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;[3] Emperor Claudius makes Britain a part of the Roman Empire[4]
C. 47 – 50 London settled by the Romans, known as Londinium[5]

2nd century

Year Date Event
122 – 128 Emperor Hadrian builds walled defences on the border with Scotland, known as Hadrian's Wall[6]

3rd century

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4th century

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5th century

Year Date Event
401 Romans begin their withdrawal from Britain[7]: 129–131 
449 The Angles begin their invasion of England and establish tribal kingdoms on the east coast.[8]

6th century

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7th century

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8th century

Year Date Event
740-756 Reign of Cuthred, King of Wessex[9]
757 Offa becomes King of Mercia[10]
793 8 June Viking raid on a monastery in Lindisfarne, often taken as the beginning of the Viking age[11]

9th century

Year Date Event
865 Arrival of the Great Heathen Army
871 April Alfred the Great succeeds his brother Æthelred as King of the West Saxons

10th century

Year Date Event
992 AD Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion in the Battle of Maldon in Essex.

11th century

Year Date Event
1016 Cnut the Great of Denmark becomes king of all England[12]
1043 Edward the Confessor becomes king of all England[13]
1055 The Great Schism; culmination of theological and political differences between Eastern and Western Christianity[14]
1066 Battle of Fulford: English forces were defeated by Norse invaders in northeastern England.
Battle of Stamford Bridge: the remaining Norse under Harald Hardrada defeated by the bulk of England's army under the command of its king
Battle of Hastings: England's remaining forces defeated by invaders from Normandy, known as the Norman Conquest; William the Conqueror crowned king of England
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.[15]
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; it remains an active treaty, most recently invoked in the Falklands War (see 1982)[16]
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.[17]
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.
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.
Henry VIII issued the Treasons Act 1534.
1535 Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher were executed.
1536 William Tyndale was executed in Antwerp.
Henry VIII issued the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
1549 Prayer Book Rebellion: A rebellion occurred in the southwest.
1550 England and France sign the Peace of Boulogne.
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.
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:[18] 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.
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.
1716 The Old Dock, originally known as Thomas Steers' dock, was the world's first commercial wet dock.[19]
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.
1775 19 April War of American Independence officially starts with the battles of Lexington and Concord. Lasts until 1789.
1790s Canal Mania, an intense period of canal building in England and Wales.

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[20]
1830 15 September The Liverpool and Manchester Railway[21][22][23] (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world.[24][i] It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England.
1859 24 November On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is published[25]
1863 10 January The first underground train goes into operation in London[26]
1878 Women first admitted to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge[27]
  1. ^ The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825, but sections of this line employed cable haulage, and only the coal trains were hauled by locomotives. The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, opened in May 1830, was also mostly cable hauled. Horse-drawn traffic, including passenger services, used the railway upon payment of a toll.

20th century

Year Date Event
1912 August Harry Brearley invents Stainless Steel in Sheffield, Yorkshire[28]
1973 1 January UK joins the European Communities (predecessor of the European Union).
1982 11 October The Mary Rose is raised from the seabed of the Solent, where she had sunk in 1545[29]

21st century

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Year Date Event
2004 The population of England reaches fifty million.
2019 14 July ICC Cricket World Cup: England win a thriller at Lords and clinch their maiden ODI World Cup led by Eoin Morgan.
2020 Brexit.
2020 March Coronavirus pandemic causes over 177,000 deaths despite social distancing and lockdown being put into operation to limit spread of infection.
2022 8 September Queen Elizabeth II dies after a reign of 70 years and 214 days

See also

City and town timelines
County timelines

References

  1. ^ a b 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
  2. ^ Todd, Malcolm (2004). "Cunobelinus [Cymbeline] (D. C. Ad 40), king in southern Britain". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6939. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Birley, Anthony R. (1981). The Fasti of Roman Britain. p. 39.
  4. ^ Sheppard Frere, Britannia: A history of Roman Britain, revised edition (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 82
  5. ^ Hingley, Richard. Londinium : a biography : Roman London from its origins to the fifth century. London. pp. 27–32. ISBN 978-1-350-04730-3. OCLC 1042078915.
  6. ^ "Hadrian's Wall: The Facts". Visit Hadrian's Wall. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  7. ^ Simon Hornblower; Antony Spawforth, eds. (1998). The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860165-4.
  8. ^ "Angle". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  9. ^ Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 204
  10. ^ Kirby, D.P. (1992). The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge. p. 163. ISBN 0-415-09086-5.
  11. ^ Swanton, Michael (6 April 2000). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (New ed.). Phoenix Press. p. 57. ISBN 1-84212-003-4.
  12. ^ Stenton, Frank (1971). Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-19-821716-9.
  13. ^ Barlow, Frank (25 May 2006). "Edward (St Edward; known as Edward the Confessor)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8516. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  14. ^ Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). "Great Schism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford: University Press. p. 706. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3.
  15. ^ "The Anarchy: Battle of the Standard". About.
  16. ^ Fergusson, George; Trowbridge, Benjamin (9 May 2016). "History's Unparalleled Alliance: the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Windsor, 9th May 1386". History of Britiah Government.
  17. ^ English Heritage (1995). "English Heritage Battlefield Report: Shrewsbury 1403" (PDF). Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  18. ^ Name of the Glorious Revolution in the languages of Britain and Ireland:
  19. ^ "Trading Places: Old Dock History". Liverpool Museums. Archived from the original on 24 March 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
  20. ^ Bush, M. L. (2005). The casualties of Peterloo. Lancaster: Carnegie Pub. ISBN 1-85936-125-0. OCLC 71224394.
  21. ^ A History and Description of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. T. Taylor, 1832.
  22. ^ Arthur Freeling. Freeling's Grand Junction Railway Companion. Whittaker, 1838
  23. ^ James Cornish. The Grand Junction, and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Companion: Containing an Account of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. 1837.
  24. ^ BBC 2009.
  25. ^ Desmond, Adrian; Moore, James (1991), Darwin, London: Michael Joseph, Penguin Group, p. 477, ISBN 0-7181-3430-3
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ Frances Lannon (30 October 2008). "Her Oxford". Times Higher Education. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  28. ^ "A non-rusting steel". The New York Times. 31 January 1915.
  29. ^ Wendell Lewis, "Raising the Mary Rose" in Marsden (2003), pp. 53–59; Rule (1983), pp. 206–27.

Bibliography

Further reading

Categories