Curated playlist
Former kingdoms
- Indo-Greek KingdomAround 200 BC, the Greek king Demetrius I crossed the Hindu Kush into India.
- UrukTablets from the ancient city of Uruk hold the oldest known writing that names a person, Kushim.
- HittitesAround 1330 BC, the Hittite king Mursili II sent infected rams across enemy lines.
- Kingdom of EnglandThe Kingdom of England did not fall, it negotiated itself out of existence. Acts of Union ended it in 1707.
- NorthumbriaOf Northumbria's 25 kings before the Danes arrived, only four died of natural causes.
- Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy in Milan Cathedral in 1805. He wore the Iron Crown of Lombardy.
- Kingdom of PrussiaFrederick III of Brandenburg crowned himself king in 1701 by finding a loophole.
- Kingdom of RomaniaRomania's parliament crowned a German prince as its first king in 1881. The Kingdom of Romania lasted until 1947.
- Kingdom of SerbiaThe Kingdom of Serbia lasted only thirty-six years, from 1882 to 1918. It fought four wars and doubled its population.
- Kingdom of FranceThe Kingdom of France began with a treaty in 843, not a coronation. It split a dying empire into three at Verdun.
- Kingdom of Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain began on May 1, 1707, with a signature, not a battle.
- Hanthawaddy kingdomHanthawaddy kingdom began as a loose coalition of three rival centers. Its kings barely controlled their own vassals.
- EphesusAlexander the Great offered to pay for Ephesus's temple, and the Ephesians said no.
- Ayutthaya KingdomBurmese soldiers tunneled under Ayutthaya's walls in April 1767 and burned their foundations. The capital fell.
- Kingdom of JerusalemThe first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem refused a golden crown. Godfrey of Bouillon took a humbler title in 1099.
- Kingdom of GreeceThe Kingdom of Greece began with three men meeting in Odesa in 1814. They plotted revolt against Ottoman rule.
- Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)An admiral with no fleet ruled landlocked Hungary for a monarchy with no king.
- Kingdom of ItalyOn the 26th of October 1860, at the town of Teano, the revolutionary general Giuseppe Garibaldi shook the hand of Victor Emmanuel II and hailed him as King of Italy. Garibaldi was a republican. With that gesture he gave up his hopes for an…
- Sukhothai KingdomThe Sukhothai Kingdom's name means "the dawn of happiness." It ruled the early Siamese from 1238 until 1438.
- MycenaeMycenae's gold death mask predates the Trojan War by over three centuries.
- Kingdom of East AngliaKing Rædwald kept a Christian altar beside his altar to the old gods. He ruled East Anglia and was baptized in 604.
- Kingdom of PortugalPortugal's first king was proclaimed by his own troops in 1139. Afonso Henriques won a rival king's recognition in 1143.
- TroyTroy was rebuilt on the same hill so often that archaeologists count nine cities stacked there.
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandBritain paid twenty million pounds to plantation owners to end slavery in 1833.
- Kingdom of MysoreThe Kingdom of Mysore built the first iron-cased rockets in military history. Hyder Ali developed them in the 1780s.
- Kingdom of HungaryThe Kingdom of Hungary began with a crown placed on Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. It lasted until 1946.
- Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples never officially used the name Naples. Its title meant Sicily on this side of the lighthouse.
- MauretaniaThe word Moors comes from Mauretania, an ancient North African kingdom. Rome called its people the Mauri.
- MaldivesOne Maldives president held a cabinet meeting underwater. Mohamed Nasheed did it in 2009 to raise climate awareness.
- Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)King Louis II of Hungary died when he fell from his horse into a bog. His army had met the Ottomans at Mohács in 1526.
- Kingdom of KhotanA Chinese princess smuggled silkworm eggs to Khotan in her headdress. Guards at the border never found them.
- Bosporan KingdomThe Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving Roman client kingdom in history.