1. Map of the world as known to the Greeks, by Hecataeus, c.500 BC2. Perfection of the human form – male torso, Miletus, fifth century BC3. Pericles, presiding figure of Athenian ascendancy, c.430 BC4. Symbol of Athens’ golden age – Acropolis, with Parthenon temple5. Carthaginian coin, possibly of Hannibal and elephant6. Perhaps the first portrayal of Christ, as a shepherd, from the Roman catacombs, third century7. Hub of empire – ruins of the Roman Forum in the eighteenth century, by Piranesi8. Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, 306–379. Meeting of Pope Leo, attended by angels and apostles, and Attila the Hun, 45210. The empire’s last gasp – Justinian11. The empire’s last gasp – Justinian’s wife Theodora, Ravenna mosaic, c.54712. Charlemagne, King of Franks and first Holy Roman Emperor, 768–81413. Islam’s European splendour – the Great Mosque in Cordoba14. Death of Harold of England at Hastings, 1066, from the Bayeux tapestry15. Carved dragon head from the Oseberg Viking ship burial, 83416. Viking brutality – detail from the medieval Icelandic Flateyjarbók manuscript17. First Crusade assault on Jerusalem, 109918. Church versus state – Becket arguing with Henry II19. Church triumphant – Pope Innocent III20. The Black Death plagues Europe – Tournai, France, 134921. The burning of Jan Hus by the Council of Constance, 141522. Burgundian plenty – October, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry23. Constantinople falls to the Turks, 145324. Renaissance Rome – Ghirlandaio’s The Calling of SS. Peter and Andrew in the Sistine Chapel, 148125. Johannes Gutenberg, first printer of the Bible in 145526. Isabella of Castile, Catholic monarch, scourge of heresy, c.149027. Girolamo Savonarola, instigator of the bonfire of the vanities, 1494–828. Martin Luther, master of the Reformation29. Europe spreads its wings south and west – the port of Lisbon, 1542
THE FOUR PRINCES
30. Charles V of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, 1519–5631. Francis I of France, 1515–4732. Henry VIII of England, 1509–4733. Suleiman the Magnificent of Turkey, 1520–6634. The St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, France, 157235. Catherine de’ Medici, one of three women to rule France in the sixteenth century36. Paris was ‘worth a Mass’ – Henry IV of France, 1589–161037. The Defenestration of Prague, 161838. The Hanging – horrors of the Thirty Years War, 1618–4839. Louis XIV of France and his family dressed as classical deities, c.167040. Versailles, palace and gilded prison of the Sun King41. Battle of Blenheim, 170442. Frederick the Great of Prussia, 1740–8643. Maria Theresa of Austria, 1740–80, with her family44. Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, title page45. The Enlightenment personified – Voltaire in old age46. Catherine the Great of Russia, 1762–9647. The breeze of revolution by David – the Tennis Court Oath, 178948. England saves Europe ‘by her example’ – Battle of Trafalgar, 180549. From consul to emperor – Napoleon, 1799–1815, by Ingres50. Nemesis – the retreat from Moscow, 181251. The Congress of Vienna in session, 1815, with Castlereagh seated in the centre, and Talleyrand seated second from right52. First year of revolutions – Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People in Paris, 183053. Second year of revolutions – barricades in Vienna, 184854. Britain’s revolution – industrial Bradford, 184955. The state as ‘God walking on Earth’ – Georg William Frederick Hegel56. ‘You have nothing to lose but your chains’ – Karl Marx57. Britain at peace – Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition, 185158. Britain at war – Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, 185459. Revolutionary hero – Garibaldi in Sicily, 186060. Otto von Bismarck, 189061. Paris Commune – the toppling of Napoleon I’s statue, 187162. Spark of war – Archduke Ferdinand en route to his assassination, Sarajevo, 191463. The Taking of Vimy Ridge, 191764. Steps to emancipation – women workers in a German munitions factory, 191565. ‘The peace to end all wars’ – Treaty of Versailles, 191966. The Nuremberg Rally, 193767. The fall of Paris, 1940 – Hitler and Speer go sightseeing68. Reshaping Europe – Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin at Yalta, February 194569. Nadir of war – the destruction of Dresden, February 194570. Cold War begins: the Berlin airlift, 194871. Soviets triumphant – the Prague Spring, 1968, ultimately crushed72. Communism collapses – the fall of the Berlin Wall, 198973. Last rites for the Cold War – Gorbachev and Thatcher, 199074. Angela Merkel posing for a selfie at a migrant shelter – Berlin, 201575. A tsar in the making – Putin’s reinauguration, 201876. Allies at odds – the G7 summit, 2018
