Timeline of English history

This is a timeline of English history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in England and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of England.

Prehistory: Mesolithic/Neolithic periods • Bronze/Iron Ages
Centuries: 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th • 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st
References • Sources

1st century BC

Year	Date	Event
55 BC		Roman General Julius Caesar invades Great Britain for the first time, gaining a beachhead on the coast of Kent.[1]
54 BC		Caesar invades for the second time, gaining a third of the country. These two invasions are known as Caesar's invasions of Britain.[1]

Centuries in 1st millennium: 1st · 2nd · 3rd · 4th · 5th · 6th · 7th · 8th · 9th · 10th

1st century

Year	Date	Event
c.10–c.40		Reign of Cunobelinus, an influential king of southern England before the Roman occupation; son of Tasciovanus[2]
43		Aulus Plautius leads an army of forty thousand to invade Great Britain; Emperor Claudius makes Britain a part of the Roman Empire

2nd century

3rd century

4th century

5th century

Year	Date	Event
		The Angles begin their invasion of England and establish tribal kingdoms on the east coast.[3]

6th century

7th century

8th century

Year	Date	Event
740-756		Reign of Cuthred, King of Wessex
793	8 June	Viking raid on a monastery in Lindisfarne, often taken as the beginning of the Viking age[4]

9th century

10th century

Centuries in 2nd millennium: 11th · 12th · 13th · 14th · 15th · 16th · 17th · 18th · 19th · 20th

11th century

Year	Date	Event
1016		Cnut the Great of Denmark becomes king of all England.
1043		Edward the Confessor becomes king of all England.
1055		The Great Schism/Split of the Roman Catholic Church
1066		Battle of Fulford: English forces were defeated by Norse invaders in northeastern England.
		Battle of Stamford Bridge: The remaining Norse under Harald Hardrada were defeated by the bulk of England's army under the command of its king.
		Battle of Hastings: England's remaining forces were defeated by invaders from Normandy. This was known as the Norman Conquest, which caused William the Conqueror to be crowned king of England and permanently changed the English language and culture.
1086		Work commenced on the Domesday Book.

12th century

Year	Date	Event
1135		The Anarchy began, a civil war resulting from a dispute over succession to the throne that lasted until 1153.
1138		The Battle of the Standard, an engagement in which the English defeated an invading Scottish army led by King David I.[5]
1164		The Constitutions of Clarendon, a set of laws which governed the trial of members of the Catholic Church in England, were issued.
1170		Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket was assassinated.
1192		Crusades: King Richard I was captured by Austrian Duke Leopold V, Duke of Austria while returning from the Holy Land.
1194		Richard was ransomed and returned to England.

13th century

Year	Date	Event
1209		King John was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Innocent III.
1214		The English defeated in Battle of Bouvinnes.
1215		The Magna Carta was signed.
1237		The Treaty of York was signed, fixing the border between Scotland and England.
1264		Battle of Lewes: Rebel English barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester defeated King Henry III.
1267		Henry recognised the authority of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in Gwynedd.
1277		England annexed Gwynedd.
1279		The Statute of Mortmain was issued.
1287		Rhys ap Maredudd led a revolt against English rule in Wales.
1294		Madog ap Llywelyn led a revolt against English rule in Wales.
1297		Battle of Stirling Bridge: The Scots, led by William Wallace, defeated the English.

14th century

Year	Date	Event
1305	23 August	William Wallace was executed by the English on a charge of treason.
1314	23 – 24 June	Battle of Bannockburn: Scotland won a decisive victory over England.
1328	1 May	The Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, under which England recognised Scottish independence, was signed.
1348		The Black Death arrived in England.
1356	19 September	Battle of Poitiers: Second of the three major battles of the Hundred Years' War took place near Poitiers, France.
1373	16 June	The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 is signed, forming an alliance between England and Portugal, which is still an active treaty to this day.
1381	May – June	Peasants' Revolt: Also called Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England led by Wat Tyler.
1395		The Statute of Praemunire was issued.

