217 Fun Facts About European History

Roughly what share of Europe's population did the Black Death kill between 1346 and 1353?

The Black Death killed an estimated 30% to 60% of Europeans, perhaps 25 to 50 million people; the continent's population did not regain its 14th-century level until the 16th century.

Genoese traders reportedly carried plague into Europe in 1347 from which Crimean port?

Genoese ships fleeing besieged Kaffa (modern Feodosia) in Crimea carried Yersinia pestis to Messina in 1347; the Mongol besiegers reportedly catapulted plague corpses over Kaffa's walls.

Which sultan's forces captured Constantinople on 29 May 1453?

He was only 21 at the time and was later nicknamed 'the Conqueror'.

How many days did the Ottoman siege of Constantinople last in 1453?

The siege lasted 53 days, from 6 April to 29 May 1453; Orban's great bombard, some 27 feet long, hurled 600-pound stone balls at the Theodosian Walls.

During the 1453 siege, Ottoman ships were dragged overland on greased logs into which waterway?

Mehmed's ships were hauled over the Galata ridge on greased logs into the Golden Horn, bypassing the great chain that barred the inlet's mouth from the Bosphorus.

Weeks before losing at Hastings in 1066, Harold Godwinson won which battle on 25 September?

At Stamford Bridge, east of York, Harold's army killed both Harald Hardrada of Norway and Harold's brother Tostig on 25 September 1066, nineteen days before Hastings.

The 1618 Defenestration of Prague is credited with triggering which war?

The 1618 defenestration launched the Bohemian Revolt that opened the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648); an earlier 1419 defenestration by Hussites had set off the Hussite Wars.

Protestant pamphleteers claimed the men thrown from a Prague window in 1618 survived by landing on what?

The dung heap was the Protestant retort to Catholic claims of angelic rescue; all three men, Martinitz, Slavata and the secretary Fabricius, survived the roughly 70-foot fall.

On 31 October 1517 Luther sent his theses to Albert of Brandenburg, archbishop of which city?

Albert of Brandenburg was Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg; Luther's dated letter to him on 31 October 1517 is firmer evidence than the door-posting story, first told by Melanchthon in 1546.

Which preacher's 1517 indulgence campaign near Wittenberg drew locals to buy pardons, provoking Luther?

Luther's theses aired misgivings about indulgences and their relation to repentance and papal authority.

How many prisoners were inside the Bastille when it was stormed on 14 July 1789?

The governor, de Launay, was killed after surrendering; 14 July is now France's national holiday.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in which town?

Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on Corsica's west coast, a year after France acquired the island from Genoa in 1768.

After abdicating in April 1814, Napoleon was exiled to which Mediterranean island?

Elba held Napoleon for under a year; he escaped, lost at Waterloo in June 1815 and was shipped to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.

What did Napoleon sell to the United States in 1803?

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 transferred about 828,000 square miles to the United States for roughly $15 million, nearly doubling the young republic's territory.

Napoleon died in 1821, aged 51, of what cause?

Stomach cancer was the finding of the 1821 autopsy on Saint Helena; arsenic theories circulated for decades, but his father Carlo had died of the same disease in 1785.

Magna Carta was agreed between King John and his rebel barons on 15 June 1215 at which water-meadow beside the Thames?

Runnymede, a water-meadow on the south bank of the Thames, is where it was sealed; Archbishop Stephen Langton drafted it to make peace between John and the barons.

Which pope annulled the 1215 Magna Carta, helping trigger the First Barons' War?

Innocent III declared the charter 'null and void of all validity for ever' in a bull of 24 August 1215; it was reissued in revised form after John's death in 1216.

How many exemplifications of the original 1215 Magna Carta survive?

Two are at the British Library, one at Lincoln Castle and one at Salisbury Cathedral.

What did East German authorities officially call the Berlin Wall?

The GDR called it the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall, the 'Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart'; construction began on 13 August 1961, and at least 140 people died trying to cross it.

In which year did East Germany open the Berlin Wall on 9 November?

On 9 November 1989 Günter Schabowski's muddled press conference led guards at Bornholmer Strasse to open the crossings that night; the inner-city border alone ran 43 km.

Which pope crowned Charlemagne emperor at St Peter's on Christmas Day 800?

Leo III placed the crown on Charlemagne's head at St Peter's on 25 December 800; Charlemagne had already been King of the Franks since 768.

Charlemagne built his great palace and chapel in which city?

Charlemagne made Aachen his chief residence, raising its Palatine Chapel in the 790s; he died there in 814 and is buried in what is now Aachen Cathedral.

Who commanded the Spanish Armada that sailed from Lisbon in May 1588?

The Duke of Medina Sidonia, a reluctant landsman, took command after the Marquis of Santa Cruz died in February 1588; Philip II sent the fleet against Elizabeth I.

Up to how many Armada ships were wrecked on the Irish coast in 1588?

Up to 24 Armada ships were wrecked along 500 km of Irish coast from Antrim to Kerry after English fire ships scattered the anchored fleet and autumn gales drove the survivors onto the rocks.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on 28 June 1914 in which city?

Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot in Sarajevo, capital of Austrian-annexed Bosnia, by Gavrilo Princip, one of six Young Bosnia conspirators posted along the route.

How did the archduke's car end up stopped right beside Gavrilo Princip in 1914?

Earlier that morning a bomb thrown by Čabrinović bounced off the folded car roof and wounded 16 to 20 bystanders.

Which Portuguese navigator first rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488?

Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, proving a sea route to the Indian Ocean existed; Vasco da Gama reached India by that route in 1498.

The Hundred Years' War between England and France actually lasted how many years?

