Timeline of English history facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

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.
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.

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
43		Aulus Plautius leads an army of forty thousand to invade Great Britain; Emperor Claudius makes Britain a part of the Roman Empire
C. 47 – 50		London settled by the Romans, known as Londinium

2nd century

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

3rd century

4th century

Christianity is introduced by Saint Augustine in 597.

5th century

Year	Date	Event
401		Romans begin their withdrawal from Britain
449		The Angles begin their invasion of England and establish tribal kingdoms on the east coast.

6th century

7th century

8th century

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

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
1043		Edward the Confessor becomes king of all England
1055		The Great Schism; culmination of theological and political differences between Eastern and Western Christianity
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.
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)
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.
1415	25 October	Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory in the Hundred Years' Warthat 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.
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.
1571		The Act Prohibiting Papal Bulls from Rome 1571 was issued.
1585		The Roanoke Colony was founded in America.
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 America.
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: 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.
1716		The Old Dock, originally known as Thomas Steers' dock, was the world's first commercial wet dock.
1744		An attempted French invasion of southern England was stopped by storms.
1760		Victory over the French in New France, forming the British East Coast of North America.
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
1805		Battle of Trafalgar: Horatio Nelson defeats the French at Trafalgar, establishing British naval supremacy over the world's oceans for approximately 140 years.
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
1830	15 September	The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England.
1837	June 20	Queen Victoria becomes queen of England, she will reign until January 22, 1901. The Victorian era starts.
1859	24 November	On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is published
1863	10 January	The first underground train goes into operation in London
1878		Women first admitted to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge

20th century

Year	Date	Event
1912	August	Harry Brearley invents Stainless Steel in Sheffield, Yorkshire
1914	28 July	World War 1 begins
1918	11 November	World War 1 ends
1939	3 September	Britain declares war on Nazi Germany and enters World War 2
1945	8 May	Germany surrenders and World War 2 ends in Europe
1948	5 July	The National Health Service is founded
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

21st century

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