15th century

Year	Date	Event
1403	21 July	Battle of Shrewsbury was a battle waged between an army led by the Lancastrian King, Henry IV, and a rebel army led by Henry "Harry Hotspur" Percy from Northumberland.[6]
1415	25 October	Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' War^[a]that occurred on Saint Crispin's Day, near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France.
1455	22 May	The start of the Wars of the Roses a civil war for control of the throne of England between the House of York in Yorkshire and House of Lancaster in Lancashire.
1485	22 August	Battle of Bosworth Field (Battle of Bosworth): the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York. Richard III, the last Plantagenet king was killed, succeeded by Henry VII.
1487	16 June	Battle of Stoke was the decisive engagement in an attempt by leading Yorkists to unseat Henry VII of England in favour of the pretender Lambert Simnel.
1491	28 June	King Henry VIII is born in the Palace of Placentia.

16th century

Year	Date	Event
1513		Battle of Flodden Field: Invading England, King James IV of Scotland and thousands of other Scots were killed in a defeat at the hands of the English.
1521		Lutheran writings begin to circulate in England.
1526		Lord Chancellor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey ordered the burning of Lutheran books.
1533		King Henry VIII severed ties with the Catholic Church and declared himself head of the church in England.
1533		Henry's wife Anne Boleyn gives birth on 7 September to a daughter, Elizabeth, who will become Queen Elizabeth I in 1558.
1534		Henry VIII issued the Act of Supremacy.
1534		Henry VIII issued the Treasons Act 1534.
1535		Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher were executed.
1536		William Tyndale was executed in Antwerp.
1536		Henry VIII issued the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
1549		Prayer Book Rebellion: A rebellion occurred in the southwest.
1553		The Act Against Sectaries 1553 was issued.
1558		Elizabeth I claims the throne of England and rules until 1603.
1559		The Act of Supremacy 1559 was issued.
1571		The Treasons Act 1571 was issued.
1571		The Act Prohibiting Papal Bulls from Rome 1571 was issued.
1585		The Roanoke Colony was founded in the Americas.
1588	8 August	The Spanish Armada was destroyed.
1589		The English Armada (or Counter Armada) was defeated by Spain.
1593		The Act Against Papists 1593 was issued.

17th century

Year	Date	Event
1601		Catholic plot against the Earl of Essex includes some of the plotters from the gunpowder plot.
1603		King James VI of Scotland ascends to the English throne, becoming James I of England and uniting the crowns – but not the parliaments – of the two kingdoms.
1605	5 November	Gunpowder Plot: A plot in which Guy Fawkes and other Catholic associates conspired to blow up King James VI and I and the Parliament of England was uncovered.
1607	14 May	Jamestown was founded in the Virginia Colony and was the first permanent English colony in the Americas.
1611		Henry Hudson died.
1618	29 October	Walter Raleigh was executed.
1639		Bishops' Wars: A war with Scotland began which would last until 1640.
1640		Long Parliament: The Parliament was convened.
1642		The English Civil War began (see timeline of the English Civil War).
1649	January	Trial and execution of Charles I
1649		Interregnum began with the First Commonwealth.
1653–1659		the Protectorate under the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and later (1658) his son Richard Cromwell
1659		The Second Commonwealth brings with it a period of great political instability.
1660		Restoration of the monarchy: After a chaotic short revival of the Commonwealth of England, the monarchy was restored in May 1660, after agreeing to the Declaration of Breda, largely through the initiative of General George Monck.
1666	2–5 September	Great Fire of London : A major conflagration that swept through the central parts of London.
1688		Glorious Revolution:[7] Also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of James II by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange).
1692-1693		Salem Witch Trials, More than 200 people accused; 20 of which were executed (19 by hanging, 1 being pressed to death). Many accused died in jail awaiting trial.
1694	27 July	The Bank of England is founded.

18th century

Year	Date	Event
1701		The Act of Settlement 1701, which required the English monarch to be Protestant, was passed.
1702	8 March	William III died and was succeeded by Anne.
1704	4 August	Gibraltar was captured by a combined Dutch and English fleet under the command of Admiral of the Fleet George Rooke.
1704	13 August	Battle of Blenheim: A combined English and Dutch army under the command of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough defeated the French army in Bavaria.
1706	22 July	The Treaty of Union was agreed between representatives of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland.
1707		The Acts of Union 1707 were passed in the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland, ratifying the Treaty of Union.
1744		An attempted French invasion of southern England was stopped by storms.
1765		William Blackstone published his first volume of Commentaries on the Laws of England.