Counted from Edward III's 1337 claim to the French throne to the 1453 battle of Castillon, the war ran 116 years in Edwardian, Caroline and Lancastrian phases.

Which English king won at Agincourt in 1415?

Henry V won at Agincourt in 1415; the tide turned against England after the Siege of Orléans in 1428–29, and Joan of Arc was executed in 1431.

After the Hundred Years' War, England kept one continental foothold until 1558. Which?

It fell during the reign of Mary I, a loss she reportedly said would be found written on her heart.

The 1648 Peace of Westphalia was signed in which two cities?

The settlement also confirmed the independence of the Dutch Republic and the Swiss Confederacy.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 began at Thomas Farriner's bakery on which street?

The fire began in Pudding Lane early on 2 September 1666 and destroyed some 13,200 houses and 87 parish churches, yet only a handful of deaths were officially recorded.

Christopher Wren designed the 202-foot Monument to the Great Fire of London with which collaborator?

It stands near the fire's starting point and was built between 1671 and 1676.

Vikings who travelled the Dnieper and Volga trade routes were known in the east by what name?

Varangians was the Byzantine and Slavic name for the Norse traders and warriors of the river routes; the Rus' princes of Kiev and the emperor's Varangian Guard both carried it.

Leif Erikson's short-lived North American settlement has been identified at which site?

L'Anse aux Meadows, at Newfoundland's northern tip, is the only confirmed Norse site in North America; excavated from 1960 by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad, it dates to around 1000.

The Treaty of Verdun in 843 gave the Carolingian middle kingdom to which grandson of Charlemagne?

Lothair I, the eldest brother, kept the imperial title and the middle kingdom stretching from the Low Countries to Italy; Louis the German took the east and Charles the Bald the west.

The Gutenberg Bible is nicknamed for the number of lines per page. How many?

Of the 158 or 180 copies printed in the 1450s, 49 survive in substantial part.

Who chaired the Congress of Vienna of 1814-15?

Metternich, Austria's foreign minister and the Congress's host, presided over it; Talleyrand nonetheless won defeated France a seat among the great powers.

The German Confederation created at the Congress of Vienna had how many member states?

The Confederation had 39 members at its 1815 founding, 35 monarchies and four free cities, under Austrian presidency, replacing the roughly 300 states of the old Holy Roman Empire.

Which emperor was forced to abdicate to Odoacer in 476, the usual end date of the Western Roman Empire?

Romulus Augustulus, a boy emperor, was deposed by Odoacer on 4 September 476 and pensioned off to Campania; Julius Nepos went on claiming the title from Dalmatia until 480.

Which Athenian general, the most experienced against Persia, led the Greeks at Marathon in 490 BC?

Miltiades, who had ruled the Thracian Chersonese as a Persian vassal, persuaded the generals to attack at Marathon; Herodotus has Pheidippides run to Sparta before the battle, not to Athens after it.

Who proposed staging a 'marathon race' at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896?

Michel Bréal, a French philologist and friend of Coubertin, proposed the race and donated its silver cup; the legend of a run to Athens first appears in Plutarch, nearly 600 years after the battle.

The Reconquista is traditionally dated from which battle of around 718 or 722?

Pelagius's victory at Covadonga in Asturias, dated 718 or 722, is the traditional start; the Reconquista ended with Granada's fall in 1492, 781 years after Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the strait in 711.

The Alhambra Decree of March 1492 gave Spain's Jews until which month to convert or leave?

Signed at Granada on 31 March 1492, the decree gave Jews four months, until 31 July, to accept baptism or leave Spain; the Catholic Monarchs had taken Granada that January.

Who commanded the Holy League fleet at Lepanto on 7 October 1571?

Don John of Austria, Philip II's 24-year-old half-brother, commanded the Holy League's roughly 200 galleys at Lepanto, the last great battle fought almost entirely between rowing vessels.

Which king led the 18,000-strong cavalry charge at the Battle of Vienna on 12 September 1683?

John III Sobieski of Poland led the charge with 3,000 Winged Hussars at its head and afterwards wrote to the pope 'Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit', 'we came, we saw, God conquered'.

Louis XIV's reign, the longest of any sovereign monarch, lasted roughly how many years?

Louis XIV reigned 72 years and 110 days, from 14 May 1643, when he was four, until his death at Versailles on 1 September 1715.

Louis XIV stripped the Huguenots of their rights by revoking which royal proclamation?

The Edict of Nantes, Henry IV's 1598 grant of Huguenot rights, was revoked by the Edict of Fontainebleau in October 1685, sending perhaps 200,000 Protestants into exile across Europe.

Who served as the first prime minister of unified Italy?

Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour was the first prime minister and Victor Emmanuel II the first king; Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand had conquered the south.

In which year did Rome become the capital of the Kingdom of Italy?

Rome became the capital in 1871, a year after Italian troops breached the Porta Pia on 20 September 1870; Venice had joined the kingdom in 1866.

The German Empire was proclaimed on 18 January 1871 in which room?

The proclamation took place in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles while Paris was under German siege; the Grand Duke of Baden led three cheers for 'Kaiser Wilhelm'.

Which statesman read out the proclamation of the German Empire in January 1871?

Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor at the ceremony.

The Bolshevik insurrection in Petrograd began on 25 October 1917 by the Julian calendar; which November day is that in the Gregorian?

The 7th of November in the Gregorian calendar was 25 October in the Julian one Russia still used; Nicholas II had stepped down on 15 March, or 2 March Old Style.

Who led the Bolshevik squad that killed the Romanov family on the night of 16-17 July 1918?

Yakov Yurovsky, commandant of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, led the squad and later wrote a detailed account; the grave was found by Alexander Avdonin and Geli Ryabov in 1979 and confirmed by DNA in 1994.

