary and she had to beg for Hungarian help which they mostly gave and that kept Hungary on side for a while. She was later coronated. As for First World War, while I reckon King William's War (1688-1697) is an earlier candidate, the scale was undoubtedly less so maybe this one. The claimants ought to be that war, Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) and King George's War (1744-1748). Edit2: I am glad Mr Pearce got the point about the French revolution, it was awful however the Church was being assailed by secular powers in the name of enlightened interests by the way, Priests were persecuted worse than in protestant countries by that point, monasteries were forcibly closed, Papal authority was asphyxiated and yet through all human disaster the Church rose again. Ultramontanism was codified in the Church, religious expression flowered and many previously unseen people were brought into the fold, many Vietnamese for example. Write what you will, He really battered those crooked edges.