|
Invaders 410-1066
|
449 Germanic invasions
c.547 Anglian kingdom north of Humber
597 Augustine starts christianisation in Kent
634 Irish monks christianize Northumbria
655 Christianisation of Mercia completed
664 Synod of Whitby
c.725 Beowulf
787 First wave of Danish invasions
802-839 Reign of Egbert, King of Wessex
839-856 Ethelwulf (buried - Winchester)
856-860 Ethelbald (buried - Repton, Derbyshire)
865 Second wave of Danish invasions
860-866 Ethelbert (buried - Canterbury)
866-871 Ethelred
871-899 Alfred the Great b.849 (buried - Winchester)
899-924 Edward the Elder b.870 (buried - Winchester)
924-939 Athelstan b.895 (buried - Malmesbury)
939-946 Edmund I b.921
946-955Reign of Edred (buried - Winchester)
955-959 Edwy b. before 943 (buried - Winchester)
959-975 Edgar b.943 (buried - Glastonbury)
964 Monastic reform
975-979 Edward II the Martyr c.962
Reigned 979-1013 and 1014-1016 Ethelred II the Unready b.968/9 (deposed)
1013-1014 Reign of Sweyn
Apr-Nov 1016 Edmund II (Ironside) b. before 993
1016-1035 Canute the Great c.995 (buried - Winchester)
1035-1037 The reign of Harold Harefoot (c.1016/7) jointly with Hardicanute (c.1018)
1037-1040 Harold Harefoot (alone)
1040-1042 Hardicanute (alone) (buried - Winchester)
1042-1066 Edward III the Confessor c.1002-5 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
Jan-Oct 1066 Harold II c.1020 (buried - Waltham Abbey)
Oct-Dec 1066 the reign of Edgar Atheling
|
Scattered Germanic settlements
O.L. - Largely Germanic
O.L. - Anglo-Saxon
|
Anglo Normans 1066-1216
|
1066 Battle of Hastings - William of Normandy crowned King
1066-1087 William I the Conqueror c.1027/8 (buried - Caen, France)
1069 William reaches Abernethy in Perthshire and forces the Scottish king, Malcolm III, to submit to him as superior.
1086 The Domesday Book
1087-1100 William II Rufus c.1056-60 (buried - Winchester)
1100 Death of William II
1100-1135 Henry I Beauclerc b.1068 (buried - Reading Abbey)
1124 Accession of David I, King of Scots
1135 Death of Henry I leading to Stephen of Blois (1135-54), son of William I's daughter, Adela, seized the throne.
1135-1154 Stephen b. by 1100 (buried - Faversham Abbey, Kent)
1139 Henry's only legitimate daughter, Matilda invades England with the aid of her husband, Geoffrey Plantagenet.
1141 Matilda captures her cousin, Stephen, at the battle of Lincoln and is acknowledged as Queen at Winchester.
Stephen was later released in exchange for Empress Matilda's captured half-brother, Robert of Gloucester.
1144 Geoffrey Plantagenet completes the conquest of Normandy
1152 Geoffrey Plantagenet's heir Henry invades England.
1153 The Treaty of Westminster allowing Stephen to remain as king but with Henry as his heir.
1154-1189 Henry II Curtmantle b.1133 and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine
1189-1199 Richard I Coeur de Lion b.1157 lord of the French based Angevin Empire (buried - Fontevrault Abbey, France)
1095 The First Crusade
1199-1216 John Lackland b.1167 (buried - Worcester Cathedral)
1204 King John loses Normandy to France
|
House of Normandy
O.L. French
House of Angevin
|
The Middle Ages 1216-1348
|
1216-1272 reign of Henry III b.1207 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
1272-1307 Edward I Longshanks b.1239 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
1307-1327 Edward II b.1284 (buried - Gloucester Cathedral)
1327-1377 Edward III b.1312 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
1348 First appearance of plague in Britain
|
House of Plantagenet
|
Late Medieval 1348-1485
|
1377-1399 Richard II b.1367 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
1399-1413 Henry IV b.1366 (buried - Canterbury Cathedral)
1413-1422 Henry V b.1387 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
1422-1461 and 1470-1471 Henry VI (deposed) b.1421 (buried - St George's Chapel, Windsor)
1461-1470 and 1471-1483 Edward IV b.1442 (deposed) (buried - St George's Chapel, Windsor)
Apr-June 1483 Edward V b.1470 (deposed) Bones (believed to be his) found in Tower of London in 1674, reburied in Westminster Abbey
1483-1485 Richard III b.1452 (buried - Leicester - tomb destroyed during dissolution of the monasteries, bones thrown in River Soar)
|
House of Lancaster
House of York
|
Tudors 1485-1603
|
1485-1509 Henry VII b.1457 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
Reigned 1509-1547 Henry VIII b.1491 (buried - St George's Chapel Windsor)
1547-1553 Edward VI b.1537 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
10-19 July 1553 Reign of Jane (buried - St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London)
1553-1558 Mary I b.1516 Westminster Abbey)
1558-1603 Elizabeth I b.1533 (buried - Westminster Abbey)
|
|
Stuarts 1603-1714
|
1603-1625 James I b.1566
1605 The Gunpowder Plot
1620 The sailing of the Mayflower
1625-1649 Charles I b.1600
1642-6 The Great Civil War
1642 Charles I (Stuart; Anglican) captured.
Queen Henrietta Maria and Charles, Prince of Wales, escape to France.
