Curated playlist
Former monarchies of Europe
- Carolingian EmpireOn Christmas Day in the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Roman Emperor in Rome.
- Achaemenid EmpireIn October 539 BC, Cyrus the Great captured Babylon. His Achaemenid Empire had already toppled Media and Lydia.
- Austrian EmpireIn 1804, Francis II declared himself Emperor of Austria out of fear of Napoleon. He was already Holy Roman Emperor.
- Crown of AragonThe Crown of Aragon began with a monk who never wanted to be king. Nobles pulled Ramiro II out of his monastery in 1134.
- Kingdom of EnglandThe Kingdom of England did not fall, it negotiated itself out of existence. Acts of Union ended it in 1707.
- MerciaAfter her husband died in 911, Æthelflæd ruled the English kingdom of Mercia in her own right.
- 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.
- Crown of CastileThe Crown of Castile never formally ended, yet it vanished into a new name: Spain.
- 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.
- Ancient CarthageWhen Rome destroyed Carthage in 146 BC, it burned nearly every Carthaginian text.
- Roman KingdomAfter a Roman king died, a senator served five days with one task: nominating the next king.
- Kingdom of Great BritainThe Kingdom of Great Britain began on May 1, 1707, with a signature, not a battle.
- Grand Duchy of LithuaniaBy 1440, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest state in Europe. It began among pagan tribes in forests.
- Mongol EmpireMongol Empire riders regularly covered 125 miles a day by swapping horses at relay posts.
- Austria-HungaryIn 1867, Emperor Franz Joseph signed laws creating the Dual Monarchy of Austria and Hungary. It lasted until 1918.
- German EmpireThe German Empire was proclaimed inside the Palace of Versailles. Paris was still under siege on that day in 1871.
- First Bulgarian EmpireAfter a defeat in 680, a Byzantine emperor had to pay tribute to people he called "unclean and newly emerged."
- Habsburg monarchyThe Habsburg monarchy began with a single castle in present-day Switzerland. Its builder was Radbot of Klettgau.
- Kingdom of GreeceThe Kingdom of Greece began with three men meeting in Odesa in 1814. They plotted revolt against Ottoman rule.
- Duchy of OldenburgIn 1448, a count of Oldenburg was elected King of Denmark. His small German county suddenly became a Danish exclave.
- First French EmpireSoldiers ordered to arrest Napoleon joined him instead. He had escaped Elba with a thousand men and four cannons.
- Empire of ThessalonicaThe Empire of Thessalonica lost its army at Klokotnitsa in 1230. Its ruler was captured and later blinded by Bulgaria.
- 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…
- Latin EmpireThe Latin Empire ended in 1261 when roughly 800 soldiers opened a city gate. They were only scouts.
- Maritime republicsIn 849, four Italian coastal cities sailed to Ostia and shattered a Saracen invasion fleet.
- Archduchy of AustriaDuke Rudolf IV of Austria forged a document in 1358 to win higher rank. Emperor Charles IV called it a fraud.
- Lordship of IrelandIn 1185, Henry II had a gold and peacock feather crown made for his son John. John was meant to be King of Ireland.
- Gallic EmpireIn 260, a Roman general had his emperor's son killed and founded the Gallic Empire. It held for fourteen years.
- Hospitaller MaltaIn 1530, Emperor Charles V gave Malta to a displaced order of knights for one falcon a year.
- Kingdom of WestphaliaOf 25,000 Westphalian soldiers who marched into Russia in 1812, only 600 returned. The kingdom fell the next year.
- Kingdom of PortugalPortugal's first king was proclaimed by his own troops in 1139. Afonso Henriques won a rival king's recognition in 1143.
- Kingdom of SardiniaThe Kingdom of Sardinia began in 1297 as a kingdom on paper only. A pope offered it to Aragon's king as a bribe.
- DaciaDacian king Burebista persuaded his people to cut down their vineyards and give up wine.
- Holy Roman EmpireIn 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne and named him Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire lasted until 1806.
- Western Roman EmpireThe Western Roman Empire ended in 476 with barely anyone noticing. A Germanic leader deposed a teen emperor.
- ColchisAccording to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in one city of ancient Colchis.
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandBritain paid twenty million pounds to plantation owners to end slavery in 1833.
- BadenBaden, a region of Germany, is only 18 kilometers wide at its narrowest. Locals call it the wasp's waist.
- Duchy of MilanA single document signed in Prague in 1395 created the Duchy of Milan. It made Gian Galeazzo Visconti a duke.
- Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples never officially used the name Naples. Its title meant Sicily on this side of the lighthouse.
- Empire of TrebizondTrebizond's emperors married their daughters to Turkish rulers to buy peace. The empire lasted until 1461.
- Grand Principality of MoscowMoscow began as a small border town given to a prince's youngest son. It later became the seat of Russia's first tsar.
- Vladimir-SuzdalVladimir-Suzdal, a woodland principality, became the core of the Russian state.
- Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire began as a republic run by elected officials. It still lasted, in one form or another, until 1453.
- Ottoman EmpireThe last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, was a direct male-line descendant of the empire's first sultan, Osman I.
- Russian EmpireRussia sold Alaska to the United States for 11 million rubles in 1867. Russia called its colony indefensible.