In 476, the commander of the Roman army Odoacer captured and executed the father and uncle of the emperor - then a child - Romulus Augustulus and sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople. It was a fatal blow to the Western Roman Empire. Peter Heather, a professor of Middle Ages history, tells of three claimants to the throne who tried to revive Roman heritage in Western Europe - Theodoric, Justinian and Charlemagne.