1649 Charles I beheaded.
1649-60 The Interregnum
the Commonwealth established.
1653 Oliver Cromwell (Puritan) becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
1658 Oliver Cromwell dies, his son Richard attempts to succeed him.
1660 The Restoration. Charles II (Anglican) returns from France and takes the throne.
1665 The Black Death
1666 The Great Fire of London
1681-5 Parliament does not meet. Court holds power.
1685 Charles dies, his brother James II (Roman Catholic) succeeds him. Threat of "popery."
1688 James, Prince of Wales born and so the crown will pass to him, a Roman Catholic, rather than to the King's Anglican siblings.
Glorious (i.e. bloodless) Revolution.
James flees to France and is deposed, because his daughter Mary and her husband William, Prince of Orange, have been invited by Parliament to share the crown.
Executive power lodged with William.
Balance of power shifts finally from Court to Parliament.
1688-1788 For 100 years, till the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie, England feels the threat of an invasion from France which would restore Stuart (Jacobite), and thus Roman Catholic, rule.
In fact, Jacobite risings occur twice during this period, in 1715 and 1745.
1694 Mary dies and so William (III) is sole ruler.
1701 James II dies in France. Act of Settlement directs succession, should Anne die childless, to the (Protestant) House of Hanover - unless "the Old Pretender," James (son of James II) or, later, Bonnie Prince Charlie, "the Young Pretender," would abjure Roman Catholicism.
1702 William dies; Anne (Mary's Anglican sister) succeeds.
1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England.
1702-13 War of the Spanish succession.
1713 Peace of Utrecht.
|
|
Georgians 1714-1837
|
1714 Anne dies.
Dynastic crisis
George I (of Hanover) succeeds unopposed.
1715 Jacobite rebellion.
1720 Charles Edward Stuart (a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender) born in France to James (the Old Pretender).
South Sea Bubble.
1721-42 Robert Walpole Prime Minister.
1727 George I dies
George II crowned.
1733 John Kay's flying shuttle.
1745 Jacobite rising in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
1754 Anglo-French war begins in North America.
1755 Lisbon earthquake.
1756-63 Seven Years' War.
1757 Clive captures India from the French.
1758 First threshing machine.
1759 British Museum opens.
1760 George II dies; his grandson crowned George III.
French surrender Montreal to the British.
Wedgewood opens pottery works.
1763 Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War. France cedes Canada and the Mississippi Valley to Britain.
1764 Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny.
1766 James "the Old Pretender" dies in France.
1769 Arkwright invents a spinning machine.
1771 Arkwright's first spinning mill.
1773 Boston Tea Party.
1774 Priestly isolates oxygen.
Accession of Louis XVI of France.
1775 American Revolution begins.
Watt's first efficient steam engine.
1776 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.
American colonies declare their independence.
1778 Rousseau and Voltaire die.
1779 first steam powered mills. Crompton invents spinning "mule."
1781 Cornwallis surrenders to Washington at Yorktown, Va.
1782 Lord North resigns; full Parliamentary government restored.
1783 Peace treaty signed in Paris between Great Britain and the United States.
1785 Cartwright builds power loom.
1786 Coal gas first used for lighting.
1787 Warren Hastings impeached.
1788 Bonnie Prince Charlie dies in France.
1789 Bastille falls, French Revolution begins.
Bentham, Introdution to the Principles of Morals.
1791-2 Paine, The Rights of Man.
1792 Reign of Terror in France.
1793 Louis XVI executed in France. England and France at war.
Godwin, Political Justice.
1794 Execution of Robespierre ends the Reign of Terror.
1796 Invasion of England threatened.
1798 Battle of the Nile.
Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population.
1799 Napoleon named First Consul of France.
1801 Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
1804 Napoleon declared Emperor.
1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
1809 Napoleon captures Vienna.
1811 Prince of Wales named Regent to act for George III, now insane.
1811-12 Luddite riots in the North and the Midlands. Labourers attack factories and break up the machines which they fear will replace them.
1812 Napoleon invades Russia.
1812-14 War of 1812 between England and the United States.
1814 Treaty of Ghent ends Anglo-U.S. War.
England and allies invade France.
Napoleon exiled to Elba.
1815 Napoleon escapes Elba; begins the "Hundred Days."
Battle of Waterloo; Napoleon exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic.