In 1998 the Romanovs' remains were reinterred in a state funeral at which church?

They were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg, the Romanov dynasty's burial church, on 17 July 1998, exactly eighty years after the killings.

The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) drew its dividing line 370 leagues west of which islands?

The line ran 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, which put the bulge of Brazil on Portugal's side and explains why Brazilians speak Portuguese.

Which general commanded the German 6th Army that surrendered at Stalingrad on 2 February 1943?

Friedrich Paulus, promoted field marshal a day earlier in the hope he would die rather than surrender, capitulated on 31 January 1943; the last pocket of the 6th Army gave up on 2 February.

The Treaty of Rome, signed on 25 March 1957, was signed by how many founding states?

Six states signed: Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, at the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill; the treaty took effect on 1 January 1958.

Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded on 8 February 1587. Where?

Elizabeth I, the last Tudor, was ultimately succeeded by Mary's son James VI of Scotland.

Which church gathering finally ended the Western Schism in 1417, electing Martin V?

The Council of Constance (1414-1418) removed the three rival popes of Rome, Avignon and Pisa by deposition or resignation and elected Martin V in November 1417.

The 1856 Treaty of Paris that ended the Crimean War forbade Russia from basing warships in which sea?

The treaty neutralised the Black Sea, barring Russian and Ottoman warships and coastal arsenals, a clause Russia repudiated in 1870; the 11-month Siege of Sevastopol had decided the war.

William of Orange landed his invasion army in Devon on 5 November 1688 at which bay?

William landed at Brixham in Torbay on 5 November 1688; the same 'Protestant wind' that carried his Dutch fleet down the Channel pinned the English navy in the Thames estuary.

Alexander the Great's horse Bucephalas carried him as far as India. What did the name mean?

Alexander was tutored by Aristotle at Mieza from the age of 13 and never lost a battle.

In which city did Alexander the Great die in 323 BC?

Alexander died in Babylon, in Nebuchadnezzar's old palace, in June 323 BC aged 32 after a fever; his troops had forced him to turn back at the Beas River in 326 BC.

The Hanseatic League's London trading post was known by what name?

The Steelyard (Stalhof), on the Thames where Cannon Street station now stands, was the London kontor; others stood at Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod, and the last Hanseatic Day met in 1669.

The Hanseatic League grew from which North German town in the late 12th century?

Lübeck, refounded by Henry the Lion in 1159, was the league's leading city and seat of its Hansetag; even at its peak the league had no permanent administration, treasury or army.

Which general reconquered North Africa and Italy for Emperor Justinian in the 6th century?

Belisarius took Vandal Carthage in 533 and Ostrogothic Ravenna in 540 for Justinian, who also rebuilt Hagia Sophia and codified Roman law as the Corpus Juris Civilis.

The Nika riots that shook Constantinople in January 532 grew out of which rivalry?

The riots began when the Blue and Green chariot-racing factions of the Hippodrome united against Justinian; Theodora's resolve kept him from fleeing, and his troops killed some 30,000 rioters in the Hippodrome.

Suleiman the Magnificent was known to his own Ottoman subjects by which epithet?

Ottomans called him Kanuni, 'the Lawgiver', for his codification of the kanun; his 46-year reign from 1520 to 1566 was the longest of any sultan.

Suleiman the Magnificent died in his tent in 1566 during the siege of which Hungarian fortress?

Suleiman died in his tent outside Szigetvár on the night of 6-7 September 1566, and his death was hidden from the army until the fortress fell; his son Selim II succeeded him.

Leonardo da Vinci spent his final years at Clos Lucé in the service of which French king?

Francis I invited Leonardo to France in 1516 and installed him at Clos Lucé beside the royal château of Amboise, where he died on 2 May 1519 aged 67.

Who led the Frankish forces that defeated an Umayyad army between Tours and Poitiers on 10 October 732?

Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, led the Franks; ninth-century chroniclers gave him the nickname Martellus, 'the hammer', for his many victories, not this battle alone.

Under what name did Peter the Great travel incognito with his Grand Embassy of 1697-98?

Peter travelled as 'Pyotr Mikhailov', a sergeant in the embassy's suite, working in the shipyards at Zaandam and Deptford; at a reported 6 ft 8 in, the disguise fooled few.

Which Swedish king did Peter the Great defeat at Poltava in 1709?

Charles XII of Sweden, wounded before the battle and carried in a litter, lost his army at Poltava on 8 July 1709 and fled into Ottoman territory; Peter moved his capital to Saint Petersburg in 1712.

Which representative body, last convened in 1614, did Louis XVI recall in 1789?

The Estates-General, representing clergy, nobility and commons, had not met since 1614; the nobles and parlements insisted only it could approve new taxes, and it opened at Versailles on 5 May 1789.

Which foundational statement of liberties did the National Assembly issue in 1789?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted on 26 August 1789, proclaimed that men are born free and equal in rights; the Assembly had abolished feudal privileges on 4 August.

The Women's March on Versailles in 1789 forced Louis XVI to move to which Paris palace?

On 6 October 1789 the crowd escorted Louis XVI and his family from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where they lived until the monarchy fell in August 1792.

Whose execution in July 1794 is taken to mark the end of the Reign of Terror?

Will Durant dated the Terror from the Law of Suspects on 17 September 1793 to that day.

Roughly how many people were officially executed during the Reign of Terror?

About 17,000 people, 16,594 by recorded death sentences, were officially executed; at least 300,000 suspects were arrested, and perhaps 10,000 more died in prison or without trial.

What name is given to the political turn that ended the Terror in 1794?

The Thermidorian Reaction takes its name from 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794), the day the Convention turned on the Committee of Public Safety's leaders; the Directory followed in 1795.

