2 - The War Of The Oaken Bucket

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Two medieval Italian city-states. Decades of political and territorial beef. Thousands of soldiers. One very questionable wooden bucket.

In 1325, Bologna and Modena went to war in what became known as the War of the Oaken Bucket. The popular story makes it sound pretty damn simple: Modena stole a bucket, Bologna wanted it back, and shit escalated until people were dying.

But… was that actually what happened?

In this episode, we travel back to 14th-century Italy to figure out what was really going on between Bologna and Modena, why their rivalry became so violent, what happened at the bloody Battle of Zappolino, and how a seemingly worthless wooden bucket became one of the most famous trophies in medieval history.

Because sometimes the story we remember is a hell of a lot simpler than the history that actually happened.

And yes… we will be saying the word bucket an absolutely unnecessary number of times.

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