Corn Laws passed.
1817 David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy.
1819 "Peterloo" massacre of Corn Law protestors.
1820 George III dies; succeeded by Prince Regent as George IV.
1821 Napoleon dies.
1822 Classical Tripos established at Cambridge.
1823 London Mechanics Institute founded.
1827 Thomas Arnold appointed to Rugby.
1829 Catholic Emancipation Act.
Peel establishes the Metropolitan Police.
1830 George IV dies; his brother
William IV succeeds.
Manchester - Liverpool Railway (first in England).
1832 First Reform Bill: adds £10/year householders to the voting rolls and reapportions Parliamentary representation much more fairly, doing away with most "rotten" and "pocket" boroughs. Adds 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000.
1833 Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire.
Factory Act.
1834 New Poor Law.
Houses of Parliament burn down.
Late 1830s First of the Parliamentary "Blue Books" - facts and figures about England compiled by the Royal Commissioners.
1836-48 Chartist movement.
1837 William IV dies and is succeeded by his niece, Victoria.
|
| |
Victorians 1837-1901
|
1838 Regular Atlantic steamship service begins.
1839 Free Trade League founded.
1840 Queen Victoria marries her cousin
Albert, who becomes Prince Consort.
Penny post started.
S.F.B. Morse invents the telegraph.
Grammar Schools Act.
1842 Chartist Riots.
Copyright Act.
1845-6 Potato Failure in Europe - starvation in Ireland.
Corn Laws (which had kept up the price of grain) repealed.
1848 Revolutions in Europe.
Queen's College (for women) founded in London.
1849 Gold discovered in California and Australia.
1850 Telegraph cable laid under English Channel.
1851 Great Exhibition ("Crystal Palace").
Population of United Kingdom at 21 million.
1853-6 Crimean War.
1855 Livingston discovers Victoria Falls.
Civil Service Commissioners appointed.
1857-8 The Mutiny (India).
1858 First Atlantic cable laid.
1860 Garibaldi takes Naples - unification of Italy.
1861 Albert dies and Victoria retires into mourning.
1861-5 American Civil War.
1862 Bismarck becomes Prussian premier.
1864 Geneva Convention establishes Red Cross.
1866 Italy defeated by Austria.
Telegraph cable laid under the Atlantic.
1867 Second Reform Bill (Disraeli's): enfranchises many workingmen - adds 938,000 to an electorate of 1,057,000 in England and Wales.
South African diamond fields discovered.
Fenian rising in Ireland.
1869 Suez Canal opened.
Union Pacific Railway completed in U.S.
1870 Forster's Elementary Education Act establishes School Boards.
Vatican Council (establishes the infallibility of the Pope).
1870-1 Franco-Prussian War.
1871 University Tests Act removes religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge.
Trade unions legalized.
Newcastle engineers strike for a nine-hour day.
Germany unified.
1873 Population of the United Kingdom at 26 million (France 36 million).
1876 Victoria named Empress of India.
Edison invents the phonograph.
Compulsory school attendance in Great Britain.
1877 Transvaal annexed.
1879 Somerville and Lady Margaret Colleges (for women) founded at Oxford.
Zulu war.
1880 War with Transvaal.
1881 Cambridge Tripos exams opened to women.
1882 Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria).
Married Women's Property Act enables women to buy, own, and sell property, and to keep their own earnings.
1883 "Oom Paul" Kruger named president of the South African Republic.
Fabian Society founded.
Mahdi Rebellion in the Sudan.
1884-5 Third Reform Act and Redistribution Act extend vote to agricultural workers - electorate tripled.
1885 Fall of Khartoum.
1886 First (Irish) Home Rule bill rejected.
1887 Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.
1889 London dock workers and match girls strike for 6d./hour.
1890 Parnell--O'Shea divorce case ends Parnell's influence.
No Home Rule for Ireland.
1894 Dreyfus trial in France.
1895 U.S. equals the U.K.'s industrial output.
1897 Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
1898-99 Spanish-American War.
1899-1902 Boer war.
1901 Victoria dies - Edward Prince of Wales succeeds.
|
| |
Early 20th Century 1901-1945
|
1903 U.S. acquires Canal Zone from Panama.
1904 Entente Cordiale (England and France).
1905 Revolution in Russia.
April 14-15, 1912 Titanic sinks
1914-18 The "Great War" (World War I).
1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.
1917 Russian Revolution.
1918 all men over 21 and women over thirty enfranchised.
1922 Irish Free State established.
James Joyce, Ulysses; T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land.
1928 Equal Franchise Act grants right to vote to women over 21 (as well as men).
1936-8 Spanish Civil War.
1938 Chamberlain cedes Czech territory to Hitler at Munich.
1939-45 World War II.
|
| |
Post WWII 1945 onwards
|
|
|
Sources:
Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English, University of Tennessee at Martin
BBC History Timeline
| | | | | | |