On what date was the Battle of Waterloo fought?

Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, two days after Ligny and Quatre Bras; it was Napoleon's last battle, and he abdicated for the second time on 22 June.

Which Prussian field marshal's army reinforced Wellington at Waterloo?

Gebhard von Blücher's Prussians, beaten at Ligny two days earlier, arrived on Napoleon's right flank late in the afternoon; Wellington's own army was a British, Dutch-Belgian and German coalition.

Which two marshals commanded Napoleon's wings at Waterloo?

Ney led the left wing, Grouchy the right.

Over roughly which years were the Napoleonic Wars fought?

The wars ran from Britain's declaration of war in May 1803 to Napoleon's final defeat in 1815; they are usually split into seven conflicts, five named for the coalitions that fought him.

Which 1805 naval victory gave Britain hegemony over the seas in the Napoleonic Wars?

Nelson's fleet destroyed the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, ending any invasion threat; Britain could not match France on land but ruled the sea thereafter.

Which archangel did Joan of Arc say guided her, along with Saints Margaret and Catherine?

Joan named Saint Michael the Archangel, with Saints Margaret and Catherine, as the voices she first heard at about age 13 in her father's garden at Domrémy.

On what date was Joan of Arc burned at the stake?

Joan was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, aged about nineteen, two years after she had Charles VII crowned at Reims; a retrial annulled her conviction in 1456.

In which city was Joan of Arc tried and executed?

Joan was tried by a church court under Bishop Pierre Cauchon in English-held Rouen, the capital of Normandy, and burned there in the Old Market Square.

Where was William the Conqueror crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066?

William was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 25 December 1066; when the congregation's shouted acclamation alarmed the Norman guards outside, they set fire to nearby houses.

Which survey did William the Conqueror complete by 1086?

The Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, recorded the landholders, tenants and taxable value of most of England and parts of Wales; its name likens it to the Day of Judgement.

Which pope's speech at Clermont in 1095 launched the First Crusade?

Urban II preached the crusade at the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, reportedly to cries of 'Deus vult', after Byzantine envoys had asked for military help at Piacenza that spring.

In which year did the First Crusade capture Jerusalem?

Jerusalem fell to the crusaders on 15 July 1099 after a five-week siege; Godfrey of Bouillon then took the title Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.

Which Byzantine emperor requested Western military aid before the First Crusade?

His ambassadors reached the Council of Piacenza in 1095.

Which Byzantine emperor died defending Constantinople in 1453?

Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor, was last seen fighting at the walls on 29 May 1453; his body was never certainly identified.

Which emperor moved the Roman capital to Constantinople and legalised Christianity?

Constantine I legalised Christianity with the Edict of Milan in 313 and dedicated Constantinople, on the site of Greek Byzantium, as his new capital on 11 May 330.

Which Byzantine emperor earned the epithet 'Bulgar-Slayer' after crushing Bulgaria in 1014?

Basil II, Boulgaroktonos, reportedly blinded thousands of Bulgarian prisoners after the 1014 battle of Kleidion and annexed the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018.

Which Lombard king did Charlemagne depose after taking Pavia in 774?

Charlemagne besieged Pavia for nine months and deposed Desiderius in June 774, taking the title King of the Lombards himself; Desiderius was confined in a Frankish monastery.

Which atrocity did Charlemagne commit while forcibly Christianising a conquered people?

He was crowned emperor in Rome in 800.

Which philosopher said the Holy Roman Empire was "in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire"?

Voltaire made the quip in his 1756 Essai sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations, mocking an institution that by then was a loose patchwork of some 300 German states.

Whose 962 coronation by Pope John XII revived the imperial title in the West?

Otto I of Saxony, 'the Great', was crowned by John XII on 2 February 962 after marching into Italy against Berengar of Ivrea; his coronation is the conventional birth of the Holy Roman Empire.

Which Florentine writer set the Decameron among young people fleeing the Black Death?

Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, completed around 1353, frames its hundred tales as told by ten young Florentines sheltering from the plague in a country villa.

In which year did the Black Death first reach England?

The plague reached England in June 1348, landing at Melcombe Regis in Dorset, and was in London by the autumn; it killed perhaps a third to a half of the population.

Which minority did panicked Europeans falsely blame for spreading the Black Death by poisoning wells?

Jews were accused of poisoning wells, and massacres followed in Strasbourg, Mainz and dozens of other towns in 1348-49, even though Pope Clement VI condemned the charge.

Which 1555 settlement let each German prince choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for his lands?

The Peace of Augsburg of 1555, under the principle cuius regio, eius religio, let each prince choose Lutheranism or Catholicism for his territory; Calvinism was not covered until 1648.

Which French reformer developed the Reformed tradition from Geneva?

John Calvin, born at Noyon in Picardy, settled in Geneva in 1536 and again from 1541; his Institutes of the Christian Religion shaped the Reformed churches of Scotland, the Netherlands and France.

Which Catholic assembly of 1545–1563 answered the Reformation?

The Council of Trent met in three periods between 1545 and 1563, defining Catholic doctrine on justification, the sacraments and scripture, and became the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.

Which imperial generalissimo was murdered at Eger in 1634 after Ferdinand II branded him a traitor?

Albrecht von Wallenstein, the emperor's over-mighty commander, was killed by his own officers at Eger (Cheb) on 25 February 1634 after Ferdinand II declared him a traitor.

Which king was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688?

James II fled to France in December 1688 after William of Orange's invasion; Parliament's Convention ruled that he had abdicated and offered the crown to his daughter Mary and her husband William.

What did the Convention Parliament of 1689 make William and Mary?

