Stories of the Centuries

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Two hours that changed Europe

500 years after Mohács, our cover story follows Suleiman the Magnificent’s army as it won a decisive pitched battle beside the Danube on 29 August 1526 in about two hours.

• P. 11Two hours that changed EuropeCover story. On 29 August 1526 Suleiman the Magnificent’s army won a pitched battle beside the Danube in about two hours, opening the gates of Central Europe.
• P. 56Remember, remember: the Gunpowder PlotSecond cover story. Thirteen men, thirty-six barrels and one anonymous letter. The plot to blow up King James I and his Parliament failed by a matter of hours.
• P. 40Same year, in India: Babur at Panipat21 April 1526. More than four thousand kilometres east of Mohács, at Panipat north of Delhi, another army was waiting.
• P. 78Tenochtitlan: the city on the lake8 November 1519: a handful of Spaniards set out along a stone causeway towards a vast city in the middle of a lake. Two years later the city was gone.
• P. 86Kültepe: 4,000-year-old lettersMore than 22,000 clay tablets have come out of a mound just outside Kayseri: haggling over prices, IOUs and family letters full of longing.
• P. 98Mystery file: where is Suleiman’s heart?The night of 6 September 1566, before the fortress of Szigetvár. Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha makes a decision: no one must know.