Images

A map illustrating the transformation of the East India Company from a hopeful merchant venture in 1600 with isolated trade outposts governed by isolated and mostly independent town councils into a major ruler of large territories in India...

A 19th-century illustration showing officers and sepoys (Indian recruits) of the East India Company's Madras army.

An 1839 illustration showing a trooper and sepoy (Indian recruit) of the East India Company army. 27th Regiment of Madras Native Infantry. (British Library, London)

A c. 1850 print showing an opium warehouse of the East India Company in Patna, India. Opium was dried into large balls and then packed into chests for transportation to China.

A 1778 allegorical painting commissioned by the East India Company showing the riches of the East being presented to Britannia. Painted by Spyridon Romas. The goods shown include tea, porcelain, and jewels. (British Library, London)

Roman boxing gloves unearthed during the excavation of a pre-Hadrianic cavalry barrack (c. 100 CE) at the Vindolanda Roman fort in Northumberland, northern England. They are the only surviving boxing gloves from the Roman Empire.

A stretch of Hadrian's Wall known as Thorny Doors, east of Milecastle 42 (Cawfields). At Thorny Doors stands one of the highest sections of surviving original wall.

The remains of the east gate (porta principalis dextra) of Birdoswald fort, the best-preserved fort gateway on Hadrian's Wall.

Relics Window, depicting Louis IX of France with the relics of the Passion, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.

This map illustrates the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire in the mid-10th century, following the final division of the Eastern and Western Frankish realms in the late 9th century. Under Otto I (r. as German king 936–973; crowned Holy Roman...