The Convention Parliament declared William and Mary joint monarchs of England and Ireland on 13 February 1689, with William holding the executive power; Scotland's Convention of Estates offered its crown separately that spring.

The English Civil War was fought between Royalists and which faction?

The Parliamentarians, nicknamed Roundheads, fought the Royalist Cavaliers from 1642; Parliament's New Model Army won decisively at Naseby in 1645.

What did the nickname "Roundhead" refer to?

"Cavalier" came from a Latin root meaning horseman, used as an insult.

Which cavalry commander of the New Model Army became Lord Protector in 1653?

Oliver Cromwell, who had led the New Model Army's cavalry at Naseby, was installed as Lord Protector on 16 December 1653 under the Instrument of Government.

Which 1651 battle ended Charles II's attempt to regain the throne by force?

At Worcester on 3 September 1651 the New Model Army destroyed Charles II's mainly Scottish army; Charles fled, hiding in the Boscobel oak, and escaped to France.

By what nickname did Louis XIV style himself?

Louis XIV took the sun as his emblem and danced as Apollo in court ballets, hence 'the Sun King'; from 1682 he ruled from the palace he built at Versailles.

Whose lavish fête at Vaux-le-Vicomte in 1661 prompted Louis XIV to have him arrested?

Nicolas Fouquet, the finance minister, displayed wealth at Vaux-le-Vicomte in August 1661 that alarmed the king; d'Artagnan arrested him weeks later, and he died in prison at Pignerol in 1680.

Which rebellions did Louis XIV face during his minority?

The Fronde of 1648-53, first by the Parlement and then by princes such as Condé, marked Louis XIV's childhood; he later tamed the aristocracy by binding it to court life at Versailles.

Which war did Tsar Peter win to gain Baltic coastline for Russia?

Victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700-21) gave Russia Ingria, Estonia and Livonia by the Treaty of Nystad, after which Peter took the title of emperor.

What did Francesco Algarotti famously call Tsar Peter's new Baltic city?

He founded it on the Neva River in 1703.

Whom did Catherine the Great overthrow to become Empress of Russia in 1762?

Catherine's guards regiments deposed her husband Peter III in a coup on 9 July 1762, six months into his reign; he died in custody days later, probably killed by Alexei Orlov.

Which Cossack-led revolt challenged Catherine the Great's rule?

Catherine also annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783.

Which former favourite of Elizabeth I was beheaded in 1601 after a failed rising in London?

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, once the queen's favourite, led a failed rising in London on 8 February 1601 and was beheaded at the Tower on 25 February.

Which Protestant cousin did Edward VI try to make queen, bypassing Mary and Elizabeth?

Edward VI's 'Devise for the Succession' named Lady Jane Grey, his Protestant cousin, who was proclaimed queen in July 1553 for nine days before Mary seized the throne.

How is Henry VIII's marital history often summarised in a rhyme's first two words?

The rhyme runs 'divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived', for Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr in turn.

Which archbishop of Canterbury declared Henry VIII's first marriage void in 1533?

The pope then excommunicated Henry, who passed the Acts of Supremacy.

Which minister ran the dissolution of the monasteries for Henry VIII from 1536?

Thomas Cromwell, as vicegerent in spirituals, ran the dissolution of the monasteries from 1536 to 1540, transferring their lands to the Crown; he was executed in July 1540.

Which Lord High Admiral commanded the English fleet against the Armada in 1588?

Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham, was Lord High Admiral and commanded the English fleet against the Armada in 1588, flying his flag in the Ark Royal.

Who raided Cádiz in 1587, 'singeing the King of Spain's beard' and delaying the Armada?

Francis Drake's raid on Cádiz in April 1587 destroyed some 30 ships and their stores, which he called 'singeing the King of Spain's beard', and delayed the Armada by a year.

On which Caribbean island did Columbus found La Navidad, his first settlement, in 1492?

Columbus built La Navidad on Hispaniola from the timbers of the wrecked Santa María in December 1492; the 39 men he left there were all dead when he returned in 1493.

Columbus set sail with three ships in August 1492 from which Spanish port?

The Port of Palos saw Columbus off in August 1492 with three ships; he made landfall in the Americas on 12 October.

Which 793 attack is traditionally taken as the start of the Viking Age in England?

Norsemen destroyed the abbey on the island on 8 June 793.

What were the Vikings' characteristic vessels called?

Longships, shallow-draught and clinker-built with oars and a square sail, could cross the North Sea and row far up rivers; the broader knarr was the cargo ship that settled Iceland and Greenland.

Which Umayyad governor of al-Andalus was killed by the Franks at Tours in 732?

Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, governor of al-Andalus, died in the battle fought between Tours and Poitiers in October 732; the Frankish victory checked the Umayyad advance into Gaul.

On what date was the Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919?

It came five years to the day after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

Which Kaiser did the Treaty of Versailles seek to put on trial?

Article 227 arraigned Wilhelm II 'for a supreme offence against international morality', but the Netherlands, where he had fled in November 1918, refused to hand him over.

On what date did World War I begin?

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, a month after Princip shot Franz Ferdinand on 28 June; Germany, Russia, France and Britain were all at war within a week.

Which nationality was Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Franz Ferdinand?

Princip was a Bosnian Serb from Obljaj in western Bosnia; at 19 he was too young for the death penalty and died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt prison in April 1918.

With which country's invasion is World War II generally considered to have begun?

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and Britain and France declared war two days later; the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on 17 September.

Roughly how many people died in World War II, making it history's deadliest conflict?

A majority of the dead were civilians.

Which cruiser's blank shot signalled the assault on the Winter Palace in 1917?

