Two Hours That Changed Europe

In this issue

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, opening the gates of Central Europe. The same year, on the other side of the world, Babur used guns against elephants at Panipat to open the door to India.

Second cover story: Remember, remember, the Gunpowder Plot of November 1605, from the first oath to Bonfire Night, in 20 pages. Plus a British special: Henry VIII’s 1526, the Tyndale New Testament that England burned, Holbein’s arrival in London, where to see 1526 in Britain’s museums, and November in British history, from the Gunpowder Plot to the first football international.

Also inside: the fall of Tenochtitlan, the city on the lake; 4,000-year-old merchant letters from Kültepe; Evliya Çelebi’s journey to Vienna; the mystery of Suleiman’s missing heart; a museum gallery, a pull-out poster, a quiz and a puzzle.

• 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.