19th century

Year	Date	Event
1819	16 August	Peterloo Massacre: about 18 people killed and several hundred injured in Manchester when cavalry charge a large demonstration demanding parliamentary representation reform[8]
1859	24 November	On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is published[9]
1863	10 January	The first underground train goes into operation in London[10]
1878		Women first admitted to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge[11]

20th century

Year	Date	Event
1912	August	Harry Brearley invents Stainless Steel in Sheffield, Yorkshire.[12]
1940	10 July	Battle of Britain: Royal Air Force defend the United Kingdom against attack from Nazi Germany air force during the Second World War.
1979	4 May	Margaret Thatcher becomes UK's first woman prime minister; she becomes the longest-serving PM of the 20th century.
1982	11 October	The Mary Rose is raised from the seabed of the Solent, where she had sunk in 1545.[13]
1997	1 May	Tony Blair becomes prime minister, ending the Labour Party's 18-year spell in opposition.[14]
1997	31 August	In the early hours, Diana, Princess of Wales dies in hospital after a car crash in Paris, France.[15]

21st century

Year	Date	Event
2004		The population of England reaches fifty million.
2005		A series of co-ordinated terrorist bombings strikes London's public transport system during the morning rush hour, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds.
2012		The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, hosted at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.[16]
2016		Voters of the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union (aka Brexit)
2017		Westminster attack: A 52-year-old Muslim convert drives a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer, killing five people and injuring 49.
		Manchester Arena Bombing: A suicide bombing is carried out at Manchester Arena after a concert by American singer Ariana Grande, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds.
		London Bridge attack: A van is driven into pedestrians on London Bridge, killing eight people and injuring 48.
2019		ICC Cricket World Cup: England win a thriller at Lords and clinch their maiden ODI World Cup led by Eoin Morgan.
2020		Coronavirus pandemic causes tens of thousands of deaths despite social distancing and lockdown being put into operation to limit spread of infection.

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References

Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 4.20–35, 5.1, 8–23; Dio Cassius, Roman History 39.50–53, 40.1–3; Florus, Epitome of Roman History 1.45
Malcolm Todd (2004), "Cunobelinus [Cymbeline] (d. c. AD 40), king in southern Britain". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
"Angle". Encyclopedia Britannica.
Swanton, Michael (6 April 2000). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (New ed.). Phoenix Press. p. 57. ISBN 1-84212-003-4.
"The Anarchy: Battle of the Standard". About.
English Heritage (1995). "English Heritage Battlefield Report: Shrewsbury 1403" (PDF). Retrieved 22 August 2011.
Name of the Glorious Revolution in the languages of Britain and Ireland:
- Irish: An Réabhlóid Ghlórmhar
- Scots: Gloryws Revolution
- Scottish Gaelic: Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor
- Welsh: Chwyldro Gogoneddus
Bush, M. L. (2005). The casualties of Peterloo. Lancaster: Carnegie Pub. ISBN 1-85936-125-0. OCLC 71224394.
Desmond, Adrian; Moore, James (1991), Darwin, London: Michael Joseph, Penguin Group, p. 477, ISBN 0-7181-3430-3
Wolmar, Christian (2004). The Subterranean Railway: how the London Underground was built and how it changed the city forever. Atlantic. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-84354-023-6.
Frances Lannon (30 October 2008). "Her Oxford". Times Higher Education. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
"A non-rusting steel". The New York Times. 31 January 1915.
Wendell Lewis, "Raising the Mary Rose" in Marsden (2003), pp. 53–59; Rule (1983), pp. 206–27.
Early, Chas (2 May 2015). "May 2, 1997: Labour win general election by a landslide to end 18 years of Conservative rule". BT news. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
"1997: Princess Diana dies in Paris crash". BBC News. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
"London 2012 Summer Olympics - results & video highlights". International Olympic Committee. 20 November 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2019.

Bibliography

Marsden, Peter, Sealed by Time: The Loss and Recovery of the Mary Rose. The Archaeology of the Mary Rose, Volume 1. The Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth. 2003. ISBN 0-9544029-0-1