The cruiser Aurora fired a blank from the Neva on the evening of the rising as the signal to storm the Winter Palace; the ship later became a museum in Leningrad.

Who led the Provisional Government overthrown in the October Revolution?

Alexander Kerensky, a Socialist Revolutionary lawyer, had headed the Provisional Government since July 1917; he fled Petrograd during the rising and died in exile in New York in 1970.

In which Italian city was the Renaissance first centred?

Florence, enriched by banking and the wool trade, was the cradle of the Renaissance; the Medici patronised Donatello, Botticelli and Michelangelo there in the 15th century.

Which 14th-century poet did contemporaries credit with reviving learning from classical sources?

Petrarch (1304-74), who rediscovered Cicero's letters at Verona in 1345, was hailed as the father of humanism, a movement built on the Roman ideal of humanitas.

Who designed the dome of Florence Cathedral, completed in 1436?

Filippo Brunelleschi won the 1418 competition to vault Florence Cathedral and raised the dome without centering, completing it in 1436; Ghiberti had beaten him for the Baptistery doors in 1401.

Around which year and country did the Industrial Revolution begin?

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain around 1760, driven by cheap coal, coke-smelted iron and Watt's steam engine, and had spread to continental Europe and the United States by about 1840.

Which industry mechanised rapidly in 1780s Britain during the Industrial Revolution?

Textile spinning mechanised first: Hargreaves's jenny, Arkwright's water frame and Crompton's 1779 mule filled the cotton mills of the 1780s, before steam and iron took off after 1800.

Which pope authorised the Spanish Inquisition in 1478?

Sixtus IV's bull Exigit sincerae devotionis of 1 November 1478 let Ferdinand and Isabella name inquisitors, and the first were appointed in 1480.

Which Dominican friar was a driving force of the early Spanish Inquisition?

Tomás de Torquemada, a Dominican and confessor to Isabella, became Grand Inquisitor in 1483 and oversaw the Inquisition's first fifteen years, including the 1492 expulsion of the Jews.

Which movement led to the 1861 creation of the Kingdom of Italy?

The Risorgimento, 'resurgence', was the movement for Italian unification; Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed King of Italy on 17 March 1861 after Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand.

Which epithet did Italians give King Victor Emmanuel II?

Italians styled Victor Emmanuel II 'Padre della Patria', Father of the Fatherland, echoing the Roman senate's title Pater Patriae; the Vittoriano in Rome was begun in his honour in 1885.

By what nickname was Otto von Bismarck known?

His Realpolitik oversaw German unification.

Bismarck served as Germany's first chancellor over which years?

His balance-of-power diplomacy kept Europe largely at peace.

Which 1870 battle saw Napoleon III captured, breaking the Second French Empire?

Napoleon III surrendered with his army at Sedan on 2 September 1870; two days later Paris proclaimed a republic and a Government of National Defence.

Which revolutionary uprising seized the French capital for two months after the 1870 war?

The Paris Commune held the city from 18 March to 28 May 1871, when Thiers's troops crushed it in the 'Bloody Week', killing thousands of Communards and shaping Third Republic politics.

Which Jamaican-born nurse opened a 'British Hotel' for troops during the Crimean War?

Mary Seacole, a Jamaican-born nurse refused a place in Nightingale's party, paid her own way to the Crimea and opened her 'British Hotel' for soldiers near the British base in 1855.

Which battle of 25 October 1854 included the Charge of the Light Brigade?

At Balaclava on 25 October 1854 a garbled order sent Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade charging Russian guns down the 'Valley of Death', with about 110 men killed; Tennyson's poem followed within weeks.

Which Berlin crossing saw US and Soviet tanks face off for sixteen hours in October 1961?

Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse, the Allied crossing for foreigners and diplomats, saw American and Soviet tanks confront each other at close range on 27-28 October 1961.

The potato blight behind the Irish famine has been traced to which region of Mexico?

Genetic studies trace Phytophthora infestans, an oomycete rather than a true fungus, to Mexico's Toluca Valley; the strain that struck Europe in 1845 probably crossed the Atlantic in North American shipments.

On what date was Francisco Franco appointed supreme leader of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War?

Franco was proclaimed head of government and Generalísimo at Burgos on 1 October 1936; he ruled the 'Spanish State' until his death in November 1975, backed during the war by Germany and Italy.

Which 1974 Eurovision entry was the first secret radio signal for Portugal's Carnation Revolution?

'E Depois do Adeus', Portugal's 1974 Eurovision entry by Paulo de Carvalho, aired at 22:55 on 24 April as the first signal; 'Grândola, Vila Morena' followed after midnight to confirm the coup was on.

At the peak of Dutch tulip mania in 1637, which bulb variety was the most expensive, once selling for 10,000 guilders?

Semper Augustus, a red-and-white flamed tulip, was the most coveted bulb; one reputedly went for 10,000 guilders, over ten times a skilled artisan's yearly income, before the market collapsed in February 1637.

The three Partitions of Poland erased the Commonwealth from the map for how many years?

Poland vanished for 123 years, from the Third Partition of 1795, which followed the failed Kościuszko Uprising, until independence in November 1918; Austria had sat out the Second Partition of 1793.

Roughly how many Hungarians fled the country after the 1956 uprising was crushed?

Some 200,000 to 250,000 Hungarians fled west, mostly through Austria, after Soviet forces crushed the revolt on 4 November 1956; it had begun with a student march on 23 October.

Which Czechoslovak leader's 'socialism with a human face' reforms were crushed in 1968?

Alexander Dubček, First Secretary from January 1968, loosened censorship under the slogan 'socialism with a human face'; after the August invasion he was replaced by Gustáv Husák in April 1969.

The Velvet Revolution began on 17 November 1989, a date marking the anniversary of what?

