1. British History and Literature Timeline
Anglo Saxon Period
871: Alfred the Great becomes King of Wessex
410: Roman occupation of England ends
597: St. Augustine settles in Canterbury, bringing Christianity to England
1066: William the Conqueror defeats Harold at the Battle of Hastings
400 |500 |600 |700 |800 |900 |1000 |1100
731: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
894-5: Alfred translates Bede’s History into Anglo-Saxon
c. 1000: First appearance of the Beowulf manuscript
Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey

2. Anglo-Norman Period (1066-1265)
1070: Archbishop Lanfranc lays the foundations of Canterbury Cathedral
1170: Thomas Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral after arguing with Henry II
1215: Signing of the Magna Carta by King John
| |1200
1136: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain
: Marie de France’s Lais

3. Middle Ages: 1265 through 1400 1200 |1300 |1400
1327: Edward II is deposed
1265: The first English Parliament
1347: The Black Death hits Europe
1381: The Peasants’ Revolt
| |1400
14th century: Dafydd ap Gwilym
Late 14th century: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
1398: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

4. Later Middle Ages: 1400 through 1485
1415: Henry V defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt
1485: Richard III is defeated at Bosworth Field; the Tudors reign in England
1453: The end of the Hundred Years’ War
|1500
1438: Death of Margery Kempe
1476: William Caxton sets up a printing press in England

5. The Tudors: 1485 through 1603
1588: The English Navy defeats the Spanish Armada
1517: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg
1500
1593: Death of Christopher Marlowe
1516: Publication of Thomas More’s Utopia
1582: Sir Philip Sidney composes Astrophil and Stella

6. The Early Stuart Period: 1603 through 1650
1618: The Thirty Years’ War begins
1628: Charles I is forced to sign The Petition of Right
1649: Execution of Charles I
1605: Gunpowder Plot attempts to blow up Parliament
|1650
1631: Death of John Donne
1601: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is first performed on stage
1621: Lady Mary Wroth publishes Pamphilia to Amphilanthus

7. The Later Stuart Period: 1650 through 1714
1649: England becomes a Common-wealth; Oliver Cromwell rules
1660: The Restoration: Charles II crowned King, the Commonwealth ends
|1700
1651: Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan
1667: John Milton’s Paradise Lost is published
Created by Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey