Event Timeline

410

In the early 400s the Romans began to leave Britain to return home to Rome to help save their empire from invading tribes, and by 410 they had all left.

450

In around the middle of the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain.

519

Around the year 519 the House of Wessex, also called the Kingdom of the West Saxons was established by its founder and first king, Cerdic of the Gewisse.

597

St Augustine was one of the first Christian missionaries sent by Pope Gregory the Great from Rome to the British Isles in 597 to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, the first to convert was King Æthelberht of Kent.

793

In the year 793 the first viking raid on the British Isles happened at the Christian monastery at Lindisfarne, a small island off the coast of Northumbria called Holy Island.

865

In the year 865 there was a massive Danish Viking invasion which the Anglo-Saxons called the Great Heathen Army.

871 - 899

Alfred the Great was known for his outstanding accomplishments, including his defeats over the Vikings, the establishment of the Danelaw, the building of burhs, and for the idea of a united English kingdom and its people, which came to fruition with the help of his descendants.

890

The original Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was created in the late 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. The Chronicle is a series of annalistic chronicles, arranged by year, which were written primarily in Old English.

927

Æthelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, became King of the Anglo-Saxons after the death of his father in 924. But in 927 he became the first king of a unified English kingdom, and thus the first “King of the English” until his death in 939.

1002

In the year 1002 English king Æthelred the Unready ordered the mass killing of all Danes in England, provoking an invasion of the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut, resulting in 30 years of Danish rule over England.

1013 - 1042

The Danish conquest of England began in 1013 when Sweyn Forkbeard overthrew the Saxon dynasty and became the first Viking king of England. Between his son Cnut and his two sons, the Danes were kings of England from 1016 until 1042.

1066

In 1066 Duke William of Normandy invaded England. His defeat over Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king, saw the end of Anglo-Saxon rule and the start of the Norman dynasty in England.

1069

A series of vicious military campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England after a rebellion broke out, encouraged by the last Wessex claimant to the English throne, Edgar Ætheling.

1086

A detailed survey and valuation of land and property in much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. Basically a unique record of who owned what.

1095

The first of a series of religious wars by western Christian European forces, supported by the Latin Church, with the objective of recapturing the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Islamic rule.

1138 - 1153

The Anarchy was a bitter civil war between King Stephen and his rival and cousin, the Empress Matilda, for the throne of England. The Anarchy ended with the last Norman king and the start of Plantagenet rule over England.

1170

The murder that shook the Middle Ages; Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December 1170 by four knights of King Henry II.

1215

King John was perhaps one of the worst King’s in English history. However, as demanded by his angry barons, he did sign one of the most important documents in British legal history. Also in this year was the start of The First Barons’ War.

1265

As a result of the Second Barons’ War which started in 1264 between King Henry III and the barons, Simon de Montfort, a baronial rebel leader, held what is often considered as the first representative English parliament in 1265. He is also often regarded as the founder of the House of Commons.

1301

In order to finalise his conquest of Wales, Edward I declared the first English Prince of Wales in 1301 – his Welsh-born eldest son, Edward of Caernarfon, the future Edward II.

1320

The Declaration of Arbroath was written in 1320 by Scottish nobles to Pope John XXII, asking for recognition of Scotland’s independence and to acknowledge Robert the Bruce as the country’s lawful king.

1337

The Hundred Years War was an intermittent conflict between England and France over territorial rights and the issue of succession to the French throne. It began when Edward III invaded Flanders in 1337 in order to assert his claim to the French crown, and ended in 1453.

1348

The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Europe from 1346 to 1353, and it arrived in England in 1348. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million people perished.

1381

The Peasants’ Revolt, also named Wat Tyler’s Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381, and was the first great popular rebellion in English history.

1387

The Canterbury Tales is a book of 24 stories, a medieval literary work written in Middle English by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 14th century, some time between 1387 and 1400. It was one of the first books to be written in Middle English.

1415

The Battle of Agincourt was a decisive battle and an English victory in the Hundred Years’ War. It took place on 25th October 1415 in northern France, where King Henry V, despite his relatively short reign, had outstanding military successes and made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe.

1453

The French defeated the English at the Battle of Castillon in Gascony in 1453, resulting in England losing all of its extensive territories in France, and marking the end of the Hundred Years War.

1455

The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought between the houses of Lancaster and York for control of the English throne from 1455 to 1485.

1477

William Caxton is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England in 1476, printing the first book in 1477, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books, including the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

1485

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the final battle of the Wars of the Roses, where Richard III was killed by Henry Tudor who established a brand new dynasty – the Tudor dynasty.