Within days the crowds in Prague swelled from 200,000 to an estimated 500,000, ending 41 years of one-party rule.

Which queen designed the Kalmar Union that joined three Scandinavian kingdoms from 1397?

Margaret I of Denmark, regent of all three kingdoms, engineered the union sealed at Kalmar in 1397 under her great-nephew Eric of Pomerania; Sweden left for good when Gustav Vasa was elected king in June 1523.

The Belgian Revolution erupted in August 1830 after audiences left a performance of which nationalistic opera?

Auber's La muette de Portici, with its duet 'Amour sacré de la patrie', sent the La Monnaie audience into the streets on 25 August 1830; independence was proclaimed on 4 October and recognised at the London Conference.

The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 was concluded between how many member states?

Twelve states, the membership since Spain and Portugal joined in 1986, signed at Maastricht on 7 February 1992; the treaty created EU citizenship and set the timetable for the single currency.

Which US president proposed the League of Nations in his Fourteen Points, only for his own country never to join?

Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize as the League's chief architect, but the US Senate vote on joining fell short of the two-thirds it needed.

Which Nazi leader was jailed after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923 and dictated a book in prison?

Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years for treason but walked free after nine months in Landsberg Prison, where he dictated Mein Kampf to fellow inmates.

Which former newspaper editor became Italy's prime minister in October 1922 after his Blackshirts marched on Rome?

Benito Mussolini left the march itself to four lieutenants and waited in Milan, taking power when the king appointed him rather than by force.

Which German city gave its name to the republic whose national assembly met there in 1919 to avoid unrest in Berlin?

Weimar hosted the national assembly that wrote the 1919 constitution, so a quiet town that never served as the capital lent its name to fourteen turbulent years.

Which country, created in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, took a shorter name in 1929?

Yugoslavia means 'land of the South Slavs', and the new name arrived together with a royal dictatorship that the king declared in January 1929.

Which French prime minister, nicknamed 'the Tiger', pressed for harsh terms on Germany at the Paris Peace Conference?

Georges Clemenceau was shot in the back by a would-be assassin during the conference and later joked about the gunman's poor aim.

Which German industrial region did French and Belgian troops occupy in 1923 after reparations payments fell behind?

The Ruhr answered with passive resistance backed by Berlin, a shutdown that helped spark the hyperinflation of 1923.

Which economist quit the Paris peace talks in 1919 and attacked the settlement in a best-selling book?

John Maynard Keynes resigned from the British Treasury team in protest and argued in The Economic Consequences of the Peace that the terms were a 'Carthaginian peace'.

Which country broke from Russia in December 1917, then fought a civil war between Reds and Whites in 1918?

Finland's Whites won within months under Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, who had spent three decades as an officer in the Russian tsar's own army.

Which 1920 peace settlement, signed in a French palace, left Hungary with less than a third of its pre-war land?

The Treaty of Trianon also left nearly a third of ethnic Hungarians living under foreign rule and cost the country its access to the sea.

Which English philosopher's 1651 book Leviathan argued that only an absolute sovereign could keep people from chaos?

Thomas Hobbes had watched the English Civil War tear his country apart, and concluded that life without a strong ruler would be 'nasty, brutish and short'.

Which 1689 act of Parliament barred the English crown from suspending laws or keeping a peacetime army without consent?

The Bill of Rights also outlawed excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments, wording the United States later copied into its own constitution.

Which Dutch city, home to what is considered the oldest modern stock exchange, was Europe's financial hub in the 1600s?

Amsterdam's exchange sprang up after 1602 so that investors could trade their shares in the newly founded Dutch East India Company.

Which 1679 English law let a prisoner demand that a judge examine whether the detention was lawful?

The Habeas Corpus Act carries a famous legend: that it passed the Lords only because a teller jokingly counted one very fat peer as ten, a story historians doubt.

Which 1689 work by John Locke argued that rulers need the people's consent and may be overthrown?

Two Treatises of Government was published anonymously after the Glorious Revolution, though Locke had probably drafted it almost a decade earlier.

Which finance minister of Louis XIV built up French industry and trade through tariffs and state-backed manufactures?

Colbert founded a royal glassworks in 1665 so that France could stop buying Venetian glass, then banned the imports once the new industry was on its feet.

Which nickname, taken from Scottish Presbyterian rebels, stuck to MPs who tried to bar a Catholic heir around 1680?

Whigs was short for Whiggamore, and their rivals fared no better: the Tories were named after Irish outlaws.

Which levy, extended to England's inland counties in the 1630s without Parliament, did John Hampden refuse to pay?

Ship money had been charged only on coastal areas to fund the navy; Hampden lost his case, but five of the twelve judges backed him and payments collapsed.

Which office made the princes of Orange the leading figures of the Dutch Republic without making them kings?

Stadtholder literally means 'stead holder': the post began as a medieval lord's deputy in each province, and was made formally hereditary in every province only in 1747.

Which execution device was named after a physician who proposed it to France's National Assembly as a humane method?

The guillotine was built to a design by the surgeon Antoine Louis and was first known as the louisette; Dr Guillotin had only proposed the idea.

Which Austrian-born queen of France was tried for treason and executed in Paris in October 1793?

Marie Antoinette is forever linked to telling the hungry to eat cake, yet there is no evidence she ever said it.

Which indoor sports venue gave its name to the oath sworn by France's Third Estate after a lockout in June 1789?

A tennis court was where the deputies gathered when they found their own hall locked and guarded, and there they vowed not to separate until France had a constitution.

Which marching song, written in Strasbourg in 1792, took its name from the volunteers who sang it on reaching Paris?

La Marseillaise was first called the War Song for the Army of the Rhine, written after France declared war on Austria.

Which radical journalist was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday in July 1793?

Jean-Paul Marat spent much of each day in a medicinal bath to soothe a painful skin condition, and received Corday there when she called as a petitioner.

Which Geneva-born philosopher argued in The Social Contract that legitimate power rests on the people's general will?

Rousseau held that people are free only when they obey laws they have made together, an idea that helped inspire revolution in France.

Which club, the most powerful of the French Revolution, was named after the Dominican monastery where it met?

The Jacobins rented the friars' refectory, which stood next door to the chamber where the Assembly sat.

Which Prussian king, a flute-playing composer, declared that a ruler should be the first servant of the state?

Frederick the Great wrote 121 flute sonatas and four concertos in between the wars that turned Prussia into a great power.

Which Habsburg emperor abolished serfdom in 1781 and let Protestants and Orthodox Christians worship openly?

Joseph II moved so fast that protests and passive resistance forced him to withdraw many of his reforms in Hungary shortly before his death.

Under which surname, borrowed from a medieval ancestor, was the dethroned Louis XVI put on trial in December 1792?

Capet came from Hugh Capet, who founded the royal line in 987; the name turned a dethroned monarch into plain Citizen Louis.

Which Carthaginian general marched war elephants over the Alps in 218 BC to invade Italy?

Hannibal got most of his elephants across the Alps and used them at the Trebia that winter, then went on to crush Roman armies at Lake Trasimene and Cannae.

Which volcano buried the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and pumice in AD 79?

Mount Vesuvius caught the region off guard because small tremors were routine there, and the only eyewitness account survives in two letters by Pliny the Younger.

Which prehistoric stone circle on Salisbury Plain includes bluestones brought about 150 miles from Wales?

Stonehenge is aligned towards sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice, which suggests its builders were tracking the turning of the year.

Which Greek city-state's king Leonidas died holding the pass at Thermopylae against a Persian invasion in 480 BC?

Sparta's Leonidas was killed on the third and final day of the battle, and the 300 Spartans who fell with him became a byword for a last stand.

Which river did Julius Caesar cross with his army in 49 BC, starting a civil war and a phrase for no return?

The Rubicon marked the edge of Caesar's province of Cisalpine Gaul, and he allegedly remarked as he crossed that the die was cast.

Which Bronze Age civilisation of Crete built the sprawling palace of Knossos, long before classical Greece?

The Minoans were named in modern times after the mythical King Minos, a label popularised by the archaeologist Arthur Evans.

Which queen of the Iceni led a revolt that burned Roman London, Colchester and St Albans around AD 60?

Boudica took up arms after Roman officials had her flogged and her daughters assaulted, by the account of the Roman historian Tacitus.

Which Athenian statesman led the city in its golden age and launched the building of the Parthenon?

Pericles paid for his temples out of the treasury of Athens's allies, and died in 429 BC of the plague that was ravaging the city.

Which Gallic chieftain united the tribes against Julius Caesar and surrendered after the siege of Alesia in 52 BC?

Vercingetorix had beaten Caesar at Gergovia earlier in the campaign; after surrendering he was held in Rome for six years, then executed following Caesar's triumph.

Which Germanic chieftain, trained as a Roman officer, wiped out three legions in the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9?

Arminius had learned Latin and earned Roman citizenship in the army, then lured the governor Varus into an ambush that ended Rome's attempt to conquer Germania.

Which artist, primarily a sculptor, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling for Pope Julius II between 1508 and 1512?

Michelangelo was reluctant to take the job and suggested that his young rival Raphael paint the ceiling instead.

Which Italian scientist discovered four moons of Jupiter in 1610 with a telescope he had improved himself?

Galileo Galilei was later tried by the Inquisition, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Which Polish astronomer's 1543 book placed the Sun, not the Earth, at the centre of the planets' orbits?

Copernicus saw his book into print just before he died; legend has it that the final printed pages reached him on the very day of his death.

Which Portuguese navigator led the first voyage around the world but was killed in the Philippines in 1521?

Ferdinand Magellan set out with a fleet of five and about 270 men; only the Victoria completed the voyage, under Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Which Italian diplomat wrote The Prince, a handbook for rulers that made his name a byword for cunning?

Niccolò Machiavelli never saw the book in print: it was published in 1532, five years after his death.

Which imperial assembly of 1521 heard Martin Luther refuse to recant and saw him condemned as an outlaw?

The Diet of Worms ended with Luther branded a heretic; fearing for his safety, his own prince staged a fake highway attack and hid him in Wartburg Castle.

Which Danish astronomer, who lost part of his nose in a duel, ran an observatory on the island of Hven?

Tycho Brahe wore a brass false nose for the rest of his life, and his data later let Johannes Kepler work out the laws of planetary motion.

Which queen mother of France has traditionally been blamed for the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572?

Catherine de' Medici saw three of her sons reign in turn, and the killings began days after her daughter's wedding to a Protestant king.

Which Swedish king, nicknamed the Lion from the North, was killed leading a cavalry charge at Lützen in 1632?

Gustavus Adolphus rode astray in fog and gunsmoke and was cut off behind enemy lines; his army won the battle anyway but lost its direction without him.

Which Dutch city gave its name to the 1713 treaties that ended the War of the Spanish Succession?

Utrecht's treaties let Louis XIV's grandson keep the Spanish throne provided the French and Spanish crowns never merged, and gave Britain Gibraltar.

Which Swiss town gave its name to the 1925 treaties in which Germany accepted its borders with France and Belgium?

Locarno's treaties so improved the mood of western Europe that hopes for further peaceful settlements became known as the 'spirit of Locarno'.